It was a sunny August day in 1974, when I was hopping from one orange taxi to another, to take the turn of the Alexandria beach (in the cosmopolitan area) headed from Camp Chezar— not to be confused with Shiraz! I finally stepped on the steps of the Petro Greek casino and restaurant in Sidi Bishr station, after a painstaking search.
I was panicking with ecstasy! My soul was overwhelmed with youthful dreams, going over the days when I hungrily read his works.
I am talking about none other than Tawfiq Al-Hakim —known by all— the brilliant literary star, who enchanted my body and soul.
History
It was a time when most of Europe’s political, intellectual, literary, and artistic currents had headed to Egypt, between the two world wars. Europe’s intellectuals and poets had raised questions of identity in search of a foothold, in the context of a new social and cultural composition. Egypt went through a lot, from the Mamluks and Ottomans to the surprise of Napoleon’s 1798 invasion, introducing the printing press machine along with scholars and scientists, who documented this invasion for the French campaign in the book Description of Egypt. As an implication, the dramatic theater movement made a grand appearance within the artistic worlds of Cairo’s Mohamed Ali Street with the Awlad Okasha band, along with singers and composers such as Sheikh Salama Hegazi and Sayed Darwish.
This is what drew the young Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s attention to the artistic field, through his father, who was a philosopher, lawyer, and a friend of Ahmed Lutfi El Sayyid who was titled as the “Professor of the Generation”. He wanted him to follow in his footsteps and enter the field of law. But after he was appointed as a deputy official in the Egyptian countryside, Tawfiq felt a sense of nostalgia and longing towards Mohamed Ali Street in Cairo and the captivating artistic world it encompasses. His father then sent him to Paris to further pursue law, where he would complete his Doctorate’s degree before establishing —along with Taha Hussein— the Egyptian University (renamed Cairo University) that had Lutfi El Sayyid as its first president.
It is there that the “Bird from the East” started singing outside of the flock, discovering the importance of theatre in building European nations and educating their generations, thus garnering the title of “Father of Arts” in the Arab world. Tawfiq’s French friend, Andre, persuades him to study classical texts and their Greek sources, and to intensively study what the French theatre pioneers wrote during the Renaissance.
That could be the reason that made Tawfiq Al-Hakim turn to the Islamic mythology contained in the Holy Quran, from which he drew inspiration for his play Ahl Al-Kahf (The People of the Cave) alongside the Arabian Folklore One Thousand and One Nights, from which he drew inspiration for his play Shahrazad. This play was his ‘wife’ that he got attached to when he conceived its idea amidst Cairo’s parks and clubs, dragging her to the respectable world of theatre and literature — where he wished ‘she’ would stay, only for her to leave him for the spotlights in the theatres of Cairo, Beirut, and Paris, leaving him behind. In 1993 he did not attend the premiere of his play Ahl Al-Kahf, in which he addressed issues related to man and time, similar to the themes discussed in Surat Al Kahaf in the Quran, as he expected it to be a public failure. Taha Hussein believed that this was the play that put Egyptian theatre on the map. He made this statement whilst secretly working on a French article about Tawfiq Al-Hakim in 1938, which was only translated into Arabic in Al-Hilal magazine in its September 1987 issue. In it, he described Tawfik as a young philosopher, despite his appearance and speech that do not reflect that impression; as if two men were combined inside one man, sometimes he would appear naïve and innocent, and other times a seasoned intellectual man of complexity, hidden from the eyes of others.
He was an anxious person, or as he puts it in his autobiographical essay The Prison of Life, he describes himself as “a prisoner in what I have inherited, free in what I have acquired.” So … does the psychological interpretation uncover the mystery of his troubled personality? This is especially important considering that he came from a family of two people contradictory in both emotions and behavior: His father, Ismael Al-Hakim, was a quiet-natured man that loved goodness and contemplation, overflowing with kindness for his children and wife, to the extent that he disregarded the stereotypical preferences of middle eastern men for his wife, who had Persian, Turkish and Greek origins. His wife was a sharp-natured woman with a tempter, she would pick out the finest food, only to eat it in her room, away from the children, and if one of them glanced at her food, she would snap at them! She would go as far as to push her six-year-old son to the ground as soon as he would touch the elegant dress she prepared to wear at a social outing. This was the sort of behavior that caused a deep and long-lasting psychological wound, which Tawfiq Al-Hakim did not forget about even in his eighties.
This is why Taha Hussein, as he analyzed his psyche in his French article, referred to him as “a peaceful reassuring man, unable to engage in lengthy arguments, while the other part of him is a brave fighter who tackles the most difficult issues, contemplating ideas with ease.”
