Writing a biographical note about Mahmoud is an impossible or at least, a rather futile task.
Of course, one can describe his academic career as is usually done on such occasions. But that is exactly what I would call a futile attempt at doing him justice, because everyone who met Mahmoud knows that who he truly was goes far beyond the confines of such dry factual texts. They will never be able to convey the richness of his activities, achievements, his subtle influence on the world around him, nor will they say anything about his personality, his way of relating to people and events, his language, and how he used it to express his unique sense of humor. They will not encompass the terabytes of stories, anecdotes, and tales from his life, which he shared with so many of us.
Therefore, we have a request—if any of you would like to write a memory about Mahmoud, or for Mahmoud, please send us your texts to pcma@uwedu.pl and we will publish them here so that his image is preserved as complete as possible.
Agnieszka Szymczak
Mahmoud El-Tayeb (1957–2024). A Memory by Artur Obłuski