Professor Mohammad Mustafa Badawi

Mohammad Badawi obtained his BA from Alexandria University and a Ph.D. from London University. He is a Fellow of St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and former Professor of Modern Arabic Literature and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Center at Oxford University. He served for many years as editor-in-chief and member of editorial boards of international journals of Middle Eastern studies. He was also a member of the editorial board of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.

Professor Badawi published over 30 books, editions and translations, and numerous scholarly articles and reviews in Arabic and English. His translations of literary classics into Arabic have been invaluable to Arab scholars, especially the translation of I. A. Richards’ Principles of Literary Criticism. Among his many other contributions are his books An Anthology of Modern Arabic Verse, A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry, Modern Arabic Drama in Egypt, Modern Arabic Literature and the West, Background to Shakespeare, Coleridge: Critic of Shakespeare, and a translation into Arabic of Prophetic Invocations by Imam Al-Haddad. Badawi also translated modern Arabic classics into English, including Sara, by Abbas Mahmud Aqqad, The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz (translated jointly with Trevor Le Gassick), The Sultan’s Dilemma and The Song of Death by Tewfik Al-Hakim and The Saint’s Lamp and Other Stories by Yahia Haqqi. His books in Arabic, on the other hand, include: Dirasat Fi Al- Shir Wa Al-Masrah and Atlal Wa Rasail Min London.

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