Introduction
This book is about the life and academic legacy of Mustafa Badawi, who may be regarded as the father of the study of modern Arabic literature in the United Kingdom and the United States based on the impact of his career and his publications. Badawi's arrival at Oxford University in 1964 as lecturer in modern Arabic literature transformed the teaching of and research into this subject in western academia. Trained in the University of Alexandria and in the UK in English literature, Badawi applied his passion for teaching, researching and translating English literature and criticism to the modern literature of his native language. This book begins with Alexandria, the city that exerted a key formative influence on the cosmopolitan culture characteristic of Badawi as individual and scholar. It goes on to document Badawi's intellectual and literary journey through his life as scholar, critic and translator and ends with a discussion of Badawi's academic legacy.