al-Ḥusaynī, Isḥāq Mūsā

Isḥāq Mūsā l-Ḥusaynī (b. 25 December 1904, d. 17 December 1990) was a prominent Palestinian novelist, essayist, and pedagogue. He was born in Jerusalem to the well-known Ḥusaynī family, with its illustrious national, educational, and religious background. Receiving his schooling mostly in Jerusalem, he pursued a journalism degree at the American University in Cairo (1923–6), then at the Egyptian University (later called Cairo University), where he studied Arabic language and literature (1927–30). Pursuing a doctorate at the School of Oriental Studies (SOS, later the School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS) at the University of London, he wrote a dissertation on The life and works of Ibn Qutayba under the supervision of H. A. R. Gibb (1930–4). In 1933 he spent two academic terms at the University of Göttingen (Germany) where he studied Semitic languages and literature.