Whilst celebrating the first week of the holy month of Ramadan, Al-Ahram Weekly looks back at the lives and artistic feats of two great Egyptian artists: poet Fouad Haddad and composer , who together made the unforgettable Al-Mesaharati radio and television programme Music to my ears Eleven years after his death, 's music continues to epitomise the spirit of Ramadan. Rania Khallaf interviews his daughter For my generation, Ramadan has a number of different faces. Among them is the peculiar and warm voice of as he chants the words of Al-Mesaharati. His strong pitch, together with the voices of Sheikh El-Naqshabandi and Mohamed Refaat, have largely formed our musical taste. However, Mekkawi's beginnings as a chanter of religious songs never stopped him from composing and performing a wide range of popular and national songs such as Al-Leila Al-Kebira (The Biggest Night) and Al-Ard Betetkalem Arabi (The Earth Speaks Arabic) -- two of a kind that will never be erased from our memories. Al-Mesaharati, written by Fouad Haddad and composed by Mekkawi, will remain the main feature of popular Ramadan rituals. The legendary composer did not receive any formal or informal education, scholastic or musical. Born in 1927 and raised in the popular Cairene area of Abdine, Mekkawi was a regular visitor of zikr and popular moulids throughout his formative years, especially during Ramadan. There, he was introduced to various schools of Quran recitation and fell in love with the voices of Sheikh Mohamed El-Fayoumi and Sheikh Mursi El-Hariri. "In such popular districts the celebration of Ramadan and feasts is unique," commented Inas, Mekkawi's elder daughter and a senior official at the Arab League. Through his musical legacy, "Mekkawi's deep, cheerful feelings and spirit for Ramadan remained even after his death." By the age of nine, Mekkawi had memorised the Quran. He worked as a munshid (reciter) at Egyptian National Radio in the 1960s, where he excelled through his performance of what was called Al-Mawled -- a kind of praise of Prophet Mohammed. His peerless performance won him first place in a competition to perform Al-Mesaharati. His cooperation with the highly distinguished intellectual and poet Fouad Haddad began shortly afterwards. With Haddad he produced around 180 episodes for National Radio in the 1960s, and around 60 episodes for Television starting from the 1980s. "The idea of Al-Mesaharati emerged from a creative imitation of the old Fatimid tradition of what was called Al-Tasheer," Inas told Al-Ahram Weekly. Dressed in a galabiya and a hat, and holding a drum in his hand, the job of the mesaharati is to wake people up by calling their names, just two hours before dawn, in time for them to have their last meal, or Sohour, before the break of a new day. This tradition is now dramatically diminishing. Al-Mesaharati is sung boldly by Mekkawi only with the company of a drum, whose beat separates the different stanzas. However, Mekkawi's outstanding performance is such that it gives listeners the impression that it is in fact full of music. For Inas, Al-Mesaharati had enormous proportions. Each episode tackled different subjects. For instance, 30 episodes were dedicated to the commemoration of well- known figures in Islam such as Caliph Omar Ibn El-Khattab, former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, 12th century Arab general and hero Salaheddin El-Ayoubi, and to the discussion of issues such as bureaucracy and Egyptian migrant workers abroad. "The underlying theme of Al-Mesaharati was a cry to awaken the mind and conscience of Egyptian people, indeed the whole Arab nation," Inas told the Weekly. Cooperating with a poet with such vision, some episodes were never broadcast because of the harshness of their critique. Among these episodes is one in which Haddad discussed the application of socialism in Egypt, while another debated the building of the Aswan High Dam, Inas said. When Haddad died in the early 1980s, Mekkawi could not pursue the project further. His cooperation with poet Omar El-Sawy only lasted one season. His cooperation with Sayed Hegab, one of Egypt's prominent poets, did not last much longer. "This shows that Al-Mesaharati emerged from a musical mood, whose place in history can never be repeated or imitated," Inas sighed. Still, the programme's impact remains strong. " Al-Mesaharati, which has been broadcast on National Radio from the 1960s up until this moment has had its impact on the Arab people," said the composer's daughter. "Wherever I go, from Syria to Morocco, people remember Mekkawi's Al-Mesaharati." In the 1960s, she recalls, the Moroccan people unprecedentedly adjusted their radios to the transmission of Sawt El-Arab (The Voice of the Arabs) station, which broadcast both Mekkawi's religious praises and Al-Mesaharati before and after Iftar, and in so doing no doubt enforced their ties with other Arabs. For Mekkawi, Ramadan itself was a hectic time. Alongside Al-Mesaharati, Mekkawi was involved in many religious and cultural events during the holy month, including composing the musical prelude of Fawazeer Ramadan, performing concerts at the Cairo Opera House, and composing and performing religious praises -- which for years were the main feature of the Public Programme Radio Station during the 1990s. On a more personal level, Mekkawi had his own bizarre Ramadan rituals. "On the eve of Ramadan, he used to come home late, after he'd had Sohour with his friends in the Cairo district of Al-Hussein, carrying a large bunch of traditional lanterns of various sizes and shapes. They were not only for my sister Amira and me; the children of the family and street children had their share too. He also used to insist that a flat's doorway should not be closed during Ramadan -- and he meant it. People used to flock to our home during Ramadan, many of whom we'd never even met before. Moreover, he used to supervise the preparation of Iftar, just to please us," Inas recalled. She also described how Ramadan suited Mekkawi's dietary habits best, given that he wouldn't normally eat more than one meal a day anyway. Still, Inas told the Weekly, his greatest joy during Ramadan was to spend the night with his friends at Al-Hussein's cafés. His friendship with legendary singer Um Kolthoum (for whom he composed Ya Mesaharni was strengthened when he encouraged and convinced her to re- establish her relationship with Cairo's popular areas. There, at those cafés, and along with other friends, they spent long hours, Mekkawi's daughter passionately describes. Some years before his death, Mekkawi was granted the title of Egypt's mesaharati, an acknowledgement that goes to show how popular he was throughout the country. However, Inas says "he never liked titles. Even when he was called Al-Sheikh, he did not like it. He only wanted to be known and addressed as ." Still his humility occasionally clashed with the reality of his popularity. "When Al-Mesaharati was first produced for television, we were on a quick visit to Alexandria. I was driving the car, when I stopped to purchase something for Sohour. When I came back, I found it difficult to spot the car because of the crowd embracing it. At first, I thought there had been some accident," recounts Inas. "But then I realised that people were knocking on the car's closed windows, desperately trying to engage in conversation with my father. Blind as he was, he was frightened because he had never expected such an intimate encounter with his audience. When it was all over, he modestly asked me, "Inas... Am I that famous? Oh thank God -- this means Al-Mesaharati is still a pleasant thing."
