Interview: Muhammad Husayn Haykal

Heikal was born in Mansoura, Ad Daqahliyah in 1888. He obtained a B.A. in Law in 1909 and a JD from the Sorbonne University in 1912. After returning to Egypt, he worked as a lawyer for 10 years, then as a journalist.


According to wikipedia , he was elected as editor-in-chief of Al Siyasa newspaper, the organ of "The constitutional Tory party" for which he was also an advisor. In 1937, he was appointed as Minister of State for the Interior Ministry in the Muhammad Mahmoud Pasha's second government.


Then he was appointed as a Minister of Education where he introduced several reforms, including decentralization, by establishing educational zones and making programs and curricula nationally oriented. He was greatly influenced and inspired by the comprehensive reforms of Mohammad Abduh, Ahmad Lutfy El Sayed and Qasim Amin. Haikal is the father of Fayza Haikal who teaches Arabic language courses at the American University in Cairo.