Min. of culture calls for honoring Mahmoud Hegazi

CAIRO - 25 March 2019: Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem called for holding a ceremony at the Supreme Council of Culture to honor Mahmoud Hegazi, a professor at Cairo University, for receiving the King Faisal International Prize in Arabic language and literature.

The ceremony is set to be attended by his students, colleagues and all the intellectuals concerned with literature and Arabic language in Egypt.

Abdel Dayem stated that Hegazi represents one of the symbols of Egyptian culture who have made a great and distinguished effort in the service of the Arabic language.

Abdel Dayem further stated that the award received by Hegazi during the King Faisal International Arabic Language and Literature's Award ceremony is an affirmation of Egypt's cultural leadership in the Arab World, and carries the meanings of appreciation and gratitude to all creators, scientists and thinkers.

Mahmoud Fahmy Hegazi was born in Mansoura, Egypt, in 1940. He studied at Cairo University – Faculty of Arts – Arabic Language Department and got his master's degree in 1959.

At the same time, he mastered the German language and was the first Egyptian to teach Dutch in Egypt's public schools. He was then appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature.

Afterwards, he was sent to Germany to complete his doctoral studies in linguistics at the University of Munich.

Hegazi held several academic and administrative positions, including: president of the Egyptian University in Almaty, Kazakhstan; chairman of the National Library and Archives; professor of linguistics and head of Arabic Language and Literature Department at the Faculty of Arts; Director of the Arabic Language Center at Cairo University and a visiting professor of Postgraduate Studies at several Arab universities.

Hegazi is currently a professor of Language Sciences at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University; a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo; an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Language Sciences and an editor-in-chief of the ZAL Journal in Erlangen, Germany.

The veteran writer is the author of many books and research papers in Arabic linguistics and literature.

In recognition of his efforts, he was granted a number of awards, including the Federal Order of Merit of the First Class of Germany in 1997, the 1998 Cairo University Prize in Humanities, the State Prize for Literature in Egypt in 2000, and the 2013 Medal of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.