Mustafa Mahmoud

Mustafa Kamal Mahmoud Hussein (Arabic: مصطفى كمال محمود حسين; December 27, 1921 – 31 October 2009) commonly known as Mustafa Mahmoud (Arabic: مصطفى محمود) was an Egyptian doctor, philosopher, and author. Mustafa was born in Shibin el-Kom, Monufia province, Egypt. He was trained as a doctor, but later chose a career as a journalist and author, traveling and writing on many subjects. He wrote 89 books on science, philosophy, religion, politics, and society as well as plays, tales, and travelogues.

Mustafa Mahmud says that his first marriage in 1961 was not successful, though, from it, he was endowed with a girl and a boy, Amal and Adham. The marriage ended in 1973. His second marriage in 1983 was also unsuccessful and ended in 1987. The reasons behind these divorces were his passion for writing that controlled his life, his preoccupation with his work, and finally his isolation.

In the year 1960, he left his medical career, devoting himself totally to writing for newspapers. As a physician, moved from one hospital to another (particularly, among the Hospitals of Chest Diseases in Abbasiyya, Chest diseases in 'Almazha, Chest diseases in Dumyat, and the dispensary of Umm el-Masriyyeen), between the years 1953 and 1960, all had a great influence on his writings, principally: Storehouse No. 7 (`Anbar 7), the Social Gang (Shilla-t 'Uns), and Eating Bread (Akl-`Aysh). In the meantime, it had an influence on his scientific and anatomical access to the public adversities, to the human soul, and to the characters, he dealt with in all his writings.

After his recovery, he resumed his medical studies and says that he subsequently realized an immense change within himself. He discovered within himself the artist who reflects, reads, and peruses regularly the major sources of literature, plays, and novels. Owing to this new activity, (which in no time he became an expert at), he began to write regularly to the newspapers, (in his final year of medicine). Accordingly, he had to intensify his effort to graduate and attain success. He started writing for El Tahrir and Rose El Yusef magazines. Due to his illness, he graduated two or three years after his colleagues, in 1953.