Ahmed Hassan El-Zayyat (1885 - 1968) is considered one of the prominent figures of the cultural renaissance in Egypt and the Arab world, and the founder of "Al-Risala" magazine. He was chosen as a member of the language academies in Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad, and won the State Appreciation Award in Literature in 1962.

He was born in Dakahlia Governorate in Egypt and was raised in a middle-class family that worked in agriculture. He received his education in the village school, where he memorized the Qur'an and learned to read and write, then was sent to one of the scholars in the neighboring village to learn the seven readings, and he mastered them in one year.

Then he joined Al-Azhar University at the age of thirteen and stayed there for ten years. During that time, he studied religious sciences and Arabic language. However, he preferred literature and was drawn to the lessons of Sheikh Sayed Ali Al-Marasafi, who taught literature at Al-Azhar, as well as attending the explanation of Mu'allaqat by Sheikh Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Shinqiti, one of the prominent figures of the Arabic language at that time.

He contacted Taha Hussein, Mahmoud Hassan El-Zanati, and they spent long hours at the Egyptian Book House studying the sources of Arabic literature and the anthologies of poets. However, El-Zayyat did not complete his studies at Al-Azhar; instead, he joined the National University where he studied in the evening and taught at private schools in the morning.

At his job, El-Zayyat met many intellectuals and literati of the Renaissance era, such as: Shawqi, Al-Aqqad, Al-Mazni, Ahmed Zaki (the Sheikh of Arabism), and Muhammad Farid Abu Hadid.

The American University in Cairo chose him as the head of the Arabic department in 1922. During that time, he joined the French Law College, where studies were at night and lasted for three years. He spent two years of them in Egypt and spent the third in France, where he obtained a law degree from the University of Paris in 1925.

In 1929, he was selected as a professor at Dar Al-Mo'alimeen in Baghdad, so he left his job at the American University and moved there. Throughout his life, El-Zayyat did not belong to any political party or hold any governmental position.

After returning from Baghdad in 1933, he left teaching and turned to journalism and authorship. He then launched "Al-Risala" magazine, which strongly influenced the literary cultural movement in Egypt and continued to be issued for about twenty years. He later released another magazine called "Al-Riwaya," which was dedicated to short stories or extended novels published serially, and it lasted for two years. Big writers wrote for it, and it encouraged young storytellers, including the emerging writer at that time, Naguib Mahfouz, who published his first story titled "The Price of the Wife." "Al-Riwaya" was then merged with Al-Risala. Due to economic conditions, El-Zayyat had to stop issuing "Al-Risala Al-Riwaya" and took over the presidency of Al-Azhar magazine.

When the press was nationalized in Egypt, the Ministry of National Guidance tried to revive "Al-Risala" and appointed El-Zayyat as its editor-in-chief again, but the attempt did not succeed because times had changed, readers' tastes had evolved, and the press had moved in new directions, so Al-Risala could not regain its previous positionor renew its old glory, and it stopped again after a few issues.

His works include: "The History of Arabic Literature", "The Origins of Literature", "Defense of Rhetoric", and "The Life of the Message" (a compilation of his articles and researches in "Al-Risala" magazine).

Among his works translated from French are: "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Goethe, and the novel "Raphael" by the French writer Lamartine. In addition to his book "From French Literature".

El-Zayyat got to know Ahmed Shawqi, the Prince of Poets, and became close to him. Shawqi, like many people, believed that a man who did not work for the government resembled a vagabond. He was worried about El-Zayyat in this regard and was puzzled why he did not have a place in the Ministry of Education. Shawqi then started pulling some strings to arrange a meeting for El-Zayyat with the Minister of Education, Ali Al-Shamsi Pasha.

One night, while they were sitting in a corner of the "Solot" cafe, Shawqi told El-Zayyat, "I will wait for you here tomorrow at eleven in the morning. Come with some of your books, and we will visit the Minister of Education." When El-Zayyat asked why he needed to see the minister, Shawqi replied, "He wants to meet you, and it may be good for you to see him."

When they met the minister at the agreed time, Shawqi introduced El-Zayyat and his books. The minister received them warmly and expressed his delight. During the meeting, Shawqi spoke highly of El-Zayyat, using the sort of praise and flattery only a poet can employ. When they left, Shawqi patted El-Zayyat on the shoulder and said, "The minister promised me he would bring you into the ministry."

El-Zayyat replied, "Is that why you exerted yourself, sir? May God spare me from the government. Many have tried this for four years." But Shawqi, the caring friend, wasn't convinced and continued to worry about El-Zayyat's freelancing until El-Zayyat left the country. Shawqi bid him farewell, not realizing it would be their last goodbye.

El-Zayyat considered Shawqi a compensation for ten lost centuries in Arab history, a time when no gifted poet had appeared to rekindle the divine inspiration of poetry, renew the course of literature, and safeguard the literary eloquence inspired by the divine word, nature's beauty, and life's hidden meanings of good.

He said about him: "He is a genius poet. Genius is a kind of inspiration that persists and renews itself. It sometimes accompanies and sometimes abandons. It is characterized by originality, creativity, and invention.

The genius rises and falls according to his genius taking hold of him or abandoning him. He often rough-hews poetry, sending it from the overflow of his mind, without refinement or elegance.

A genius perceives, feels, thinks, and appreciates in his unique way. If he plans, paints a picture, or explores an idea, he does it in a distinguished style. You consider it innovative even though it may be preceded. He can show you differences you've never seen, details you never imagined, and unleash a river where others could only unleash a stream.

The ordinary man looks with his eye as if he didn't see due to his superficiality. The genius sees in a flash as if he did not look due to his insight.

Shawqi, as seen by Ahmed Hassan El-Zayyat, was not limited by craft, nor confined by form, but rather an overflowing stream that flouts boundaries, light that seeps through covers, inspiration that connects with infinity. In front of a poet whose soul is stronger than his art, whose poetry is wider than his knowledge, whose wisdom is more durable than his creation, whose capability is greater than his readiness, there is no doubt that he is a medium for a hidden spirit leading him, a messenger for a divine force inspiring him. Then, that spirit sometimes leaves him, and that force sometimes departs him. He becomes less than ordinary men, weaker than poets, composing foruniversity inaugurations, shark projects, and the like, producing what has no weight in criticism nor appeal in taste.

Under genius, Shawqi receives a topic in full, and he is occupied by its details, pondering the aim, and staring at the purpose. He delivers from his mind's overflow a continuous, connected poem, in which the words barely suffice for its meanings, like a river whose banks are too narrow for its water. The words are not merely a means of expression but the reflection of a state of genius, a flash of inspiration. They are words of revelation, not of construction, of a poetic state, not of a manufacturing effort. They emerge to express the unanticipated, the unplanned.

This is Shawqi under the genius, but when the inspiration leaves him, he becomes less than ordinary men, weaker than poets, composing for university inaugurations, shark projects, and the like, producing what has no weight in criticism nor appeal in taste.