Hassan Zaza was born in Cairo, and after studying the Noble Qur’an in the countryside, he entered formal education, obtained high school, and then joined Cairo University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic and Semitic languages in 1941. In 1944, he obtained a master's degree in Hebrew literature and Jewish thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Palestine, then traveled to France, where he obtained a Higher State Diploma in Archeology, Art History and Civilization from the Louvre School in Paris in 1951. He joined the School of Oriental Languages in Paris and received its diploma in 1955. Then, in 1958, he received a state doctorate in literature from the Sorbonne at the University of Paris, with first class honors.