Taymour Pasha was born on 6 November 1871 in Cairo to a family of the Egyptian elite, his father Isma'il Taymur being of Kurdish origin and his mother of Turkish descent.

Ahmed was educated by his elder sister, Aisha Taymur (1840–1902), a social activist, poet and novelist, active in the field of women's rights and her husband Muhammad Tawfiq.

He was widowed early when his wife died of measles, and he left his family's house in Cairo to the nearby countryside.

Ahmed's outlook was more on the search of a renewed Arab Golden Age, which was common among Egyptian intellectuals after the 1882 British Rule in Egypt.

[5] He however as a man of "many letters" pioneered the study of folklore and folkart, including the shadow play tradition, that had spread during the Ottoman period.