Professor Mohammed El-Ghazouani Miftah

Mohammad Muftah obtained his Licentiate in Arabic Literature in 1966, Certificate of Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies and Certificate of Competence in Education and Psychology in 1967. He completed his Doctorate Degree (Third Cycle) in 1974 and State Doctorate of Arts in 1981, specializing in Islamic Moroccan Thought and both early and modern concepts of literary criticism. He is currently Emeritus Professor at Rabat University.

Professor Muftah joined Rabat University in 1971 and became full Professor in 1981. During his career, he taught Methods of Writing in Islamic Morocco and Arabic Literary Criticism and Modern Eloquence and supervised a number of post-graduate studies. He has also given introductory classes in Arab Universities, including lectures in Arts colleges in Sfax University in Tunisia, King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Nouakchott University in Mauritania and was Visiting Professor at Princeton University in the USA. He is a member of the National Committee for Academic Reform and Accreditation in the Moroccan Ministry of Higher Education, founder and chairman of the Round Table Committee on Literary Theories, member of the Professorial Promotions Committee of Rabat University, Honorary member of the Moroccan University for Integration of

Sciences and former member of the Executive Office of Andalusian Studies and Cultural Dialogue and the Editorial Boards of Arts and Humanities Journal in Rabat and Al-Manahil and Moroccan Culture journals published by the Moroccan Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Professor Muftah’s insightful publications and research, have led him to develop a pioneering intellectual perception of Arabic poetry based on applied analysis of poetic texts and its relation to other arts, and the combination between comprehensive knowledge of Arabic heritage and modern literary concepts, thereby revealing the noble human values expressed in different poetic styles through different eras.

In recognition of his distinguished literary theoretical and critical efforts, Professor Muftah was awarded the Royal Moroccan Order of Officer in 2008. He was also awarded several other prizes including Moroccan Grand Prize for the Best Book in Literature and Arts in 1987, Saddam Prize for Literary Research in 1989, Moroccan Grand Book Prize in 1995, Sultan Al-Owais Prize for Arabic Literary Criticism in 2004 and both Shaikh Zayed’s Book Prize and the Arab Network for Tolerance Prize in 2010.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.