At that time in the beginning of the twentieth century, while Tawfiq Al-Hakim was stepping towards boyhood and young adulthood, the Arab world was waking up to new rising issues, no matter how hard authorities tried to fight the minds of youth. The intellectuals of education, literature, and politics in parts of the Arab world tried to enter the battles of the confusing century by establishing a nationalist project; after the fall of the Ottoman rule in Egypt, the French and British fought for domination, but their power in the Arab middle east began to crumble. However, in the period between the two world wars, neocolonialism began to fill the voids it left, which prompted Arab academics in Egypt, the Levant, and Iraq to draw up critical intellectual projects and campaigns, trying to free the minds of their societies from ignorance and underdevelopment. However, they were affected by what was circulated before them by Renaissance intellectuals in these countries, ranging from the duality of religion and nationalism, heritage and modernity, colonialism, and national liberation. In a state of uncertainty, shifting between the ‘stillness’ of holding onto the past and ‘moving’ forward with the new prospects of life, that was reflected in the thoughts of the academics and the experiences of the creatives at the time, Tawfiq Al-Hakim felt compelled to formulate his intellectual project in his booklet Al Ta’aduliyya after his social formation and literary experience clashed with the cultural achievement that dazzled him while studying in Paris.
This occurred during a time when the revival project in Egypt and the Levant was undergoing significant changes. It was moving away from the ‘revolutionary’ ideas of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and surpassing the ‘rationality’ of Sheikh Muhammad Abdo. Instead, it was leaning toward the ‘Salafism’ of Rashid Redha and witnessing the emergence of Hassan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood, who sought to break free from the constraints imposed by Al-Manar, which limited their rational thought. This shift is evident in the restrictions placed on enlightened views in the work of Professor Imam.
Following this, Taha Hussein triumphed over Rashid Redha’s Salafism with works such as “On the Sidelines of the Biography” and “The Great Sedition”. Similarly, Abbas Mahmoud Akkad contributed with “Islamic Geniuses”, while Ahmed Amin documented the history of Arab and Islamic civilization in his renowned encyclopedia. Additionally, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, through his selection of the Quranic commentary by Al-Qurtubi and his examination of the Prophet’s hadiths, presented a critical book on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), showcasing his enlightened thoughts and opinions.
His motive, along with his colleagues, was to strengthen the Arab and Islamic identity in Egyptian society, rebelling against British colonialism and the ignorance left by the rule of the Mamluks and the Ottoman Empire.
Thus, after the 1919 revolution, we found Tawfiq Al-Hakim writing his first drama about the British occupation under the title Al Dhaif Al Thaqeel (The Unwanted Guest). It referred to the unwanted guests on Egyptian land that established themselves without an invitation from the native. He was preoccupied, same as the rest of all intellectuals, writers, and artists, with the paradox of the backwardness of his society against the progress of its colonizers! This prompted him to write the novel Diary of a Country Prosecutor (Maze of Justice), which Denys Johnson-Davies described as “darker than all the writings of Russia’s Gogol and Britain’s Dickens. This is because the life of Egyptian peasants was darker than that of the 19th century Russian serfs, or the English poor, and it must be said that the early readers of Gogol and Dickens were unwilling to look at the unwanted truths with the same honesty that Al-Hakim expected from his readers.”
This was the same Johnson-Davies that lived a large portion of his childhood in Egypt, and after studying Arabic at the University of Cambridge, Britain, translated the works of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Naguib Mahfouz, and other Arab novelists. He talks about his age-old relationship with Tawfiq Al-Hakim by saying that he was the first person he contacted as soon as he landed in Cairo from Britain after the end of WWII. He states that he had read a lot of his writings, and had strong feelings regarding Diary of a Country Prosecutor (Maze of Justice), as he believed that it needed to be translated into English, but when he asked for permission to translate it, Al-Hakim regretfully told him that he should’ve spoken at least a month ago, because someone had in the meantime made a similar request, and it was none other than Abba Eban, who preceded him in studying the Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Cambridge by about two or three years. His wonderful translation turned Tawfiq Al-Hakim into a prominent figure in Menachem Begin’s government after the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, then a minister without portfolio in 1959, holding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel between 1966 and 1974.
Did this early communication between Abba Eban and Tawfiq Al-Hakim have an impact on Al-Hakim’s future? After he denounced Gamal Abdel Nasser, even after enjoying his support ever since (the Lieutenant Colonel) Abdel Nasser found himself in the character of Mohsen, the protagonist of Al-Hakim’s novel The Return of the Spirit, at a time when everyone was looking for a national hero after the 1919 revolution and the exile of its leader Sa’ad Zaghloul outside Egypt, a symbolic hero that combines the spirits of all Egyptians!
This is what I was able to gather, from the crumbs left on the seats of those circling around Tawfiq Al-Hakim in his daily seminar, lining the Mediterranean beach of Alexandria at Petro Casino.
***
There I stood, descending the steps of the casino, and my knowledge about the history of Tawfiq Al-Hakim and his life flashed in my mind while I searched for him.
At the last steps, I found several waiters, but I did not ask for directions and immediately turned to the right, heading to the opposite end of the restaurant, and there I found him, stealing glances as his figure was becoming clearer in my sight. He was nearing his eighties, and he looked like the photographs. On his head was the beret he wore ever since he was in Paris, while his hand held onto the cane that he depended on ever since he became a government official in Tanta. As I got closer, I saw Tawfiq Al-Hakim, his chin decorated with a white beard that was groomed similarly to the Saudi way.
