Today, I am going to tell you about a very famous and influencing figure in the Egyptian social and media life. Mustafa Amin مــُـــصــْــطــَــفــى أمــِـــيــن was an Egyptian writer and journalist. He loved journalism more than anything else. He and his twin brother Ali Amin عــلـى أمــِـــيــنare the founders of Akhbar Al-Youm أخــْـــبــَـــار الــيــُـــوم newspaper.

     Mustafa Amin was born on February 21^st 1914 in the House of the Nation بــَـــيــْــــت الأمــَّـــة ; that is the house of the great Egyptian leader Saad Basha Zaghloul ســَـــعــْـــد بــَــاشــَـــا زَغـــْـــلـــُــــولand his wife Safiya Zaghloul صــَـــفــِـــيـــَّـــة زَغــْـــلــُـــول who was nicknamed the Mother of the Egyptians أم الـمــصــريــيـن . Saad Zaghloul was the Amins’ uncle خــَـــالْso they grew up in an environment بــِــيـــئـــَـــةthat is politically and socially rich because lots and lots of political and literary conversations مــُــحــَــادَثــَـــاتwere going on in their uncle’s house. Amin’s father was a lawyer مــُــحــَــام .

     Mustafa Amin traveled to the USA to continue his studies. He joined the George Town University جــَــامــِــعــَـــة جــُــورج تــَـــاونand got his Master Degree درجــَـــة الــمــَـــاجــِـــســْـــتـيـرwith honor in Political Sciences الــعـــُـــلــُـــوم الــســِـــيــَــاســِــيــَّـــةin 1938. He, then, came back to Egypt and worked as a professor of journalism in the American University الــجــَــامــِــعــَـــة الأمــْـــريــكــِـــيــَّـــةin Cairo for four years.

     Journalism was Amin’s endless love not only to him but to his brother Ali, too. They started work in journalism so early. When they were just eight years old, they issued “Al-Hoqooq الــحــُــقــُـــوق” magazine in which they published the news of their own home. In 1928, they issued “Al-Tilmeez الــتــِـــلــْـــمــِـــيـــذ” magazine in which they attacked the government and criticized its policies. The magazine was closed. After that, they issued “Al-Aqlaam الأقــْـــلام” magazine which was no luckier. In 1930, Mustafa got a job in “Rouz Al-Yousif روز الــيــُـــوســِــف” magazine and then became the Assistant Editor مــُــســَــاعــِـــد رَئــِــيــس الــتــَّــحــْـــريـــر while he was just a student in secondary (high) school. Then, he moved to work in “Akhir Sa’a آخــِـــر ســَــاعــَـــة” magazine which was founded by Muhammad Al-Tab’ie مــُــحــَــمــَّــد الــتــَّـــابــْــعــِــى . He issued many other magazines like “Al-Rabee’ الــرَّبــِــيــع” and “Sada Al-Sharq صــَــدى الــشــَّـــرْق” which were all closed because of his opposition مــُــعــَــارَضــَـــةto the government. Amin was a very successful journalist.

      The year 1944 witnessed the birth of “Akhbar Al-Youm أخــْـــبــَـــار الــيــُـــوم” newspaper. Mustafa and his brother Ali were the founders and it was as if their dream came true. Amin had always the dream of possessing a newspaper that is similar to European ones at the time. He met the Prime Minister and got the permission to issue that political newspaper. Akhbar Al-Youm published its first issue on November 11^th 1944. The new-born journal was a success and sold so many copies.

 To be continued … 

• Read Mustafa Amin (Part 2)

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Peace  ســـَـــلام /Salam/