The Most Famous
LAWYERS from Egypt
Top 3
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Egyptian Lawyers of all time. This list of famous Egyptian Lawyers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Al-Tahawi (853 - 935)
With an HPI of 61.92, Al-Tahawi is the most famous Egyptian Lawyer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages on wikipedia.
Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī (Arabic: أَبُو جَعْفَر أَحْمَد ٱلطَّحَاوِيّ, romanized: Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī) (853 – 5 November 933), commonly known as at-Tahawi (Arabic: ٱلطَّحَاوِيّ, romanized: aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī), was an Egyptian Arab Hanafi jurist and Traditionalist theologian. He studied with his uncle al-Muzani and was a Shafi'i jurist, before then changing to the Hanafi school. He is known for his work al-'Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, a summary of Sunni Islamic creed which influenced Hanafis in Egypt.
2. Qasim Amin (1863 - 1908)
With an HPI of 56.58, Qasim Amin is the 2nd most famous Egyptian Lawyer. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.
Qasim Amin (pronounced [ˈʔæːsem ʔæˈmiːn], Egyptian Arabic: قاسم أمين; 1 December 1863 – 12 April 1908) was an Egyptian jurist, Islamic Modernist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin has been historically viewed as one of the Arab world's "first feminists", although he joined the discourse on women's rights quite late in its development, and his "feminism" has been the subject of scholarly controversy. Amin was a philosopher, a reformer, and a judge, besides being a member of Egypt's aristocratic class, and a central figure in the Nahda movement. His advocacy of greater rights for women catalyzed debate over women's issues in the Arab world. He criticized veiling, seclusion, early marriage, and lack of education of Muslim women. More recent scholarship has argued that he internalized a colonialist discourse on women's issues in the Islamic world, regarded Egyptian women as objects serving to achieve national aspirations, and in practice advocated reforms that diminished the legal rights of women in marriage contracts. Greatly influenced by the works of Darwin, Amin is quoted as saying: "If Egyptians did not modernize along European lines and if they were unable to compete successfully in the struggle for survival they would be eliminated". He was also influenced by the works of Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill who argued for equality of the sexes. Amin believed that heightening women's status in society must greatly improve the nation. His friendships with Muhammad Abduh and Saad Zaghloul also influenced this thinking. Amin blamed traditional Moslems for Egyptian women's oppression, saying that the Quran does not teach this subjugation but rather supports women's rights. His beliefs were often supported by Quranic verses. Amin was born into an aristocratic family. His father was a governor of Diyarbekir Elayet, and his mother was the daughter of an Egyptian aristocrat. Amin finished law school when he was seventeen and was one of 37 to receive a government scholarship to study at the University of Montpellier in France. He is said to have been influenced by Western culture, especially its treatment of women, and this became a role model in his struggle to liberate Egyptian women. His crusade began in 1894 when he wrote "Les Egyptiens. Response a M. Le duc d'Harcourt", a rebuttal to Duke d'Harcourt's work (1893), which downgraded Egyptian culture and its women. Amin, not satisfied with his own rebuttal, wrote "Tahrir al mara'a" (The Liberation of Women) in 1899, in which he blamed Egyptian women's "veiling", their lack of education, and their "slavery" to Egyptian men as the cause of Egypt's weakness. He believed that Egyptian women were the backbone of a strong nationalistic people and, therefore, their roles in society should drastically change to better the nation. Amin is known throughout Egypt as a member of the intellectual society who drew connections between education and nationalism leading to the development of Cairo University and the National Movement during the early 1900s.
3. Aisha Rateb (1928 - 2013)
With an HPI of 44.53, Aisha Rateb is the 3rd most famous Egyptian Lawyer. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Aisha Rateb (Arabic: عائشة راتب; 22 February 1928 – 4 May 2013) was an Egyptian lawyer, politician, and Egypt's first female ambassador. She also was a professor of international law at Cairo University.
People
Pantheon has 3 people classified as Egyptian lawyers born between 853 and 1928. Of these 3, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Egyptian lawyers include Al-Tahawi, Qasim Amin, and Aisha Rateb. As of April 2024, 1 new Egyptian lawyers have been added to Pantheon including Aisha Rateb.
