El Messiri Biography

Abdelwahab Elmessiri (1938–2008) an Arab Islamic intellectual and professor Emeritus at the Department of English Language and Literature, Ain Sham University. Born in Damanhour, he obtained his primary and secondary education there.
In 1955, Elmessiri joined the English Department of Alexandria University, graduated in 1959 and was appointed as a teaching assistant.
In 1963, he travelled to the U.S.A where he obtained his M.A. in 1964 from Colombia University and his Ph.D. in 1969 from Rutgers University.
Upon obtaining his Ph.D., Elmessiri returned to Egypt where he taught at Ain Shams University and remained affiliated for the rest of his life.
He also taught at other Arab universities including King Saud University in Saudi Arabia (1983–1988). Besides, he worked as a visiting professor at Naser Military Academy and Islamic Malaysian University.
From 1970 to 1975 he was an advisor at the Center of Political and Strategic Studies in Al-Ahram Newspaper. After traveling to the U.S. again (1975–1979) he worked as an advisor of Cultural Affairs, Permanent Delegation of the Arab League to the United Nations, New York.
From 1990 till 2008, he was a Member of the Board of Directors, School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia, U.S.A. and an academic advisor for International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), Washington, D.C, USA. He lectured and wrote on politics, religion, culture and literature.
The magnum opus of Elmessiriis Encyclopedia of the Jews, Judaism, and Zionism: A New Explanatory Paradigm (eight volumes) and his autobiography My Intellectual Journey – Seeds, Roots, and Fruits: A Non-Subjective Non-Objective Autobiography. In addition, he authored several books in different fields.
His theoretical and philosophical works include: Partial and Comprehensive Secularism (two volumes); The Problematic of Bias: An Epistemological View and an Invitation to a New “Ijtihad” (Interpretation) (two volumes). The books he authored on western and American culture include The Earthly Paradise; Materialist Philosophy and the Deconstruction of Man;Modernity and Post Modernity and Epistemological Studies in Western Modernity. Among his linguistic and literary studies are The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: An Illustrated Bilingual Edition (English-Arabic); Language and Metaphor Between Monotheism and Pantheism; Studies in Poetry; On Literature and Thought: Studies in Poetry and Prose; Songs of Experience, Perplexity and Innocence: A Poetic Semi-subjective Semi-objective Autobiography. Elmessiri also published several children stories and poems.