El-Bishry was born in
Cairo,
Egypt. His grandfather, Saliem el-Bishry, was shaykh of
al-Azhar from 1900–1904 and 1909–1916. His father, 'Abd al-Fattah al-Bishri, was president of the Egyptian Court of Appeal until his death in 1951. His uncle, 'Abd al-'Aziz, was a celebrated writer. He has two sons, 'emad and Zyad.
El-Bishry graduated from the Faculty of Law at
Cairo University in 1953. Upon graduation, he was appointed after the Council of State, where he worked until his retirement in 1998. At the time of his retirement, he held the offices of first deputy (Al-na'ib al-awwal) to the
Council of State and Chairman of its General Assembly for Legislation and Consultation (Al-jama'iya al-'umumiya lil-fatawa wal-tashri').
El-Bishry was once a secular leftist, but became a prominent "moderate Islamic" political thinker, which gained him respect as a bridge between the movements.[1]
El-Bishry was named in 2008 by
Hamdy Kandeel, a prominent Egyptian television and radio personality, as a suitable candidate for the 2011 Egyptian presidential elections, during an interview led by
Amr Adeeb.[4]
He was a prolific writer on questions of law, history, and Islamic and social thought:
Al-ʻArab fī muwājahat al-ʻudwān (العرب في مواجهة العدوان).
Al-Ḥiwār al-Qawmī-al-Dīnī : awrāq ʻamal wa-munāqashāt al-nadwah al-fikrīyah allatī naẓẓamahā Markaz Dirāsāt al-Waḥdah al-ʻArabīyah (الحوار القومي الديني : اوراق عمل ومناقشات الندوة الفكرية التي نظمها مركز دراسات الوحدة العربية).
Al-Ummah fī ʻām : taqrīr ḥawlī ʻan al-shuʼūn al-siyāsīyah wa-al-iqtiṣādīyah al-Miṣrīyah (الأمة في عام : تقرير حولي عن الشئون السياسية والاقتصادية المصرية).
Egypt's new legitimacy, Tarek El-Bishry, The Guardian, 21 March 2011, "Egypt's referendum results have set us on the path to rebuild our country on new democratic grounds"