Arabic Language Blog

     Google celebrated the 121^st birthday of Mamoud Mukhtar مـحـــمـــــود مــخــتــــــار last Thursday.  Mukhtar was one of the few leading Egyptian sculptors نــَــحــَّــاتــيـــن . He is the maker of the famous Nahdit Misr Statue تــِــمــثــــال نــهــضــــة مِـصـــر (Egypt’s Renaissance Sculpture) and has a museum named after him in Cairo that exhibits his numerous works. His museum مــُــتــحــَــف is a very important destination to all students of arts and sculptures. The museum is also a witness شــَــاهــِــــدto a very important political and historical period ofEgypt’s history. Mukhtar is regarded as the father of the Modern Egyptian Sculpture. His works are distinguished for their realism as they reflect the everyday life or ordinary people in the countryside where he

Nahdat Misr Sculpture

grew up. 

      Mukhtar was born on May 10^th 1891 in a small village in Mahalla, Egypt. His father was the Mayor of the village. Mukhtar lived with his grandmother and used to spend most of his time by the canal playing with mud and clay, shaping and making sculptures تــمــاثــيـــــل of the environment around him. Mukhtar moved to live in Cairo in 1902. When he was seventeen, he joined the newly-opened School of Fine Arts مــَــدرســَـــة الــفــُـــنــُـــون الــجــمــيــــلــة . The foreign teachers discovered and admired his talent مــَــوْهــِـــبــَـــــة , so they set a special place for him to practise his art of sculpturing. The patron راعــِــــىof the school;

Al-Khamasin Winds

Prince Youssef Kamal sent Mukhtar on a scholarship toParis to finish his studies.

      Mukhtar lived a life full of success and struggle to put the sculpture craft in a high position in a society that looks at sculptures as an extension اِمــْـــتــِـــــدَاد of paganism الــوَثـــَـــنـــِـــيـــَّـــــة and idolatry عــِـــبـــَــــادَة الأصـــنـــْــــــام . Mukhtar dedicated his talent to serve the patriotic movement in his country at the time. His works reflected the political and social stage when he lived; the renaissance stage, especially at the time of the 1919 Revolution. His art got all the praise ثــنـــَـــاء and

Farmer Women carrying water home

respect إِحـــتـــِـــرَام of the French artists and critics. He also got an enthusiastic support تـــأيــيـــــد from the Egyptian people.

     Mukhtar was the first Egyptian to exhibit an artistic work in an international exhibition مــَــعــْـــرَض دَولــِـــى in Paris. He was the first Egyptian artist to win an award جــَـــائـــِــــزَة from a Parisian Salon when he got the gold medal from the French Artists Annual Exihibiton that is set in the Grand Palais for a small model of the sculpture of Nahdit Misr. A bigger copy was made and set in the biggest square of Cairo. He got another award from the Parisian Salon Exihibition in 1925 for a sculpture of Om Kolthoum أم كلثوم. He was also the first Arab artist to have a sculpture exihibition of his own in Paris in 1930. He was also the

Ibn Al-Balad

 first Arab artist to be welcomed by demonstrations in Alexandria after his return from Europe. His sculpture of the Egyptian leader زعــِــيـــــم ; Saad Zaghloul is still a landmark عــَــلامــَـــة بــَـــارِزة of Alexandria.

      Mukhtar died on March 27, 1934 and in spite of his short life, he left a great and distinguished collection of sculptures. He managed to express his culture ثـــَــــقــــَــــافــــَـــــة and background خـــَـــلْــــفـــِـــيـــّــــة by his special style. He revived the Egyptian artistic traditions تــَــقـــَـــالــِـــيـــد  in all ages and did not forget the modern art experiences. He was and still an honrable figure in the history of the modern Egyptian art. That is why the government built a museum for him and his works and did great efforts to restore his works from France.

The Cheese Seller

The Farmer

 

Farmer Woman

Sadness

*****

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Peace  ســَـــلام /Salam/

Regardless of their various walks of life, Arab people enjoy very much living life, and as a rule of thumb embrace it to the fullest.

