BI Qalam Anwar el-Sadat (By the Pen of Anwar Sadat) is the latest book about Egypt's late President Anwar Sadat's relationship with journalism and literature. The book, containing complete, important written works by Sadat that were published in newspapers and magazines, is published by Atlas publishing and distribution house. Sadat ruled Egypt from 1970 to 1981 and was assassinated by Muslim militants. The book has been edited by Khaled Azab, the supervisor of Egypt's Contemporary Memory Project in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the researcher Amr Shalabi. Many people don't know that Sadat worked as a journalist at about the time of the July 23 Revolution in 1952 and after it. His articles, which showed a shrewd understanding of Middle Eastern issues but gave the West the cold shoulder, were published in Al- Gomhuria Arabic-language daily newspaper in Cairo. Although Sadat's articles, written in the 1950s, harshly attacked the West and American policies,his views towards the United States had changed widely by the time he assumed the presidential post in 1970. The book, which comprises 465 papers, is the first to gather most of Sadat's articles and dairies that he wrote in jail, starts with a handwritten message he delivered to the people of Egypt in 1974. "There are many sides to the life of Sadat that the younger generation knows nothing about. The book highlights the skills of Sadat that made him unique and different from his fellow revolutionaries. It shows that he was a cultured person who knew many languages," Azab says in his introduction. The first chapter of the book gives the reader a biography of Sadat, starting with his upbringing in an Egyptian village called Meet Abul Kom in the Nile Delta province of el- Menoufia. It shows how this small village influenced his mind until his assassination in 1981.Sadat was born on December 25, 1918. His father was Egyptian and his mother was of Sudanese origin. He studied at the local kuttab (place in a small village where the children used to learn Islam's Holy book the Qur'an). He then went to the Coptic Primary School in Toukh (a small village near Meet Abul Kom). The second chapter tells the story of Sadat with journalism, giving the dates when and the places where he worked as a journalist or wrote articles, including Al-Mousawar magazine (1948), Al-Gomhuria newspaper (from December 1953 to April 1959), Al-Tahrir magazine from 1954 to April 1959 and Ahl el Fan magazine (in which he published one of his stories in 1956). In Al-Ahram newspaper, he also published some extracts from his diaries from September 25 to October 15, 1975. In October 1976, he published another extract from his diaries in October magazine. The third chapter of the book shows the articles Sadat wrote about the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned group created in 1928, in the 1950s. The reader will notice that, whenever Sadat addresses the Muslim Brothers, he uses verses from the Qur'an. The fourth chapter contains the articles Sadat wrote in Al-Gomhuria newspaper and Al-Tahrir magazine on the 1952 Revolution. It reveals many secrets about the Revolution, which were published after that in a book entitled Safahat Maghoula min el-Thawra el-Masria (Unknown Pages of the Egyptian Revolution). It also shows how Sadat used to meet with Sheikh Hassan el-Banna, the founder of Muslim Brotherhood. As for the fifth chapter, it introduces, for the first time, the diaries of Sadat in prison. Entitled “30 Months in Jail”, they were published in Al- Mousawar magazine in 1948. Chapter six is entitled ‘El-Sadat Adeeban' (Sadat as a Man of Letters). It shows how he adored the art of narration. Two stories are published in the book: “Lilat khasiraha el-Shaytan” (The Day that the Devil lost Her) and “Sawt el- Damir” (The Voice of Conscience), which Sadat took from a German story. "Sadat knew that stories were more effective at spreading knowledge and principles than articles or any other art," Azab explains. The final chapter, entitled ‘Current Events in Anwar Sadat's Articles', introduces the articles that Sadat wrote in the 1950s showing his cheerful side. He employs irony to criticise the problems of Arab countries and the British and American policies. You have to laugh at the titles of his articles like, Sektnalo Dakhal bi Homaro (Because we didn't Speak he entered with his Donkey), Wednak mneen ya Goha? (Where is your Ear Goha?), Eli Ekhtasho (Those who Respect Themselves) and others. The book also shows the last articles wrote by Sadat in Mayo newspaper, a mouthpiece of the ruling party at the time in 1981 entitled Areft Ha'olaa (I Knew those People). Mayo kept on publishing these articles, even after Sadat's death, with the last one being published on October 19, 1981 entitled, ‘And the Shah came to Aswan'.