One step … two steps … three … six … ten … I surprised myself by immediately shooting questions his way.
As if I forgot who the man that stood before me was,
Are you Tawfiq Al-Hakim?
Is this Al-Hakim’s beret?
Is this Al-Hakim’s cane?
At that time, he used to write philosophical articles in his column weekly, in Al Ahram Newspaper. The writer and journalist Abbas Al-Aswany – who was a student of Al-Aqqad, and Alaa Al-Aswany’s father – did not hold back when he found me mesmerized, in my silky Saudi thobe – as he wrote the following week in a lengthy article in Sabah Al Khair (Good Morning) magazine. He asked:
Oh Saudi (referring to me), is this how much you admire Tawfiq Al-Hakim?
I replied:
I admire Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s ‘art.’
Al-Hakim kindly took my hand and seated me besides himself, greeting me warmly before initiating the conversation:
I do not suppose that you are one of the Saudis and Khaleejis that expressed their anger regarding my book The Return of Consciousness?
I replied:
I came here to ask you about Al-Hakim’s Donkey, but since the donkey that you troubled yourself with by buying for 30 Egyptian pounds and kept in your hotel room has died, may I ask about the cane, that is still with you?
I immediately followed by asking:
Where is Naguib Mahfouz?
He answered (with an Egyptian accent): You were late today. Tomorrow, come early, at ten in the morning, and you will see Naguib Mahfouz, Hussein Fawzy, Yusuf Idris, even Abd al-Rahman Sharqawi, and Ihsan Abdel Quddous.
My imagination was set aflame with the mention of those names, and then I noticed a framed poster on the wall by the corner of the café, it was written in clear handwriting, announcing that the management of Petro Casino offered a free daily cup of coffee to the great writer Tawfiq Al-Hakim!
I said:
So, if I come tomorrow, will you offer me a cup of coffee?
He answered me, shattering the image that surrounded him about being a miser:
And breakfast too!
The next morning came, and he greeted me with warm excitement, surrounded by some of the most prominent Egyptian writers and members of the Wafd Party, all donning the Tarboush (Fez hat). He sat me on his left, calling out for the Egyptian novelist of Turkish origins, Tharwat Abaza, to order me breakfast, and insisting that Abaza will be the one to pay the bill, as he was the ‘secretary’ of the Egyptian Writers Union.
And just like that, I consistently attended Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s symposium daily for two months straight, from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon, recording my dialogues with its members, to be published in Al-Riyadh Newspaper. The dialogues in the symposium were mostly a debate between Al-Hakim and members of the leftist Nasserism about the whiplash his book The Return of Consciousness received, which was written as a response to the book written by the Nasserist writer Muhammad Auda, Lost Consciousness. I was a witness to the documentation of other records, which took place between Al-Hakim and the Egyptian left, when Dr. Murad Wehba, the professor of philosophy, along with the editor-in-chief of the leftist magazine Al Talee’ia Lutfi Al Khouli, paid a visit to Al-Hakeem’s office on the sixth floor, asking him to have conversations with their most prominent columnists. Those conversations were published in successive issues in 1978, and they revolved around criticizing him and his consciousness, that they claim to have been absent due to the support he received from Gamal Abdel Nasser! To the extent that he, with exception to all of Egypt’s greatest writers, was awarded with the most noble order of the republic. In their view, his lack of consciousness resulted from being singled out, until he denounced Gamal Abdel Nasser with shots from his linguistic cannon, aimed against his political tyranny, but it was too late! Ultimately, Tawfiq Al-Hakim endorsed and supported the president Anwar El-Sadat, in his surprise visit to Israel in 1977 and when he signed the Camp David Accords in 1978. During that time, Tawfiq Al-Hakim directed harsh insults to Arabs in his famous letter to Anwar El-Sadat, calling them ‘dwarves’.
What shocked me when I hosted him as a guest on my television talk show al-Kalimah taduqqu sāʻah (Words Tick the Clock) in his friend’s office, the graphic artist Salah Taher from Al-Ahram Newspaper, he insisted on what he did. The following guest I was had on my talk show was Dr. Muhammad Abdu Yamani, who was the minister of information at the time, and he requested to come to respond to what Tawfiq Al-Hakim said, confirming the Kingdom’s stance on refusing to visit Jerusalem, before signing the Camp David Accords.
These themes were the main focus of the Arab Baghdad summit after that. My upcoming guest was Dr. Hassan Zaza, the first Egyptian to study Hebrew at the University of Jerusalem, before the Palestinian Nakba and the establishment of the Israeli State in 1948. He then specialized in Semitic, Hebrew, and Jewish literature. He told me that the Tawfiq Al-Hakim episode had been picked up by the Arabic-speaking Israeli radio station, which responded negatively to the wise position of the Kingdom, who, to date, calls for a peace agreement that would require the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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