Do you perhaps know an Arab person from your own entourage?

Chances are, he or she is a bon vivant(e), as the French put it. If not, then you can be certain that he or she is just حــــــالة استثنـــائيــــــــــة, an exception to the rule!

زهــــــــرة الحيـــــــــــاة (The Flower of Life) is a symbol common to many ancient civilizations of the world. The oldest artifact depicting it belongs to the Assyrians, whose capital was آشور‎ (spelled "Assur" in English), in northern Iraq

Now, having made that explicitly clear, to simply make the statement “Arabic people love life” would in fact be only telling half of the story.

How so?

Whether they are adherents to the Muslim faith, or even Christian faithfuls, Arabs usually agree on the wisdom reflected in the following maxim:

 اعمــــــل لدنيـــــــــــاك كأنَّك تعيــــــــــش أبــــدا »

« واعمـــــــــل للآخـــــــــــــرة كأنَّك تمــــــــوت غـــــدا

Meaning:

« Work for your life as if you were to live forever,

and work for your hereafter as if you were to die tomorrow »

If anyone is genuinely interested in understanding the mind and soul of people of Eastern cultures, grasp what guides them and what profoundly motivates them overall, then they will have to understand this مُعتقــــــد أساســــــي (fundamental tenet)—even if they don’t personally share it with them!

Of course, not everyone in الغرب (the West) perceives death as a محظـــــــور (taboo) subject, nor has it always been the case.

Renown Western playwrights and philosophers such as Shakespeare, Leibniz, Schiller, and others like Lord Byron, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, followed later by Sartre and Baudrillard  (to mention only those few) have long pondered over the subject of death. Each in their own manner, of course.

William Shakespeare, the author of “Othello” (a possible English transcription of the Arabic name “عُطيـــــــــل”), was a Rosicrucian whose name is believed by several authors to be a mere pseudonym. Some even suggest the “Empiricist” philosopher Francis Bacon as a potential candidate, whereas in fact the two men were deadly rivals in the English court of King James I.
The Arabic name “Sheikh Zoubir” is only one of such “nomen mysticum” put forth to “unmask” Shakespeare’s real identity—long before Libya’s ex-dictator would famously popularize the so-called “myth” of “الشيـــخ زوبيــــــر.”

Speaking of death in “Macbeth”, Shakespeare wrote:

« Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow »

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5, Lines 19-24

However, one wonders, why is it that today, in general, the subject of “life coming to an end” tends to be shelved alongside the most sensitive -or “touchy”, if you will- of all topics in modern and post-modern Western culture, whereas that is far from being the case in Arab culture?

In one of the “Yahoo! Answers” provided to the question “Why death is such a taboo“, one Internet user (facetiously) goes:

“People are extremely uncomfortable with the fact that one day, they will eventually die, pass away, conk, croak, decease, depart, drop off, expire, breath their last, kick the bucket, buy the farm, move on to greener pastures, go way of all flesh, relinquish life, shuffle off their mortal coils, meet their makers, and bite the dust.”

And another one (soberly) explains that:

“Death scares us. Period. It is the end of pleasure, the end of family, the end of learning, the end of absolutely everything, and as most people grow fond of living throughout their lives, they grow equally horrified by the prospect of losing it all.
This fear is, of course, amplified by the fact that death is such a grave unknown. We don’t exactly know what we’re bound for when we depart.”

That pretty much sums up the answer to the first part of our question.

As for the second part, to understand the other perspective, namely why death is not treated as a taboo in Arabic culture, the key answer is precisely because death is not seen there as “ذلك المجهــــــــول الكبيـــــــر” (“that big unknown.”)

Speaking about it is neither “depressing” nor “overly scary.”

Instead of being perceived as نهاية كل شيء (“the end of everything”), it is on the contrary regarded as the beginning of another phase.

It is seen as the beginning of yet another life.

