Magdi Wahba (1925–1991) was an Egyptian university professor, Johnsonian scholar, and lexicographer. He was born in Alexandria in 1925, the son of a high court judge (Mourad Wahba Pasha) and later cabinet minister. His mother had been educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Oxford University. The grandson of a Prime Minister (Youssef Wahba Pasha) he belonged to the Egyptian aristocracy of the time but was nonetheless a member of the communist party in his youth. He was a graduate of Cairo University and the Sorbonne where he obtained a Diploma in High Studies in International Law in Paris (1947). He decided to pursue his interests in English literature and went to Exeter College, Oxford University, and received his B.Litt. and D.Phil. in 1957.