Guest editorial: celebrating the 70th birthday of Hisham K. El-Hennawy – Egypt’s arachnologist
Introduction
Arachnology in the Middle East was, for centuries, shaped largely by colonial
researchers. This was particularly evident in Egypt, which endured many decades of
colonial rule. Today, Egypt has a number of active arachnologists, but since the 1980s
local arachnology has been pioneered by a single man: Hisham K. El-Hennawy. Now, on
the occasion of his 70th birthday, I am delighted to present this editorial, recognising the
many contributions he has made to arachnology, spanning from over one hundred
faunistic papers on arachnids to translations of major historical works, and establishing
and editing the Middle East’s only arachnological journal, which has now been running
for over 30 years.
Biography
Hisham Kamal El-Din Mohamed El-Hennawy was born in El-Mansourah, ElDakahlia, Egypt on 19th December 1955. After a happy childhood, a grown Hisham
married his beloved wife Rana and in 1978 joined the Egyptian Ministry of Interior as a
law enforcement officer. He would spend his entire police career at the Ministry of
Interior, specialising in detection and interception of forged money and documents but
also with training (some as a United Nations fellow) in detection of narcotics and
computer forensics. At the time of his retirement in 2000, Hisham had become the
Director of Egypt's Department of Documents' Examination and held the rank of Colonel,
the third most senior rank possible in Egyptian law enforcement. During his time as a
senior officer, Hisham also lectured on forensics of forgery and general criminology both
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across Egypt and much wider to other parts of the Middle East and Africa. He also
conducted classified missions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia during his tenure. During all this
time, he was publishing on arachnids and editing Serket, the Middle East’s only
arachnological academic journal, in his spare time. Following his retirement, Hisham
dedicated his life full-time to arachnology over the last 25 years.
Acknowledgement: I would like to extend a special and sincere thank you to Danni Sherwood for kindly sharing this communication with me, as well as for authoring this thoughtful editorial on behalf of Hisham K. El-Hennawy.
Sherwood, Danniella. (2026). Guest editorial: celebrating the 70th birthday of Hisham K. El-Hennawy – Egypt’s arachnologist. SERKET The Arachnological Bulletin of the Middle East and North Africa. 21. 123-136.
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