Born in the
Egyptian Delta, Muhammad Mandur attended secondary school in
Tanta before reading literature and law at the
Cairo University. He was influenced by
Taha Husayn, who helped him gain in 1930 a scholarship for further study in
Paris; In 1939 he returned to Egypt and was appointed a lecturer at the
University of Cairo. In 1942 he was appointed to the literary faculty of the new
University of Alexandria, and in 1943 he completed his doctorate with
Ahmad Amin as supervisor. Denied academic promotion, Mandur resigned his university post in 1944 and became an editor of the
Wafdist newspaper
al-Misri. Three months later he became chief editor of the party paper
al-Wafd al-misri, until it was charged with communism and shut down in 1946. Manduri becameeditor of another Wafdist daily,
Sawt al-Umma. Mandur registered as a barrister in 1948 and became an MP for the
Wafd Party in 1949. He also began teaching at the Institute of Dramaturgy, keeping this job after political parties were dissolved at the
1952 Revolution. In 1956 he travelled in
Romania and the
Soviet Union. In 1962 Mandur was awarded the State Encouragement Prize for Literature. He died in
Cairo on May 20, 1965. ==Work==