Those Who Taught Me - Salama Moussa

"Those Who Taught Me" by Salama Moussa: A Journey in Shaping an Enlightened Mind

Introduction: The Book’s Context and Historical Significance

Published in 1953 by Dar al-Maaref, Those Who Taught Me (190–256 pages, depending on edition) is an intellectual autobiography by Egyptian thinker Salama Moussa (1887–1958). In it, he documents the profound influence of leading Western intellectuals on his worldview. Written in his later years, the book distills his “intellectual sources,” later made freely available to the public domain by the Hindawi Foundation (2011).

This is not a conventional memoir. Rather, it is a tour of modern European thought as seen through the eyes of an Egyptian intellectual who lived through the upheavals of the 20th century and advocated socialism, secularism, and women’s emancipation. The book established Moussa as one of the pioneers of enlightenment in the Arab world.

Intellectual Structure: Categories of Influence

Moussa divided his “teachers” into three categories based on the nature of their impact:

Category	Role	Key Figures
Radical Visionaries	Challenged conventions and pushed boundaries	Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Gandhi
Models of Life Integration	Offered examples of well-rounded intellectual development	Goethe, Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells
Foundational Thinkers	Reshaped core concepts of humanity and society	Darwin, Freud, Elliot Smith

From Zagazig to Europe: The Path of Formation

The book opens with Moussa’s personal story of fleeing to Europe in 1906, escaping what he called “a family environment steeped in torment.” In Europe, he encountered a new world:

Political freedom: Parliaments electing governments, and newspapers daring to challenge authority.
Social progress: Free public libraries, clean streets, and women participating in public life “as free human beings facing the world with courage.”
Civilizational shock: This encounter drove him to embrace “modern civilization” by mastering French and English and immersing himself in European society.

Key Figures and Their Influence (According to Moussa’s Categories)

1. Radical Visionaries: Challenging the Mainstream

Nietzsche: Moussa called him “the enchantment of youth.” Discovered in 1909 during his immersion in evolutionary theory, Nietzsche inspired him to “shed the myths of the past” and embrace self-determination. Yet, he warned against Nietzsche’s followers who turned the “doctrine of power” into a quasi-religion.
Voltaire: Seen as “the destroyer of superstition” and a champion against religious tyranny. Moussa admired his famous call to “crush the infamy,” linking it to the French commitment to clarity and reason.
Gandhi: For Moussa, Gandhi embodied moral struggle, “shaming the world” with nonviolent resistance that helped secure India’s independence. He admired Gandhi deeply, though he did not adopt pacifism as a universal method.

2. Models of Life Integration: Building the Whole Self

Goethe: More than a writer, Goethe was to Moussa a “genius of personality.” He praised Goethe’s focus on self-development above literary output, citing: “It is my right to care for my personality, which is greater than my literature.” This emphasis on personality as the “first masterpiece of the cultivated human” became central to Moussa’s own philosophy.
Bernard Shaw: During his years in England, Moussa joined the Fabian Socialist Society and drew inspiration from Shaw’s use of literature as a weapon against injustice, especially regarding women’s rights and social equality.
Henrik Ibsen: Admired as “the advocate of women’s independent personality,” particularly through A Doll’s House, which urged women to break free from the confines of marriage and motherhood toward education and work.

3. Foundational Thinkers: Redefining Core Concepts

Darwin: Darwin’s Origin of Species had the most profound effect on Moussa, reshaping his lifelong intellectual struggle. He saw evolution as a “permanent inquiry into life,” transforming his view of the universe and humanity.
Freud: Praised as the founder of “the anatomy of the human psyche,” Freud pushed Moussa to read widely in psychology, though he criticized Freud’s overemphasis on sexuality.
August Weismann: Called “the author who corrupted my mind,” due to his theory of hereditary transmission, which left Moussa pessimistic for 40 years. He later shifted toward emphasizing the role of culture and civilization in shaping human potential, concluding that “instincts are but habits crystallized over generations.”

Central Intellectual Themes

Evolution as a Framework: Moussa turned Darwin’s theory into a life philosophy, viewing humans as “the summit of evolution” and urging its application to understanding societal change.
Liberating the Mind from False Dichotomies:
- Religion vs. Science: He denounced the alliance of religion and despotism: “The worst affliction of a nation is when religion unites with tyranny… it degrades religion itself.”
- Tradition vs. Modernity: He argued for drawing from tradition without idolizing it.
Women as Partners in Civilization: Liberation of women, he believed, was a prerequisite for progress, echoing Ibsen’s call for women to “test life and experience the world.”
Social and Political Critique: He condemned censorship: “A government that bans a valuable book betrays humanity… as if trying to render its people more foolish.”

Critical Debates on the Book

Eurocentrism: The book largely ignores Eastern heritage (with the exception of Gandhi), reflecting Moussa’s conviction that Western thought was the only viable path to progress.
Simplification of Complex Thinkers: He offered selective readings of Nietzsche and Freud, focusing on ideas that aligned with his ideology (rejection of religion, sexual liberation).
Reconciling Contradictions: Moussa’s eclectic adoption of both Shaw’s socialism and Nietzsche’s individualism highlights his indifference to strict philosophical consistency in favor of intellectual liberation.

Legacy and Cultural Impact

Inspiring Successive Generations: Moussa mentored novelist Naguib Mahfouz, once telling him: “You have great talent, but your articles are poor,” pushing him toward refining his craft.
A Model of Intellectual Autobiography: The book introduced a new way for Arab intellectuals to document their formation through dialogue with global thought.
Continued Accessibility: Today, the book is freely available through Hindawi and Noor Library, and was released as a 13-hour audiobook in 2018.

Why the Book Still Matters

Those Who Taught Me is more than a historical document—it is a roadmap for shaping an enlightened consciousness that transcended its time:

It bridged local heritage with Western achievement.
It embodied the role of the “organic intellectual”, transforming knowledge into a social project.
It warned against isolation from modernity, reminding readers: “We must strive for independence even after being influenced.”

Despite criticisms of simplification and bias, the book remains a testament to the power of ideas to transform lives. As Moussa himself declared: “There are books that change our souls as if they were new religions.” It is this mosaic-like journey—as one reviewer described it—that continues to offer guidance for those seeking clarity in times of darkness.

For the original summary in Arabic