Arafa Hussein Mustafa

Prof. Dr. Arafa Hussein Mustafa (born 27 February 1940 in Cairo, Egypt) was a University-Professor and Lecturer for Semitic Languages and Middle Eastern Studies at the Martin Luther University in Halle, Germany until he retired in 2005.

Arafa Hussein Mustafa became a lecturer and PhD candidate in 1969 when he started his academic career at the well-known "Orientwissenschafliches Institut" in Halle, East Germany. He graduated from Cairo University and Ain Shams and was a lecturer at the American University in Cairo before he left Egypt. Known for his open, progressive and democratic ideology, he kept on staying away from communist movements and the Socialist Party of East Germany, the SED-party. The East-German Staatssicherheit (Secret Service) was observing Arafa Hussein Mustafa and his friends intensively from 1972 till 1989. He was suspected of arranging the escape of one of his undergraduate students to the West German embassy in Cairo. The student was guiding a member of the East German FDGB The Free German Trade Union Federation as an interpreter for Arabic but had mentioned in private talks with his mentor, that he wanted to get behind the Iron Curtain for a life of freedom and liberty.

In 1990 both gentlemen met again and shared their long kept secret with friends and relatives. For his paticipation in the friendly revolution of 1989, his effort to open communist University structures to a new democratic and liberal system in the aftermath of 1989 he was honored with respect by his colleagues.

His scientifc work focusses on Semitic languages. The Accadian, the Ugaritic and the South-Arabian language attracted him most and he is working on an updated comparative Semitic grammar. After his retirement in 2005, which was celebrated at the Faculty of Theology, he is now concentrating on young Semitic scientists and philological students from Egypt and Germany.

He is married to Monika Mustafa, a teacher of Biochemistry, with whom he has a son.

Due to his knowledge of Judaism, modern and ancient Hebrew (Aramaic) as part of his interest in Semitic matters, students and friends just called him "Rabbi". His Hebrew-lessons at the Faculty of Theology were well-regarded.

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Publications
Maqalani fi 'ilmi l-lugati s-samiyya. (Zwei Aufsätze - E. Ullendorf und J. Oelsner - zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft, aus dem Englischen bzw. Deutschen übersetzt, kommentiert und annotiert). Kairo 1998

Spuren der kanaanäischen Mythologie in islamischen Überlieferungen. Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft - Heft 32/2001.

Inkulturation des Christentums im Sasanidenreich. / hrsg. von Arafa Mustafa und Jürgen Tubach in Verbindung mit G. Sophia Vashalomidze. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2007. ISBN 3-89500-560-6

Untersuchungen zu Satztypen in den epischen Texten von Ugarit. Dissertation - PhD-Thesis. Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Mustafa, Arafa. (1974)

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