Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (born Oct. 7, 1943, Tanta, Egypt—died July 5, 2010, Cairo) was an Egyptian scholar whose interpretations of the Quran challenged mainstream views and sparked controversy and debate.
Abu Zayd was born in a small village near Tanta, Egypt on July 10, 1943. He went through a traditional religious school system where he could recite the Qur'an with the proper rules of recitation, and memorized the Quran completely from a young age.
After receiving technical training he worked for the National Communications Organization in Cairo. At the same time, he started studying at Cairo University, where he obtained his BA degree in Arabic Studies (1972), and later his MA (1977) and PhD degrees (1981) in Islamic Studies, with works concerning the interpretation of the Qur'an.
Career
In 1982, he joined the faculty of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Cairo University as an assistant professor. He became an associate professor there in 1987. From 1985 to 1989, he worked as a visiting lecturer at Osaka University of Foreign Studies in Japan.
In 1992 the process of his being considered for promotion to full professor at Cairo University morphed from a routine academic process into a "legal nightmare for him and his wife." While he was eventually promoted, he was sued by conservative Muslims and a Court of Appeals declared him an apostate and divorced him from his wife. This was followed by calls for his death and exile to Europe where he obtained the position of Visiting Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Leiden University.
In Europe he held the Ibn Rushd Chair of Humanism and Islam at the University for Humanistics, Utrecht, Netherlands, while still supervising MA and PhD students at the University of Leiden as well. He also participated in a research project on Jewish and Islamic Hermeneutics as Cultural Critique in the Working Group on Islam and modernity at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). In 2005, he received the Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought, Berlin. His wife returned several times to Egypt for discussion on MA and PhD theses at the French department at Cairo University. Dr. Abu Zayd also returned several times to Egypt after 1995, but mostly to visit family. He died at a Cairo hospital on July 5, 2010, at the age of 66. He was buried in his birthplace, on the same day.
Awards and Honors
1975–1977: Ford Foundation Fellowship at the American University in Cairo.
1978–1979: Ford Foundation Fellowship at the Center for Middle East Studies of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USA.
1982: Obtained the 'Abdel-'Azīz al-Ahwānī Prize for Humanities.
1985–1989: Visiting Professor, Osaka University of Foreign Studies Japan.
1993: The President of Tunisia conferred the Republican Order of Merit for services to Arab culture in May.
1994– Member of the Advisory Board for the "Encyclopædia of the Qur'an"
1995–: Visiting Professor at Leiden University, The Netherlands.
1998: The Jordanian Writers Association Award for Democracy and Freedom.
2000–2001: The Cleveringa Honorary Chair in Law, Responsibility, Freedom of Religion and Conscience, Leiden University.
2002: The Roosevelt Institute Medal for Freedom of Worship.
2002–2003: Fellow at the Wissenschaften College in Berlin.
2005 The Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought for the year in Berlin.
Publications:
Abu Zayd has authored at least fourteen books in Arabic, including works on the Muʿtazila, Ibn Arabi, Al-Shafi'i, and Qurʿanic criticism, as well as books in English and articles in both languages.
Books in Arabic
Rationalism in Exegesis: A Study of the Problem of Metaphor in the Writing of the Mutazilites (Al-Ittijāh al-'Aqlī fī al-Tafsīr: Dirāsah fī Qadīyat al-Majāz fī al-Qur'ân 'inda al-Mu'tazilah), Beirut and Casablanca 1982, 4th edition 1998.
The Philosophy of Hermeneutics: A Study of Ibn al-'Arabī's Hermeneutics of the Qur'ān (Falsafat al-Ta'wīl: Dirâsah fi Ta'wīl al-Qur'ān 'inda Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-'Arabī), Beirut and Casablanca 1983, 4th edition, 1998.
The Systems of Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics ('Ilm al-'Alāmāt), co-editor, Cairo 1986.
The Concept of the Text: A Study of the Qur'anic Sciences (Mafhūm al-Naṣṣ: Dirāsah fī 'Ulūm al-Qur'an), Beirut and Cairo 1991, 5th edition 1998.
The Problematic of Reading and the Tools Of Interpretation (Ishkālīyāt al-Qirā'ah wa-Āliyāt al-Ta'wīl), Beirut and Casablanca 1995, 5th edition 1999.
Imam al-Shafi'i and the Foundation of the Ideology of the Middle Path [Wasatiyya] (al-Imâm al-Shāfi'ī wa-Ta'sīs al-Īdiyūlūjīyah al-Wasaṭīyah), Cairo, 3rd edition 1998.
Critique of Religious Discourse (Naqd al-Khiṭāb al-Dīnī), Cairo, 4th edition 1998.
Women in the Discourse of Crisis (al-Mar'ah fī Khiṭāb al-Azmah), Cairo 1995. See extract in English here : Dossier 17: Women in the Discourse of Crisis, September 1997, Translated by Marlene Tadros.
Thinking in the Time of Anathema (al-Tafkīr fī Zaman al-Takfīr), Cairo, 3ed edition 1998.
The Caliphate and the Authority of the People (al-Khilāfah wa-Sulṭat al-Ummah), Cairo, 1995.
Text, Authority, Truth (al-Naṣṣ, al-Sulṭah, al-Haqīqah), Beirut and Casablanca 1995, second edition 1997.
Circles of Fear: Reading the Discourse about Women (Dawā'ir al-Khawf: Qirā'ah fī Khiṭāb al-Mar'ah) Beirut and Casablanca 1999.
Discourse and Hermeneutics (al-Khiṭāb wa-al-Ta'wīl), Beirut and Casablanca 2000.
Thus Spoke Ibn al-'Arabī (Hākadhā Takallama Ibn al-'Arabī) The Egyptian National Organization for Books, Cairo 2002.
Books in English
Reformation of Islamic Thought: A Critical Historical Analysis. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006.
Rethinking the Qur'an: Towards a Humanistic Hermeneutics. Utrecht: Humanistics University Press, 2004.
Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam (with Esther R. Nelson). New York: Praeger Publishers, 2004.
