HIGHLIGHTS OF MODERN EGYPTIAN CULTURE

Modern society and culture in Egypt is a mixture of the layers of history. Perhaps one of the major themes of modern Egyptian culture is the reconciliation between those different layers of history and their heritage in the context of the current socio-economic and political conditions.

 

Gamal Hamdan (died in 1993 ) is a truly "encyclopedic scholar" of the twentieth century. His works combine genius-geography, history, psychology, economics and politics. They also reflect a clear literary talent. Among his most prominent books are: The Character of Egypt, Studies of the Arab World and The Contemporary Islamic World Geography. Despite the fact that time separates the three books, yet, they form a harmonious trilogy and they are unified by a comprehensive view. They provide deep insight into Egypt's natural, economic, political and cultural character and of its position in the surrounding regional environment.

 

 

 

Taha Hussein (1898- 1973) who was born in a lower middle-class rural family and who lost his eye sight at a very early age, which caused him great anguish throughout his life, was among the first to join the, then, newly founded secular university in 1908. He was the first graduate of this university to receive a Ph.D. with his thesis on the skeptic poet and philosopher Abu-Alalaa' AI-Ma'arri. He was sent to study in France on the university's educational mission, and was, again, the first Egyptian, and the only member of the mission, to succeed in obtaining first his BA., from Montpellier University, and then his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne on Ibn Khaldoun the fourteenth century Arab thinker.

His works can be divided into three categories: scientific study of Arabic literature and Islamic history, in which he approached history critically in ways that always shook established wisdom ; creative literary works with social content combating poverty & ignorance, and political articles, with a clear liberal tendency.

Through his own will and craving for knowledge, as well as his socio political courage and his ability to challenge the established values, he grew to be one of the leaders of the Arab cultural renaissance. His quest was to revive and sustain Islamic and Arab culture and language through modernizing and assimilating western values and modes of thought into it.

 

Naguib Mahfouz (born 1911), who is the 1988 Nobel prize winner for literature, is one of the leading Arab novelists and one of the most outstanding writers in modern Arabic literature. He is also among the Arab writers that are most known outside the Arab World. A large number of his novels have been translated into numerous foreign languages.

He was born in 1911 in Gamaliyya, an old quarter of Cairo, which was the setting for several of his novels. He published his first novel in 1939 and since that date has written 32 novels and 13 collections of short stories over more than half a century.

His most important works, that have also been translated to English, as well as other languages, include:

Midaq Alley (originally published in Arabic 1947)

The Beginning and the End (originally published in Arabic 1956)

The Trilogy: three volumes, originally published in Arabic between 1949 and 1952)

Children of Gabalawi (originally published in Arabic 1959)

A Chat on the Nile (originally published in Arabic 1966)

Miramar (originally published in Arabic 1967)

The Harafish (originally published in Arabic 1977)

 

Mahfouz's literature focuses mainly on the concerns and dreams of Egypt's middle class during half a century that witnessed rapid social, political and cultural change. It also focuses on the philosophical and mental plight of the intellectuals of this class. He wrote in different forms, including the classical realistic novel, the allegorical novel, the modern philosophical novelette as well as experimenting with forms of absurd literature. One of the reasons of the greatness of his literature lie in his ability to present both a critical view of the very local society to which he belonged, that of modern Cairo, as well as a more universal perception of the troubles of man in the modern age.

In awarding him the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy of Letters noted that "through works rich in nuance - now clear sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - (Mahfouz) has formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind."

 

Zaki Naguib Mahmoud (1905-1995) had a long journey in the kingdoms of philosophy, literature, criticism, logic, translation & culture. Through-out his life, he added a cluster of the most outstanding pieces; 51 books, hundreds of articles and discourses. His autobiography, which is deemed to be one of the greatest in the history of Arabic literature, depicts his scientific and literary life in such unprecedented candid impartiality and absolute frankness.

He is one of the main proponents of reason and positivism in modern Arab thought. He was mainly concerned with the revival and renewal of Arab thought to enable it to deal with the challenges and opportunities of modernism, through its critical analysis and revival. He contributed invaluably to the development of both Egyptian and Arab modern culture.

His writings include:

The History of Modern Philosophy

The Story of Literature in the World

Positivism

Thoughts in The New World

Towards Scientific Philosophy

Principles of Scientific Thinking,

Renewing the Arab Mind

Islamic Vision

The Reasonable and the Absurd in Arab Thought

 

Salah Taher: is one of the most prominent Egyptian painters. He started his career in the thirties with classical academic painting. Yet soon afterwards, he moved to drawing geometric shapes. Later on from 1962 until his death, his abstract expressionistic style crystallized.

Being widely famous and greatly acquainted with humanitarian study, Taher created magnificent works of art that made him very distinguished among the Arab artists as he gave more than 15 thousand pictures and held more than 80 art fairs in which he had exhibited his works in Egypt and abroad including in Venice, New York, San Francisco, Geneva, Beirut, Kuwait and Jeddah. He also participated in 67 collective fairs in Egypt.

 

Inji Eflatoun (died in 1989) participated, since 1942, in the exhibitions of the avant-garde, "Art and Freedom Group". This was the first society that attempted to free modern Egyptian art from the bonds of the academism and formalism then prevailing. In 1946, her Surrealist phase ended and she began to be involved in political and social work. She searched for the personality of the Egyptian and the special character of the natural environment that surrounded her. She searched in the country-side trying to express the realities and dreams of subdued, ordinary human beings who labor silently and patiently.

In March 1952, she had her first one-person exhibition in Cairo and from that time, she held 28 solo shows in Egypt and abroad including in Rome, Paris, Dresden, Warsaw, Moscow, Prague. New Delhi, and Kuwait. In 1975, Mrs. Eflatoun helped organize the "Ten Egyptian Women Artists in Half a Century" exhibition, held in Cairo on the occasion of the international Year for Women. The artist's works were acquired by the modern art Museums in Cairo, Alexandria, Dresden, Warsaw, Sofia, Moscow, and by private collectors in Egypt and abroad. In 1986, she was awarded by the French Ministry of Culture a medal of merit called "Cavalier of the Arts and Literature".

The Cairo Cultural Centre:

 

During the official visit of President Mubarak to Japan in April 1983, and as an expression of its strong desire to bolster the already cordial bilateral relations, the government of Japan gave Egypt a gift of 50 million dollars (6.5 billion yen) to set up a new Cultural Center in Egypt. In the middle of the numerous cultural center buildings at Al-Gezirah by the Nile side in Cairo rose the elegant and modern Cairo Opera House. Clustering round the Opera House, the premises combine other cultural installations such as the Nile Hall for the Arts, the Modern Art Museum and the Planetarium. A Japanese company designed and supervised the implementation of the Japanese Aid Organization-financed project.

 

The New Cultural Centre is a focal point enriching Cultural life in Egypt. Not only does it allow Egypt to host a large number of foreign orchestras, ballet and other dancing companies, and Opera and Theater companies, it is also contributing to the encouragement of Egyptian troops in different art forms, both western and traditional. It is also offering excellent exhibit space to a large number of Egyptian Artists, particularly young ones.