A Palestinian writer and critic, he was born in Jerusalem in 1904 and died there in 1990. He was called “the professor of the generation” and “the pioneer of literary studies in Palestine,” and critics and interested parties believe that he was the first Palestinian to specialize in literary studies in research and teaching.
Birth and upbringing
Ishaq Musa Al-Husseini was born in Al-Saadiya neighborhood in Jerusalem, to a family that was active nationally, literary, and religiously. Starting in the year 1800, his ancestors took over the guild of nobles in Jerusalem, and this religious position remained confined to his family until recently.
Study and scientific training
He began his initial education in Jerusalem, and joined the Kuttab of Sheikh Lulu Mosque, then the Kuttab of Sheikh Rayhan, in implementation of his father’s desire to learn the Holy Qur’an. After his father’s death in 1911, he moved to formal education, starting with the Rashidiya School, and from there to the Sultan Selim School, where he learned both languages. Arabic and Turkish.
He then joined the Salihi College, where he studied Islamic education, the Arabic language, and some French. He remained there until the British Mandate closed it in 1917, then he moved to the Freres School, and finished his secondary education at the English College.
In 1923, he joined the American University in Cairo, and obtained a diploma in journalism, and in 1926, he joined the Faculty of Arts at the Egyptian University (later Cairo), and was among the first batch of graduates there.
Then he traveled to Britain and joined the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of London, which sent him to Germany to study Semitic languages at the University of Göttingen.
He graduated from the University of London in 1934 with a diploma in Semitic languages and a doctorate. He was the first Palestinian to obtain this degree in arts from this university.
Jobs and responsibilities
Ishaq Al-Husseini contributed to the establishment of the Arab Culture Committee in Palestine in 1945 and served as its General Secretary.
He worked as a teacher at the Rashidiya School, then the Arab College, and then as the first inspector of the Arabic language in the schools of the British occupation government of Palestine until 1948.
He hoped to establish a central Arabic book house in Jerusalem, and a university for the Palestinian Arab scientific and literary heritage, and he developed the introduction to the catalog of books for an exhibition held by the Arab Orthodox Union Club in Jerusalem in 1946, which included 800 books in Arabic and other languages, all by Palestinian authors.
By the time of the Nakba in 1948, Al-Husseini took refuge in Aleppo and from there to Beirut. He worked as a professor at the American University of Beirut and then as a professor at the American University in Cairo.
He taught at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada, and at the Institute of Higher Arab Studies of the League of Arab States (later the Institute of Arab Research and Studies), where he headed the Palestinian Research Department. He contributed to the establishment of the Jerusalem Committee for Research and Studies and assumed its presidency.
He lectured at a number of universities in the United States of America. He was active in a number of scientific bodies, as he was chosen as a member of the Iraqi Scientific Academy in 1961, then he was elected as a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, and a member of the Islamic Research Academy of Al-Azhar Mosque.
By the time of the setback in 1967, he returned to Jerusalem and contributed to reviving the heritage of the occupied capital and confirming its Arabism, through his writings and lectures. He transferred his knowledge to many researchers and students. He established a center for Islamic research in the home of his teacher, Muhammad Isaf al-Nashashibi, in Jerusalem.
In 1982, he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the College of Science and Technology at Al-Quds University and president of the Hind Al-Husseini College of Arts for Girls.
Intellectual orientation
Al-Husseini adopted Arab nationalist thought, called for the unity of Arab countries, and was concerned with issues of spreading education to meet the challenges of the Arab nation.
He contributed to literature and critical and linguistic research. He also called for the renewal of the Arabic language to keep pace with the times, and paid attention to Jerusalem and the flags of Palestine in research, writing, and definition.
Compositions
Al-Husseini wrote dozens of books in Arabic and English, the most notable of which are:
- Ibn Qutaybah: His Life and Effects, a study for which Al-Husseini earned his doctorate.
- Memoirs of a Chicken, a novel that won first prize in the referendum conducted by Dar Al-Maaref in Cairo for Al-Arabiya readers regarding the best thing published in the “Read” series. It was translated into French, and the novel is the memoirs of a chicken who lived with the writer in his house, about which he said: “And I am actually translating what she inspired to me.”
- Children’s jokes series.
- Are writers human?
- Literature and Arab nationalism.
- Contemporary literary criticism in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
- He also has many books on politics and Islamic thought, as well as on the history of Islamic civilization, including:
- The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamic movement.
- Islam in the eyes of the West.
- Research into the past and present of Muslims.
Ishaq Musa Al-Husseini also wrote educational works, and others in history and biographies, in addition to intellectual, nationalistic, and linguistic works. Among his research and published articles:
- Literary life in Palestine.
- Historical poems.
- Beit Safafa village.
- He also wrote thoughts, some of which were published in Al-Quds newspaper, and were later published in a book after his death in 1991.
Awards and honors
In 1982, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat, awarded him the Revolutionary Shield.
In 1983, he received the First Class Medal of Sciences and Arts from Egypt.
In 1986, Hind Al-Husseini College honored him in a cultural festival that included Palestinian bodies, institutions, scientific centers and universities, in addition to the Canadian McGill University. He obtained the signature of 200 Palestinian figures on the document appointing him as Dean of Palestinian Arabic Literature.
Death
Ishaq Al-Husseini died in Jerusalem on December 17, 1990, at the age of 86.