Mohamed Enani (; 4 January 1939 – 3 January 2023) was an Egyptian translator, fiction writer, dramatist, critic and scholar.
Professional career
Born in Rosetta, El-Behera, Egypt, Enani obtained a B.A. (hons.) in English Language and Literature from Cairo University in 1959. He received his M. Phil. from London University in 1970 and his Ph.D. from Reading University, Berkshire in 1975. He produced more than 130 books in both Arabic and English, varying from translations to critical and creative works.
Enani was a foreign language monitor at the BBC Monitoring Service in Caversham, Berkshire from 1968 to 1975, while completing his M.Phil from London University and his Ph.D. from Reading University.
He returned to Egypt in 1975 and worked as an English lecturer at Cairo University, also joining the Egyptian Writers Union. He was made an Assistant Professor of English in 1981 and was granted full tenure by Cairo University in 1986. Enani was Head of the Department of English, 1993–1999.
Enani was elected an "expert" at the Arabic Language Academy in 1996. He was Academic Coordinator of Cairo Open University's English Translation Programme from 1997 to 2009, and has authored or revised all of the University's translation books and teaching manuals since 1997. From 1986 to 2003, he was general editor of the series Modern Arabic Literature – a series of Arabic literary works translated into English – with 75 titles, published by the state publishing house (GEBO). Since 2000, he has been in charge of the second series of A Thousand Books translated into Arabic, published by GEBO.
Enani had a number of Arabic plays staged in Cairo and the Egyptian provinces (seven originals, 3 adaptations and 3 translations) from 1964 to 2000. He has been the editor of Egyptian Theatre magazine since 1986, and co-editor of the Cairo monthly cultural publication Sutur from 1997 to 2007.
Awards
State Award in Translation, 1982, for translating Milton's Paradise Lost into Arabic Order of Sciences and Arts, 1st Class, 1984. Ben Turki's Award of Excellence in Translation into English, a Saudi Arabian Prize sponsored by the Arab League, 1998. State Award of Excellence in Letters, 1999. Award of Credit for distinguished performance in writing for the theatre from the Egyptian Theatre Institute, 2000. State Award of Merit in Letters, 2002. International Translation Award of King Abdullah, 2011. ALESCO Prize for translation into English, Baghdad, 2013. Rifa’ah Al-Tahtawi Prize for Translation into Arabic, National Translation Centre, 2014.
Books
Books written in Arabic
Scholarly works on translation and literary criticism
Analytical Criticism, 1963, 1992. The Art of Comedy, 1980. Literary Genres, 1984, 1992, 2001, 2010. On Drama and Poetry, 1986. The Art of Translation, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2008. On Life and Art, 1993. Contemporary Currents in Western Culture, 1994. Issues in Modern Literature, 1995. Modern Literary Terms, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2004. Literary Translation : Theory and Practice, 1997, 2002. The Translator's Guide, 2000, 2004. Modern Translation Theory, 2003. Dictionary of English Abbreviations and Acronyms, Longmans, 2014. On Translating Shakespeare (in English) forthcoming. Arabization and Translation of terms in the Human Sciences (forthcoming). Egypt in the 19th C. English Verse (forthcoming).