Mohammed Mustafa Badawi

Dr. Mohammed Mustafa Badawi (10 June 1925, Alexandria, Egypt – 19 April 2012, Oxford, England) was an emeritus fellow of St. Antony's College Oxford.^[1]

Badawi was born in Egypt in 1925. He was an Undergraduate of University of Alexandria. He was then awarded a scholarship by the Egyptian Government to study in England and obtained an Bachelor of Arts from University College, Leicester. He later received his PhD from the University of London, Bedford College in 1954. His thesis was later published in 1973 (Coleridge: Critic of Shakespeare)^[2]

After obtaining his PhD Badawi began to work Alexandria University Egypt as a lecturer in English. In 1964 he moved to Oxford University where he was the first person to teach Modern Arabic Literature.^[3] He became a research fellow at St. Anotony's College Oxford from 1967–69 and was then elected to the Governing Board where he served until his retirement in 1992.^[4]

Badawi is heralded as one of the most prominent scholars to have ever worked in the field of Arabic literature and through his career he published over thirty books on the topic.^[5] Owing to his immense contribution to the field in 1992 he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Arabic Literature.^[6]

Badawi's notable students include; Emeritus Professor Sasson Somekh (Tel Aviv University, Israel) ^[7] and Dr. Roger Allen (University of Pennsylvania, USA)^[8]

Badawi left an endowment at the University of Oxford for a prize to be awarded for the best essay in modern Arabic studies under 15,000 words which demonstrated originality, skill and sensitivity to modern Arabic studies. (The Mustafa Badawi Prize in Modern Arabic Literature)^[9]

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