Mohamed Alyan was born at Aswan, Egypt on 16 September 1922; his father Yassin Alyan, was a business man and his mother's name was Baheya El-Kadi. Alyan received his medical education in Cairo University graduating in 1947. He held resident appointments in Cairo and became a surgical registrar in 1950, proceeding to a lectureship in surgery in 1954, which was the year he obtained his English and Edinburgh Fellowships. In 1959 he became Assistant Professor of Surgery at Cairo and full Professor in 1968. He was much influenced by Professor F R Yoursky, in his career. In 1946 he married and had four children, one of whom was studying medicine when Alyan died at the early age of 51, while still at the height of his powers, on 25 June 1973.