Tawfiq Al-Hakim, popularly known as "Woman's Enemy", remains one of Egypt's most loved writers. He along with his contemporaries, Taha Hussain and Naguib Mahfouz, were among the leading authors of Arab literature post-Independence.
Better known as the creator of "Return of The Spirt", Al-Hakim died on 26 July 1987 at the age of 89. Some of his notable works include "Transforming Loss into Beauty", "Egypt 1919", and "Maze of Justice", among others.
Al-Hakim was also one of the first Arab writers post-independence who grabbed the attention of the Western world with his simple and subtle writing style. On his death anniversary, the nation remembers the brilliant writer, who created a fictional universe that was loved by everyone.
On Al-Hakim's 35th death anniversary, here are some of the interesting facts about the author:
Born in Alexandria, into an aristocratic family, he enrolled at the Damanhour primary school at the age of seven.
In 1915, the young boy left primary school and his father put him in a public school in the Beheira province, where he finished secondary school. However, due to the lack of proper secondary schooling in the province, Al-Hakim moved to Cairo with his uncles to continue his studies at Muhammad Ali secondary school. Then, he joined Cairo University to study law.
Following his passion, he moved to Paris, where he continued his legal studies and began preparing a Ph.D. thesis at the Sorbonne in 1927.
After he spent three years in France, he abandoned his studies and returned to Egypt, full of ideas for transforming Egyptian theatre.
On his return to Egypt four years later, he worked for the Ministry of Justice in a rural area and for the Ministry of Education in Cairo. However, in 1936 he stepped down to devote himself entirely to writing.
His seminal work has inspired generations of artists. The subtle genius of his social stories and drama has left an indelible mark on the Arab world.
The late visionary, who is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Arabic novel and drama, was nominated for the Nobel prize in the literature sector on more than one occasion, but he never won.
However, he received a nomination for Best Egypt’s Novelist throughout the 20th century from the Egyptian government for his unique and modern critical approach and contribution to the Egyptian literature sector.
Indeed, he reshaped Arab literature and Drama as well as Egyptian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 20th century.
He was well known for his best-sales books, such as “Masrah al-Mugtama (Theatre of Society, 1950), al-Masrah al-Munawwa (Theatre Miscellany, 1956), Ahl al-Kahf (The People of the Cave, 1933) and Ughniyyat al-Mawt (Death Song).
He also won the Republic Medal, which was presented to him by late President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The notable writer was appointed as Egypt's envoy to UNESCO in Paris and then a senior journalist in the Al-Ahram newspaper.
Below are some quotes by the Bard of Egypt to remind you of the genius.
“There is always a state of anxiety, of searching and delving for style.”
“True artistic renewal does not mean being stripped of fetters. It means moving into new fetters.”
“When the artist … intends from the beginning to be obscure and take obscurity as his objective or goal for its own sake and wishes to astonish, shock, and seem mysterious, that is a swindle.”
Follow the latest news on Google News
