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The Arabic Theatre in Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Nevill Barbour
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Extract

The establishment of the theatre in Egypt, like many other Western innovations, was aided by the initiative of the KhediveIsmail. The Suez Canal was completed in the year 1869; to celebrate its opening the Khedive decided to form the Ezbekia Gardens and to build the Opera House which still exists beside them. This building, in. whose fabric wood occupies a dangerously large part, was erected in a great hurry and inaugurated in November, 1869. The opera Aida which Verdi was composing for the occasion in return for a fee of 150, 000 francs, on a libretto originally arranged by Mariette Pasha, was not completed in time for the opening, and a performance of Rigoletto was given instead.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1935 , pp. 173 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1935

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References

page 173 note 1 (a) Ta'rīkh Ādāb al-Lughat al-'Arabiyya. Jurjī Zaidān. 2nd edition, Cairo, 1924. Part iv, pp. 152–7. (b) Ta'rīkh Misr fī 'ahd Isma'īl. Ilyās Ayyūb. (c) Hayātuna at Tamthīliyya. Muhammad Taimūr. (Part ii—Mu'allafāt Muhammad Taimūr. Cairo, 1922.)Google Scholar (d) Ihsān. Ahmad Zakī Abū Shādī. Cairo, 1927 (Appendices).Google Scholar (e) Arzatu Libnān. Bairūt, 1869. (Contains three plays of Mārūn an-Naqqāsh and 28 pp. introduction.) (f) Ta'rīkh al-Masrah al Misri. Taufīq Habīb. (MS. 160 pp. and appendices.) (g) As-Sitār (Weekly Paper), Nos. 5–16 (31st October, 1927–16th January, 1928), containing articles by Taufīq Habīb about early actors and authors.

page 173 note 2 Egyptian Gazette, 27th July, 1933, p. 2.

page 174 note 1 Mūlyīr Misr wa ma, yuqasih. Bairūt, 1912, pp. 40

page 175 note 1 Al Murū'a wal Wafā' au al-Farah ba'd ad-Dīq. Khaljī al Yāzijī. Bairūt, 1884. al-Matba'at al-Adabiyya.

page 176 note 1 Specimens in As-Sitār, No. 10.

page 176 note 2 Objection was taken to the representation of the alīfa Hārūn ar Raīd in Abū Hasan al-Muaffil by an-Naqqā in the character in which he is portrayed in the Alf Laila wa-laila. To this day Hārūn ar-Rashīd is the first theme to which Arabic dramatists turn, e.g. al-'Abbāsa in Cairo in 1931, a piece called Ar-Ra īd wal-Barāmika given in Tangier, Morocco, in 1929, and another with the same title by Father Antūn Rabāt al-Yasū'ī (Bairūt, 1924); and his portrayal as other than a strictly orthodox and pious Muslim still arouses protest.

page 176 note 3 Where now stands the Cinema Olympia in āri' 'Abd al-'Azīz.

page 176 note 4 MS. Taufīq ḣabīb.

page 178 note 1 Thus in newspaper, 12th August, 1933.

page 178 note 2 Hayātuna at Tamiliyya, pp. 131–142.

page 179 note 1 Newspaper cutting attached to MS. Taufīq ḣabib.

page 179 note 2 Hayātuna at Tamlliyya, pp. 22–6.

page 179 note 3 Now used, occasionally only, by inferior revue companies.

page 180 note 1 Built by Yūsuf Wah bī in 1923.

page 180 note 2 Of Greek ownership and used often by visiting Greek companies, but occasionally also by Arabic companies (e.g. in the winter of 1932–3 by Fāṫima Rudī).

page 180 note 3 Used by 'Alī al-Kassār.

page 180 note 4 Under reconstruction.

page 182 note 1 A curiosity of Egyptian dramatic literature is the existence of six opera librettos composed by the versatile and indefatigable Dr. Ahmad Zakī Abā Shādī. These are entitled “Arshīr”, “Az-Zabbā” (Zenobia), “Ihsān”, “Anātūn”, “Bint as-Sahrā'”, “Al-Aliha”. They have been printed, but have not yet found a producer.

page 183 note 1 “The religion of Islam does not permit Muslim women to dance in the presence of men not of their family under any circumstances whatever. … It is a general principle of Islam that the prevention of corrupting influences precedes the bringing of improvement.” ai of al Azhar in the Ahram newspaper, 21st August, 1931.

page 183 note 2 e.g. Al Ahrām, 21st August, 1931 (interview with ai of al Azhar). Al Ahrām, 22nd August, 1931 (interview with Minister of Education). Wādī an Nīl, 28th July, 1931 (suggestion to replace the actors and more particularly the actresses by marionettes).

page 183 note 3 A Committee of foreign professors of literature was formed in 1930 to choose twelve plays suitable for translation into Arabic. The selected plays, when translated, were to be produced by Jūrj Abyad. After the Committee had held several meetings the project seems to have been abandoned.

page 184 note 1 Al Ahrām, 20th January, 1933. Aṡ Ṡbāḥ, 27th January, 1933, p. 20.

page 184 note 2 Aṡ Ṡabāḥ, 5th May, 1933, p. 24.

page 184 note 3 Rīhānī's Company were not given a share as, being abroad, they were held to have escaped the observation of the Government.

page 185 note 1 Aṡ Ṡabāḥ, 31st March, 1933.

page 187 note 1 e.g. “al Wuhū” by Mahmūd Kāmil. See “al Jāmi'a”, 11th May, 1933, p. 4.