Maḥmūd Taymūr, 1894-1973, was one of the most influential Arabic writers of the 20th century. Associated with the Cairo-based al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha (Modern School), he and his contemporaries including Maḥmūd Ṭāhir Lāshīn and Yaḥyā Ḥaqqī developed the modern Arabic short story.

Taymūr was raised in a literary family. His father, Aḥmad Taymūr (1871-1930), was a writer who donated his personal collection of 20,000 books to the Egyptian National Library. His aunt, ʿĀʾisha al-Taymūriyya (1840-1902), was a poet and women's rights activist. His older brother, Muḥammad Taymūr (1892-1921), was also a short storyist and playwright.

The writers of Jamaʿat al-Madrasa al-Ḥadītha, influenced by French authors and later by Russian authors including Chekhov and Turgenev, turned in their work towards realism and an interest in local color. Taymūr's early work frequently includes vignettes of Egyptian characters, often in the countryside. Taymūr's early stories are notable for their use of dialogue in Egyptian dialect rather than formal standard Arabic, although Taymūr abandoned this device in his later work as he was awarded greater official recognition.

In 1948, he was elected to membership to the prestigious Arabic Language Academy in Cairo. In 1950, he won the King Fu'ad Prize and in 1962, the State Prize for Literature.

Two of his works, Tales from Egyptian Life (1949) and The Call of the Unknown (1964) have been translated into English.