Background
Taymour Pasha was born on 6 November 1871 in Cairo to a family of the Egyptian elite, his father Isma"il Taymur being of Kurdish origin and his mother of Turkish descent.
Taymour Pasha was born on 6 November 1871 in Cairo to a family of the Egyptian elite, his father Isma"il Taymur being of Kurdish origin and his mother of Turkish descent.
Ahmed was educated by his elder sister, Aisha Taymur (1840–1902), a social activist, poet and novelist, active in the field of women"s rights and her husband Muhammad Tawfiq.
Works and The family"s Turco-Circassian background was common among the Egyptian elite. Foreign some years, he was a student at the French School, but did not finish it with a degree. He stead home, where he learned Turkish and Persian.
Before he reached his 20th birthday, he began his career as a writer
His house became a meeting place for many cultured men of his time who discussed literature, modern sciences and politics. As a wealthy scholar and bibliophile he encouraged their literary pursuits.
Aisha had been influenced by the Ottoman age notion of "pure aesthetics". Ahmed"s outlook was more on the search of a renewed Arab Golden Age, which was common among Egyptian intellectuals after the 1882 British Rule in Egypt.
He however as a man of "many letters" pioneered the study of folklore and folkart, including the shadow play tradition, that had spread during the Ottoman period.
Taymour Pasha wrote among others, the following six books in Arabic: al-Amthal al-"ammiyya – Colloquial Proverbs (الأمثال العامية) al-Athar an-nabawiyya – The Prophet"s Traces (الآثار النبوية) al-Hubb "inda "l-"arab – Love among Arabs (الحب عند العرب) Dabt al-a"lam – Survey of Eminent Personalities (ضبط الأعلام) Louisiana"b al-"arab – Games of the Arabs (لعب العرب).
Isma"il Taymur was a member of the royal entourage of the Muhammad Ali dynasty. He was well versed in literature, linguistics and Arab history and a member of the prestigious Arab Academy of Damascus.