The birth anniversary of Egypt’s late pioneering vernacular poet Abdel-Rahman Al-Abnudi (11 April 1938-21 April 2015) was warmly celebrated at the Opera House last week. Commanding a full house at the Small Theatre, the two-hour event was part of City Spirits, a series of seminars organised and presented by journalist and Cairo Is My Address project founder Mahmoud Al-Tamimi. The series, which opened in 2022 and featured evenings on Sayed Mekkawi and Omm Kaltoum, focuses on deceased writers whose spirit still enriches and inspires.
“I like to celebrate our pioneers’ birth anniversaries as I strongly believe that they have not departed this world. Their kind spirits are still alive and continue to inspire new generations,” Al-Tamimi said. In December 2023, Al-Abnudi was the subject of another episode of the same project in which Al-Tamimi analysed his poetry. The City Spirits seminar focused on social and cultural factors as well as figures that went into Al-Abnudi’s formation. “It is important to dig into the cultural and social environment at the beginning of the 20th century in Upper Egypt, where he was born.”
One remarkable aspect of Al-Abnudi’s legacy discussed during the evening is his journey across Upper Egypt to collect of vernacular versions Siat Bani Hilal, an epic sung by bards like the great Jabir Abu Hussein—whose version of the epic Al-Abnudi recorded—all across the region. Al-Abnudi embarked on this project when the legendary singer Abdel-Halim Hafez, for whom he wrote some songs, gave him a sound recorder as a gift. He went as far as Tunisia and Morocco seeking out bards. Al-Tamimi’s talk was interspersed with a beautiful musical performance by rababa player Safa Hilal performing parts of the epic.
Al-Tamimi also reviewed the history of Upper Egypt in the 19th century, highlighting the role played by it’s courageous citizens fighting ferocious battles against the French Campaign in Jirja, Juhayna, Sohaj and elsewhere in 1799.
Al-Tamimi recommended the book The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, originally published in 1927 by British Orientalist Winifred Blackman. Blackman, who had lived in Upper Egypt for a long time researching the region’s unique culture, focused on popular moulids or saints’ anniversary celebrations, the principal site of mystical practice in the region.
A documentary on social life in Luxor in 1925 was screened, as well as clips from the movie Shafi’a wa Metwaly, a traditional story of star-crossed love that highlights the tragedy of conscription in the 19th century. As a mawwal, or ballad, the story influenced the young Al-Abnudi when he heard Ahmed Hassan Hefny perform it. This version was also played perhaps, as Al-Tamimi proudly noted, for the first time ever at the Opera House. Over one million Egyptians fought for the British against their will in World War I, the subject of another famous song, Ya Aziz Eini (O you who are dear to my eye), written by Youssef Al-Qadi and composed by Sayed Darwish.
Born in the village of Abnud in Qena governorate, Al-Abnudi moved to Cairo in early 1960 to work as a song writer. His poetry collections include five volumes of Sirat Bani Hilal, Death on the Asphalt, The Permitted and the Prohibited, and The Bell’s Silence. He wrote the lyrics to songs by Hafez, Mohamed Mounir, Sabah and many others. “The 1960s were the years of cultural formation for Egypt’s great vernacular poets,” Al-Tamimi says: “Al-Abnudi, Fouad Hadsad and Salah Jahin. The decade also coincided with the rise of nationalism under the late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, whose socialist policies took the side of the fellahin.”
Al-Abnudi was not a Nasserist, but three decades after Nasser’s death, in 2011, he wrote a remarkable elegy for the leader. The seminar featured a video recording by Aya Al-Abnudi, the poet’s daughter, reciting one of her father’s popular poems as well as live recitations by the young actor Ahmed Maged.
Lebanese conductor Saleem Sahab, who was a close friend of Al-Abnudi’s, gave a short speech recalling touring the country with him. “In my humble opinion,” Sahab said, “Alabnoudy’s choice to write in the vernacular, not classical Arabic, reflects his strong belief in and loyalty to popular Egyptian culture and it’s rich roots.” He also mentioned the strong link between Al-Abnudi and the great composer Baligh Hamdi: “Most of Al-Abnudi’s popular songs were composed by Hamdy, which reflects the fact that they share the same cultural values and nationalist spirit.”
Al-Tamimi also shed light on Al-Abnudi’s great respect and passion for the women of Upper Egypt, illustrating his unique relationship with his mother Fatma Kandeel, whom he considered his mentor and main source for inspiration: “Actually the influence of Upper Egyptian cultural heritage started earlier, at the age of five, when Abdel-Rahman used to listen to his mother performing traditional songs and ‘adeed, lamentations, which is in fact a continuation of ancient Egyptian funerary rites.” An original video recording of a poem about his mother by Al-Abnudi was screened.
Cairo Is My Address/City Spirits was chosen by the Ministry of Culture to represent it at the upcoming Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on the 29 April. The talk will be on the Egyptian diva Omm Kalthoum.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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