Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad (, ; 28 June 1889 – 12 March 1964) was an Egyptian journalist, poet and literary critic, and member of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo. More precisely, because "his writings cover a broad spectrum, including poetry, criticism, Islamology, history, philosophy, politics, biography, science, and Arabic literature", he is perceived to be a polymath. Biography Al-Aqqad was born in Aswan, a city in Upper Egypt, in 1889. His father was a money-changer originally from the Egyptian rural city of Damietta while his mother had Kurdish roots. He received little formal education, completing only his elementary education; he later supplemented his learning by buying books and reading on his own. Unlike his schoolmates, he spent all his weekly allowance on books. He read about religion, geography, history and many other subjects. He was known for his excellent English and French. He was also particularly well-read in German literature. Al-'Aqqad was also an outspoken political thinker, and was jailed for a time between 1930 and 1931 for criticizing the country's government. In 1942 when the forces of Adolf Hitler advanced on Egypt, al-'Aqqad fled to Sudan due to fear of reprisal for his criticism of Hitler. At the height of Hitler's military advances, al-'Aqqad wrote his scathing work Hitler in the Balance in June 1940 in which he lambasts Nazism as the greatest threat to freedom, modernity and the very existence of man. In addition to his general opposition to both fascism and communism, al-'Aqqad was also both a member of the Egyptian parliament for a time as a member of the Wafd Party, and later a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He wrote more than a hundred of books about philosophy, religion, and poetry, along with a philosophical study of the Qur'an and various biographies of historic Muslim leaders. He founded a poetry school with Ibrahim Al-Mazny and Abdel Rahman Shokry called Al-Diwan. Romantic relationships Al-Aqqad experienced two major romantic relationships in his life. The first was whom he called "Sarah" in his novel of the same name. The second was with the famous Egyptian actress Madiha Yousri. This relationship was ended by al-Aqqad himself, because of Yousri's career as an actress. Al-Aqqad wrote a poetry work about this relationship called Cyclones of a Sunset (A-Asiru Maghrib in Arabic). It was reported by prolific Egyptian author Anis Mansour and various other attendees of Al-Aqqad's famous