In today’s post, I am going to tell you about a famous Egyptian figure; Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad عــبــاس مـحــمـــود الـعــقـــاد . Al-Aqqad was a famous writer كــاتــب , novelist روائــي , poet شــاعـــر , journalist  صــحــفــي and  critic نــاقــد .  He was also a member of the Arab Academy الأكــاديــمــيـــة الــعـــربــيـــة .

     Al-Aqqad was born in Aswan أســـوان ; a city in Upper Egypt صــعــيــد مـصــر , in 1889. He had a little formal education تــعــلــيـــم as he completed only his elementary education. He used to spend all his pocket money on books. He used to read about everything; religion الــديــن , geography الــجــغـــرافــيـــا , history الــتـــاريـــخ , and many other subjects. He was also, excellent at English and French.

       Al-Aqqad wrote more than 100 books about philosophy الــفــلــســـفـــة , religion and poetry الــشــعـــر . He founded a poetry school with Ibrahim Al-Mazny and Abdel-Rahman Shokry called Al-Diwan الــديـــوان . His most famous books are Al-Abqariyat الــعــبــقـــريــات , Allah الله and Sarah ســـارة . Some of his books were translated into English, German, French,  Russian, Urdu, and Persian. He was best known for his use of flowery and complicated prose نــثــــر style. He died in 1964 in Cairo.

       Al-Aqqad was honoured by the College of the Arabic Language in Al-Azhar when they gave his name to one of the halls in the college.  Also, his name was given to one of Cairo streets in Nasr City; Abbas Al-Aqqad Street.  In the early 1980s, an Egyptian television series مــســلــســـل was produced about the life of Al-Aqqad, which was titled “The Giant” الــعـــمـــلاق /Al Imlaq/. It starred the late Egyptian actor Mahmoud Mursi مــحــمــود مــرســـى .

      Al-Aqqad experienced two romantic relationships عــلاقـــات that deeply affected his life. The first was with a Christian Lebanese whom he called Sarah in his novel of the same name. The second was with the Egyptian famous actress مــمــثـــلـــة ; Madiha Yousri مــديــحـــه يــســـرى . He himself ended that latter relationship because of Madiha’s career. Al-Aqqad wrote a poetry book about his relationships called Cyclones of a Sunset.

        * Here is a list of some of Al-Aqqad’s works:

–          Al-Abqariyat الــعـــبـــقـــــريـــــات

–          Allah الله

–          Sarah ســــارة

–          The Genius of Muhammad عــبـــقــــريــــة مــحـــمــــد

–          The genius of Abu-Bakr عــبــقـــريـــة أبــى بــكــــر

–          The genius of Omar عــبــقـــريـــة عــمــــر

–          The Genius of Othman عــبــقـــريـــة عــثـــمــــان

–          The genius of Ali عــبــقـــريــــة عــلــىّ

–          The Life of Christ حــيـــاة الــمــســـيــــح

–          Hours among Books ســاعــات بــيـــن الــكــتـــب

–          The Noon Glow وهــج الــظــهـــيــرة (poetry volume)

–          Ghosts of the Afternoon أشــبـــاح الأصــيـــل (poetry volume)

–          Sorrows of the Night أشــجـــان الــلــيــــل (poetry volume)

–          The Strong Hand in Egypt الــيــد الــقـــويـــة فــي مــصـــر

–          The Absolute Rule الــحــكـــم الــمــطـــلـــــق

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Peace  ســــلام /Salam/