Dialogues of Naguib Mahfouz: Letter to the diva By Mohamed Salmawy Naguib Mahfouz was such a fan of Um Kalthoum that he named his eldest daughter after her; then named his second eldest after a character Um Kalthoum played in one of her films. He only met the diva once, on his 50th birthday in 1961, when Mohamed Hassanein Heikal invited her to a party Al-Ahram organised for Mahfouz. But he saw her many times on stage. He told me that he used to go to all her concerts when she used to sing at Le Majestic on Emadeddin Street. That was in the 1920s, when he was still in high school. He even wrote her a letter that the diva saved for 25 years. "I didn't know her when I wrote this letter. I was just one of her many fans, but I was concerned about her health. So I suggested in it that she should only give one concert a month. The idea appealed to her, so she did that and saved the letter." Later on, Um Kalthoum moved her concerts to the Azbakiya Theatre where the tickets were expensive and hard to get. So Mahfouz had to listen to his favourite singer on the radio, every first Thursday of the month. "One of the things that delighted me was the creation of the Um Kalthoum station that initially only played one song a day, at 5pm. So I used to wake up from my siesta at that time to listen to her for an hour at least before I started writing or went out to meet friends," Mahfouz said. So which of Um Kalthoum songs did he like the most? I asked. "I don't recall ever listening to any song by Um Kalthoum and not liking it. Sometimes I would be less than thrilled by a new song, but then I would listen to it again and it would grow on me. I listened to all her old-style songs before she went modern in the 1950s. To me Um Kalthoum is like the Nile, profound and eternal; like the bountiful land of Egypt; or like the Pyramids, proud and tall. She was a companion to my soul, a light that shone upon my years since adolescence and into old age. Recently, my hearing became too bad to enjoy her singing. Sometimes the radio would be on and I would ask, who's that terrible singer on the radio? The incredible answer would come back: It is Um Kalthoum! I could just cry."
