Dr.Yacoub A. Al Bahussain

After completing his general education in Basra, Yacoub Al-Bahussain continued his study in Egypt. He graduated from the College of Sharia in Al-Azhar University in Cairo in 1951 and returned to Iraq. He was appointed a high school teacher and eventually a Director of the Teachers’ Institute in Basra before going back to Al-Azhar for postgraduate studies. In 1966, he obtained a post-graduate diploma in the history of Islamic jurisprudence from Al-Azhar and became a lecturer at the College of Law and Economics in Basra University. In 1972, he obtained another post-graduate diploma in Arabic Language and Literature from the Arab League’s Institute of Arabic Studies and a Ph.D. from the College of Sharia in Al-Azhar University. For the following nine years, he taught at the College of Arts in Basra University, and became a Chairman of the Department of Arabic and an Acting Dean of the College, then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he served for more than twenty five years as a professor at the College of Sharia in Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. He was a Professor Emeritus at that University, and a Member of the Commission of Senior Religious Scholars in Saudi Arabia.

Professor Al-Bahussain’s diverse teaching and research experience spans more than 50 years and deals with more than one area of expertise. Some of his most significant contributions have been in the field of Islamic jurisprudence, an area in which he wrote several important books and research papers explaining, authenticating and analyzing the principles and maxims on which Islamic jurisprudence is based.

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