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Umberto Rizzitano

أومبرتو ريتزيتانو

Notable figure 1913–1980 · Source: Najib al-Aqiqi, al-Mustashriqun, 3rd ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Maʿarif, 1964), vol. 1, p. 401; Yahya Murad, Muʿjam asmaʾ al-mustashriqin, p. 593 · Second source: Bibliothèque nationale de France, authority record: Rizzitano, Umberto (1913-1980)

From Italy; worked in Egypt

Field: Literature and poetry

Affiliation

Professor of Arabic, Palermo; studied Ibn Makki's Tathqif

Biography

He learned Arabic in Egypt and Italy and taught at Ain Shams University and then at the University of Palermo. He studied Ibn Makki al-Siqilli's Tathqif al-lisan, publishing its introduction with a list of works on common speech errors (1956), and wrote on reforming Arabic spelling and grammar (1942), on the problem of modern Arabic (1964), on the theatre of Tawfiq al-Hakim and on the poetry of Ahmad Shawqi. With Taha Fawzi he wrote an Italian grammar explained in Arabic (Cairo, 1950).