U is for...Unbelievable...and...Universities

is for

Diva no. 1 Unbelievable Umm Kulthum. And if you are an Arab and a Fairouz fan reading this, hang on before you strangle me, I am a Fairouz fan myself.  Speaking only chronologically, Umm Kulthum was born at least 30 years before Fairouz and the first megastar to rock the whole of the Arab world, therefore no. 1. Most Arabs I've come across are conflicted about these two top singers - Fairouz and Umm Kulthum, who is more important or more adored.

Umm Kulthum was an Egyptian singer, composer and film star. Her date of birth is uncertain, end of 19^th century or beginning of 20^th but she was the definitive 20^th century phenomenon in Arab music. Her voice was legendary, her technical skills utterly flawless, her concerts, broadcast on the radio from Cairo on the first Thursday of every month, brought entire cities to a standstill as people left everything else and tuned in. And her audiences stayed riveted for hours – she sang only a few songs, two or three, in a concert lasting typically for as many hours. Epic!

It’s rather difficult to translate ‘tarab’ from Arabic to English, the dictionary calls it rapture, ecstasy, and leaves it at that. Whatever 'tarab' might translate to, Umm Kulthum was capable of delivering it and held her audiences totally spellbound. When she died in 1975, millions of people poured into the streets in spontaneous mourning and waited for her cortege.  Her records continue to sell in the millions even today, more than forty years after her death.

Here is a short clip from one of her performances illustrating her hold over her audience:

And one of her very famous hour-long songs to bookmark for later, if you want to explore further:

Universities

The oldest, continuously operational universities are in the Arablands.  The first is the Karaouine University, in Fez, Morocco, established by a lady called Fatima al-Fihri in 859 CE.  The other is Al-Azhar University in Cairo, established in 970-972 CE by the Fatimid Caliphs.  These were both complexes which included large libraries along with mosques, where scholars gathered to discuss various issues.

Al Azhar Mosque on Al Azhar Street.  The start of the university. The
current campus has moved to a different location in New Cairo.

Al Azhar in particular remains the highest religious authority for Sunni Islam, and it has several thousand schools in Egypt affiliated to it. The attached library is recognised as the second most important collection after the National Library in Egypt. 

The library building at Karaouine has recently been extensively restored, and there’s a lab set up now to treat, moisture-proof, preserve and subsequently digitise the priceless collection of manuscripts.  The architect, another lady of Arab origins - Aziza Chaouni, a Canadian-Moroccan whose grandfather studied at this university, hopes it will become a part of the local residents’ lives.


Ubiquitous

Here is the eight point star, a motif that's present everywhere in Arablands or even Arab influenced lands.  It's made pretty simply, by placing one square over another the same size at half a right angle to each other. It's called Rub al Hizb in Arabic, Rub meaning 'four' or 'quarter' and Hizb meaning 'group.' The symbol existed before the advent of Islam, it was absorbed and made-over by the Arabs into an Islamic one.

The eight-point star on a lantern. Cairo, Egypt.

The eight-point star in the logo for the Metro. Maadi, Cairo.

The eight-pointer in a Moorish mosaic. Seville, Spain.

The central motif in a fountain basin in marble.
Wikala al Ghouri, 16th century, Islamic Cairo.

The 8-pointer etched on glass shutters of the main entrance
to the Beit al Quran (House of Quran) Museum. Bahrain.

The 8-point star motif in the floor of a prominent public building in
Mumbai, India. The cultural exchange between Arabs and India has
been deep and long standing, predating Islam by centuries, even
millennia.

The simple combination of two squares becoming the start of the most complex circular, radiating designs. The passion for stars translated into a pivotal motif present everywhere.  The Arabs have this unique talent for taking very simple lines and fashioning from them some amazingly sophisticated designs. Neat or what? 

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2017 

F is for...Fairouz, the gem...and...Films...

is for

Fursa sa'eeda!

- literally 'happy chance' generally used for 'nice meeting you!' And it is - nice meeting you, in whichever language I say it. The A-Z is great for meeting new bloggers and also reconnecting with old friends. Fursa sa'eeda, folks! all who stop by here.

Fairouz!

an absolute icon in the Arab world, beloved across the nations, Fairouz is from Lebanon - here she's performing live at Las Vegas  

Fairouz Live in Las Vegas - A Hadir el Bosta from Arab America on Vimeo.

Or listen to her sing this golden oldie love song, she's in top form, voice like a cross between velvet and chocolate, ooh! Fairouz means turquoise in Arabic, incidentally...

Films

Because Saudi Arabia does not much dig cinemas, (they banned theatres in the 1980’s there) - therefore, many people have the impression that Arabs are cinephobes. Not so, folks! Arabs are avid consumers of films, they love screen entertainment - the cinemas I’ve been to in Cairo, Dubai and Bahrain run to packed houses regularly. 

But much of the demand for films/entertainment here is met by foreign films. For every screen showing an Arabic film, I’ve noticed another 4-5 English ones. Arabs just don't make many films.

This has puzzled me no end, because they are a super-creative, effusive and expressive people, uber-passionate about art, and with a huge tradition in visual/performing arts and storytelling. Why then, does that not translate to a similar interest, profusion and perfection in moving pictures?

Egypt is the only Arab country where film-making has been consistent for any length of time, but even there the so-called ‘golden age’ is past. More than three quarters of all Arab films ever produced are Egyptian, the total archive of all Arab films is possibly less than 4000. I find this beyond perplexing! (You have to make allowance for me of course, because I come from a culture that makes roughly 800 Bollywood films a year, apart from the very robust numbers of regional language films in Bengali, Tamil, Telegu, etc, so my perspectives are coloured by this)

I’ve been told it has to do with the religious taboo on images, but I don’t really buy that.  That should apply equally to still photographs, and it clearly doesn’t. (Arab work on still photography is as mind boggling as their work anywhere else, believe me!)

Some tell me film-making has suffered from too much regulation, poor funding, inconsistent flip-flops in policies and a lack of distribution. That politics have muscled into studios and thwarted artistic freedom. 

Ennyhoo, be that as it may, this has meant my exposure to Arabic films is more limited than I’d have liked. My initial viewings were basically on the long bus rides from Cairo to Sharm or the Red Sea – usually a film was screened for passenger entertainment. Remarkably similar to the Bollywood formula type was my takeaway – melodramatic, caricature-like characters, loud acting, predictable HEA plotlines, little nuance anywhere.  Not impressed, and more and more baffled. 

Subsequently however, I came across films of independent filmmakers. And some made for exceptionally rich viewing.  

Watch this prize winning short:

or this one which has found its way to the Cannes Festival -

or read about the 10 best Arab films ever, presented there. Click here to read about trail blazing Arab film directors and their acclaimed work. 

Did you know Arabs are fans of a whole swathe of dubbed/subtitled TV entertainment from America, and Turkey? Also films from India? Some of them actually learn Hindi by watching the films and speak it almost fluently!

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2017