The term “الحيـــــــــاة الدُّنيـــــــــــا“, “this life”, “earthly life”, conveys the idea of being “lower” -as in the word “أدنى“- than “الحيـــــــــاة الآخـــــرة“, “the last life”, “the everlasting life”, or simply the “hereafter.”

Indeed, the trilateral Arabic root اخـــر can either designate the concept of “otherness” or that of “finality.”)

These two sorts of lives are both considered as important in Arabic culture, with the latter complementing the former, giving it both معنـــــــى (significance) and long-term غـــــرض (purpose.)

It is a culture which holds الدِّيـــــــــــن (religion) as its guiding principle, as well as its defining essence.

   We have already read about Labor Day عيد العمال  but how did you do on its quiz ? Did you answer all the questions correctly ? Ok, today, I will present the answers to the Labor Day Quiz for you all to check your answers. To view the questions, go back to the quiz.

1) The Egyptians celebrate “Labor Day”  on May 1^st every year.

يــحــتــفــــل الــمــصـــريـــــون بـــعــيــــد الـــعــُــمــــّــــال فــى الأول مــن مــايــــو كــل عـــَـــام

2) Americans celebrate “Labor Day” on the first Monday in September.   

يــحــتـــفـــــل الأمـــريــكـــيــــون بــعـــيــــد الــعـــُــمــّـــال فــى الإثــنــيــــن الأول مــن شــهـــر ســبــتــمــبــــر

3) The slogan that the Chicago workers lifted up was; “Eight hours to work, eight hours to rest, eight hours to sleep.”

الــشـِـعـَــار الـذى كـان يـرفـعــه الـعــُـمــّــال فـى شـيـكــاغـو هو ” ثـمــان ســاعــات لـلــعــمــل , ثــمـــان ســاعــــات لـلــراحـــة و ثــمـــان ســاعــــات لـلــنــــوم

4) The American Labor Union Movement called for the first workers’ strike on May 1^st 1886 .

  الـذى دعـا لإضـراب الـعــُـمـّــال فـى الأول مـِـن مـايـو 1886 كـانــت هـى حـركـة إتـحــاد الـعـُـمــّـال الأمــريـكــي

5) Labor Day is celebrated by organizing street demonstrations and marches.

يــتــم الإحــتـفـــال بـــعـــيـــد الـــعـــُـمــّــال عــن طــريــق تــنــظــيــم الـمــُــظــاهــرات و الـمـسـيــرات فـى الـشــوارع

6) answer between brackets اخـتــر الإجـابـة الــصـحـيـحـة مـِـن بـيـن الأقــواس 

    a- Labor Day is an ( annual) vacation.

عــِــيــــدُ الــعـــُــمــّـــالِ هـــُــو عـــُــطــلــــة ……… (  ســنــويــّـــة 

   b- The U.S. Congress designated May 1^st as ( Loyalty ) Day.

                    اِعـتـبــرَ الـكـونـجــرس الأمـريـكـى الـيـوم الأول مـِـن مايـو هــو يـوم ….. ( الـوفـاء

   c- The person who said “Without labor, nothing prospers” is … ( Sophocles )

الـشـخــص الـذى قـال عــبــَـارة : ” لا شــيءَ يـنـجــح بــدون الــعــَـمـــل” هــُــو ….. ( سـوفــوكــلــيـــس

7) Translate the following sentence into Arabic: ترجـِم العـبـارة الـتـالـيـة إلى اللغــة العـربـيــة  

“The  Egyptian workers have made great efforts in the construction of the Suez Canal and the High Dam and had a long history of struggle for better conditions.”  

لـقــد بـذل الــعــُــمــّـــالُ الــمــصـــريــون جــُــهــُــوداً عــظــيــمـــة فــى بــنـــاءِ قــنـــاة الــســُــويــس و الــســــدِّ الــعــالـــى ، كــمـــا كـــان لــهــم كــِــفـــَـــاحٌ طــويــلٌ  مــِــن أجــْــلِ أحـــوالٍ أفــضـــــل

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Peace  ســلام /Salam/