[2] Born in the Egyptian Delta, Muhammad Mandur attended secondary school in Tanta before reading literature and law at the Cairo University.
He was influenced by Taha Husayn, who helped him gain in 1930 a scholarship for further study in Paris; In 1939 he returned to Egypt and was appointed a lecturer at the University of Cairo.
In 1942 he was appointed to the literary faculty of the new University of Alexandria, and in 1943 he completed his doctorate with Ahmad Amin as supervisor.
[2] Denied academic promotion, Mandur resigned his university post in 1944 and became an editor of the Wafdist newspaper al-Misri.
[2] A book of essays, Fi'l-Mizan al-Jadid (1944) rapidly established Mandur's reputation as a critic of modern Arabic poetry.