(1941-2010) Few can question the place occupies in the hearts of millions of television viewers across the Arab world, who awaited his works impatiently every year especially during the month of Ramadan when they open premiered. Since the start of his career Okasha has taken an interest in the social and economic and cultural history of Egypt as is clear in the two serials, Al-Mashrabiya (1980) and Qaal Al-Bahr (Thus Spoke the Sea, 1982). Yet the serials that turned Okasha into a household name in Egypt and the Arab world were the first of their kind to exceed 15 episodes in order to cover the entire holy month, and were often followed by a second and third season. Thanks to Okasha, the long dramatic serial form (or soap opera) has become an integral part of Egyptian television programming. The first such work was Al-Shahd wal Dumou' (Honey and Tears, 1983). For the first time the Egyptian viewer engaged with local productions in much the same way as they had engaged with American soap operas like Dallas, Knots Landing or Falcon Crest, which were phenomenally popular in Egypt. Yet the landmark in the history of the late writer was Layali Al-Helmeya (Helmeya Nights), in which he documented political, cultural and social transformations in contemporary Egyptian history starting from the era of King Farouk (before the July 1952 Revolution) and, by Season Five, till the start of the 1990s. No doubt the Egyptian soap opera industry started with Okasha; and despite the fact that the two aforementioned series remain the longest and best known he wrote, Okasha never stopped producing remarkably popular works incorporating a critical perspective on the traumatic transformations that beset Egyptian society after the mid-1970s. One example of this is Rihlat Al-Sayed Abu Al-Ila Al-Bishri (Mr Abu Al-Ila Al-Bishri's Journey), directed by Mohammad Fadel -- Okasha's principal coworker -- in the mid-1980s. In 1993, Okasha returned to the same series to write Abu Al-Ila 90, in which he dealt with this contemporary Egyptian Don Quixote with greater focus. This was the first of many works centred on a single character or archetype: an embodiment of the good undermined by socio-economic trauma. In these works -- Damir Abla Hikmat (1991), Amira min Abdeen (2001) -- the struggle of the good-man archetype against encroaching corruption is convincingly portrayed in an entertaining way. Most of Okasha's works rely on a complex mixture of details and characters and they sometimes incorporate tragedy as a major component. Yet almost invariably there are comic characters even in works that are not principally comic. Perhaps it was this that drove Okasha to write a purely comic series like Ana Wenta we Baba fel Meshmesh or Lamma El-Ta'lab Fat. These too proved very popular, but Okasha's forays into cinema (notably with the late director Atef El-Tayyeb) were never as successful (perhaps because he needed the number of hours afforded by a dramatic serial to best show his abilities). Okasha graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Sociology Department, in Ain Shams University in 1962. He worked as a social worker and a teacher and remained a civil servant until 1982, when he tendered his resignation to write full time. Okasha had published short stories before he became known as television writer, and the last of his books was Maqati' min Ughniya Qadima (Verses from an old song, 1988). He received the state merit award in 2002, the Naguib Mahfouz award in 2007, and the best screenwriter award at the Arab Media Festival in 2009. By Hani Mustafa
