As much as the last month of the year is associated with the birth of Naguib Mahfouz, the prominent Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate, it is also the month of the birth of Oum Kolthoum, the ultimate diva of Egyptian song. Mahfouz was born on 11 December 1911. Oum Kolthoum was born on 31 December 1898, according to most accounts, given the incertitude over the exact date of her birth.
Earlier this month, literature essayist Sayyed Mahmoud gave a talk to remember both Mahfouz and Thouma (as Oum Kolthoum was fondly called by many fans in Egypt).
The talk was under the title of ‘Mahfouz and Oum Kolthoum – two narratives from Egypt's years of resurgence', or rather what brings Oum Kolthoum and Mahfouz together.
Addressing an audience at the International Art Center, Mahmoud argued that what actually brings these two icons together goes way beyond their incredible popularity, which well surpassed their time into subsequent generations. What is also a significant bond that brings these two together is the fact that Mahfouz had a great admiration for music and singing and a greater admiration for Oum Kolthoum herself, whose voice he thought was simply unequaled.
Clearly, several of the protagonists of Mahfouz's works had an association with Thouma.
According to Mahmoud, the Mahouz-Thouma association is essentially about the quality of their art and the work they both undertook to present this art and give it remarkable longevity. Each, Mahmoud argued, was an art “institution” in and of themselves, with serious labour combined with amazing talent.
It is also a matter of history, Mahmoud argued. Both Thouma and Mahfouz were born a few years before the 1919 Revolution, which was arguably a shifting moment in the history of modern Egypt.
“An almost new Egypt was in the making in the years when both Mahfouz and Thouma were offering their art; and they both subscribed to and benefited from this moment,” Mahmoud said.
For example, he added, both Mahfouz and Thouma were greatly encouraged by Moustafa Abdel-Razik, a prominent intellectual of the early 20th century who was also professor of Islamic philosophy and later minister of endowments and Imam of Al-Azhar.
Abdel-Razik had great faith in Mahfouz and he was one of the early intellectuals to praise the talent of Oum Kolthoum, Mahmoud said.
Moreover, Mahmoud suggested that the growing role of art in Egypt, first post-1919 and later after the 1952 Revolution, was in fact a function of a growing role and influence of the middle class. This, he said, helped provide a wider audience to the novels of Mahfouz and songs of Thouma.
“It was a moment where more people had access to education and thus of more people willing to read and consume art,” Mahmoud said.
Thouma started her career as an established singer in the mid to late 1920s and Mahfouz initiated his literary production in the 1930s. Oum Kolthoum passed away in 1975, about 30 years before the death of Mahfouz in 2006. They only met once in 1961, as Mahmoud said, when Al-Ahram editor Mohamed Hassanein Heikal invited Oum Kolthoum for a birthday gathering he held for Mahfouz.
However, as Mahmoud recounted, Thouma and Mahfouz have so often intertwined in the collective cultural memory of the country.
