Abul Ainain Shu'aisha

Early years

He was born in August 1922 in Bila, in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate. He lost his father as a child, memorised the Quran and first drew attention in 1936, as a teenager, at a Quran evening in Mansoura. He joined Egyptian radio in 1939, becoming its youngest reciter at the time.

Strongly influenced by Sheikh Muhamed Refaat, with whom he was close, he initially followed his style before developing a manner of his own from the mid-1940s. Egyptian radio later called on him to fill in damaged passages of Muhammad Rifat's recordings.

Career

In the 1950s he recited in Syria and Iraq and became the first Egyptian reciter to recite the Quran in al-Aqsa Mosque. He was appointed reciter of the Omar Makram mosque in Cairo in 1969, and of the Sayyida Zaynab mosque in 1992. In 1988 he was elected head of the Reciters' Syndicate, succeeding Abdelbasset Abdessamad. He was also a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, dean of the International Institute for Quran Memorisation, and sat on the panels that selected radio and television reciters.

He received the State Medal in 1989 and the Iraqi Order of al-Rafidain. He died on Thursday, 23 June 2011 (21 Rajab 1432 AH), at the age of 88.