Famous Egyptian Intellectuals & Academics

Origen was an early Christian ascetic, scholar, and theologian. Also a prolific writer, Origen wrote as many as 2,000 treatises, including biblical exegesis, textual criticism, biblical hermeneutics, spirituality, and homiletics. Origen is widely considered one of the most prominent Christian theologians, although his teachings on the existence of souls were vehemently rejected by the Church.

Born to Egyptian parents in New York, Mohamed A. El-Erian grew up in the U.S., Egypt, and France, with his diplomat father. Educated at Cambridge and Oxford, he later served as the CEO of PIMCO. Apart from being a Bloomberg columnist, he has also written bestsellers such as When Markets Collide.

Maimonides was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher. He went on to become one of the most important Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He was also a respected physician and served as the personal physician of the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Saladin. His work The Mishneh Torah is considered one of the main authoritative codifications of Jewish ethics and law.

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah reigned as the 6th caliph of the Egyptian Shiʿi Fatimid dynasty. Known for being eccentric, he once ordered all dogs in his kingdom to be killed, and on another occasion, banned shellfish. He was also known for his cruelty and his persecution of Sunni Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

Appian was a Greek historian who flourished during the monarchy of Antoninus Pius, Trajan, and Hadrian. Appian, who held Roman citizenship, is best remembered for his principal surviving work Roman History. The work is considered important and valuable for its description of the Roman Empire, especially during the civil wars.

Known as The Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman was a blind Islamist militant from Egypt. Though blind since childhood, he studied theology and went on to lead the al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmiyyah. He later fled to the US, where he was convicted of plotting several terrorist activities and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Severus of Antioch was a miaphysite leader and the Patriarch of Antioch. Initially a monk in Palestine, Severus was later made a priest and propagated the view that Christ’s human and divine natures were, in fact, one and the same. He also led the Coptic churches in Egypt and Syria.

Egyptian jurist Al-Bahūtī was one of the most significant figures of the Hanbali school of Islamic law. His legal written works are apparently still followed. not just in Egypt but also in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria. His best-known work on jurisprudence remains al-Rawd Al Murbi’ Sharh Zād Al Mustaqni.

George was the bishop of Laodicea, which was a port city in ancient Syria. Remembered as one of the significant figures of homoiousian, or moderate Arianism, he was excommunicated in spite if being ordained by Bishop Alexander, due to his allegiance to Arianism. He, however, started following Anomoeans later.

Egyptian author and scholar Fathi Osman, who promoted cooperation between Islam and other religions, aimed at making Islamic civilization and culture more understandable to non-Muslims through his writings. His writings include 40 books written in English and Arabic. His monumental work Concepts of the Quran gives an overview of the Quran for the general public.

John Talaia was the patriarch of Alexandria from 481 to 482. Due to his refusal to sign Emperor Zeno's Henoticon, he was expelled from the Council of Chalcedon. He fled to Rome, where he received supported. However, he could never return to Alexandria and became the bishop of Nola instead.