ABSTRACT
Politically, he avidly supported Zaghlūl’s revolt against the British after the First World War. He became heavily involved with the Wafd party and its newspaper AlBalāgh, and was also appointed as a Wafd delegate to the parliament in 1925.261 During the 1920s and the 1930s, was regarded as a nationalist, liberal and critical author. In the field of politics, he was known as a staunch advocate of national independence and defender of the 1923 constitution in recurring periods of political dictatorship. He fought so fiercely against absolute monarchy that in 1930 he was imprisoned for nine months after having made critical statements about the king. As for cultural politics, he defended his colleague against the religious establishment when was attacked for his critical approach to traditional
interpretation in 1926. Present-day Egyptian authorities honour him as a hero of freedom and a distinguished
exponent of the Egyptian conscience: ‘He waged many battles in defence of freedom of thought and the liberation of the homeland. He was an exponent of Egyptian conscience and morals.’262
