#renaissance
Rifa’a Al-Tahtawi rose to become one of Egypt’s leading enlighteners, thinkers, and translators in the 19th century. Author Kaj Ohrnberg describes him as, “a standard-bearer and symbol of Arab renaissance, the most-well known thinker of his epoch.” Born in 1801 in Sohag, Al-Tahtawi began his educational career by studying Qur’an in his hometown; a brilliant mind at a ripe age, he joined Al-Azhar at 17, becoming an imam in the process. In 1826, Al-Tahtawi traveled to Paris with an Egyptian…
