Dr. Aisha Abdel Rahman is a prominent landmark in the history of Egyptian and Arab culture. In a mainly male-dominated society she rose from the common ranks to the university campus and later to the wider vistas of cultural life leaving behind a wide spectrum of students and scholars spread all over the Arab world.

 

   Dr. Aisha was born on Nov 6, 1913 in the northern town of Damietta to a father who graduated from Al Azhar; and later a teacher at a religious institute in the same town; this had a significant impact upon the little child as she received the basics of reading and writing at the age of five. She started her regular education in 1918 at the pre-school "Kuttab" of the village. Both her grandfather – an Azharite scholar – and her mother exercised heavy pressure on her father who was reluctant to let Aisha join school. She was the top among her comrades when she obtained her pedagogical certificate; she assumed the functions of a clerk at the girl's college of Quija where she could promote for command of English and French languages.

 

    Aisha used to publish a series of poems and articles in the "Feminine Revival" magazine when she was living in the town of Mansoura. When she finally settled in Cairo, she was invited by the owner of the magazine to undertake the linguistic revision and later she wrote the editorial. She also published some of her stories in the daily newspapers, besides Al Helal, Al Balagh and Kawkeb El-Sharq magazine.

 

    She wrote under the pseudonym Bint El Shatei (the Daughter of the River bank) so that her father, the Sheik, would not know that she was writing in the press – for traditions at that time rejected the act of the Sheik's daughter writing in the press. She was known by this pen name since 1933; she opted for it because the river bank appealed to her childhood memories. This pen name has been always been an object of duly respect of readers and world universities.

 

   She obtained her BA in 1939 and was nominated to be an assistant in the Faculty of Arts. Then, she obtained the Master Degree in 1941. Her thesis was "The Human Life of Abul-Alaa Al-Maarry" later the Doctoral Degree in 1944 for her thesis "critical Research on Resalat Al-Ghofran (a Treatise on Forgiveness).

 

    In 1944 she got married to her professor Amin El-Kholy who used to accompany her to Europe for two months annually for leisure and visiting museums, universities and libraries; her husband died in 1969.

 

   Dr. Aisha provided the Arab Library with multitude of her publications and researches, the best of which were for masterworks in Quranic and Islamic Studies. She also published Al-Khansaa, Raba'a al-Adaweya, an Essay on the Human being, the rhetorical Tafsir (interpretation) of the Holy Quran ( 2 volumes), the rhetorical Miracle of the glorious Qur'an, introduction of Ibn al-Salah in the interpretation of (Hadeeth) Prophet's Teachings with the explanation of al-Balqainy of Arab Language on the Quranic Rhetoric.

 

  Dr. Aisha likewise published numerous researches such as The Islamic Concept for the liberation of Women, the glorious Qur'an and Human Rights, the Qur'an, the Qur'an and the problem of synonymy and divorce and its impact on the Arab Society in the field of literary and linguistic studies. She published, among others, Al-Mohkam Dictionary of Ibn Sida-Resalat Alghofran or treatise on Forgiveness and The Values of Our Old and Contemporary Literature and other works.