Yousef Khulaif obtained his BA, MA and Ph.D. Degrees in Arabic Language and Literature from the College of Arts in Fuad Al-Awal University in Cairo. Following his graduation in 1956, he was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Arabic Language and became full professor of Arabic Language and Literature in 1972, and Chairman of the Department from 1975 to his retirement in 1981. Thereafter, he was appointed Professor Emeritus at Cairo University. He also served as Convener of the Supreme Council of Culture Prize Committee in Arabic Literature in Egypt, editor in the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, and Professor of Arabic Literature in Kuwait for three years.
Professor Khulaif’s distinguished contributions are embodied in several books, reviews, anthologies and research articles. Some of his best known books are: Al Sa’alik Poets in Pre-Islamic Literature, Dhu Al-Rummah: The Poet of Love and Desert, Poetry in Kufa to the End of the Second Century A.D. A poet himself, Khulaif published two collections of poems. He also published studies on the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s sayings.
This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.