Abbas el-Akkad

Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad (Arabic: عباس محمود العقاد‎ ‘Abbās Maḥmūd al-‘Aqqād; June 28, 1889–March 12, 1964) was an Egyptian writer.

Biography

Al-Aqqad was born in Aswan, a city in Upper Egypt, in 1889. He received little formal education, completing only his elementary education. Unlike his schoolmates, he spent all his weekly allowance on books. He read about religion, geography, history and many other subjects. He was known for his excellent English and French.

He wrote more than 100 books about philosophy, religion, and poetry. He founded a poetry school with Ibrahim Al-Mazny and Abdel Rahman Shokry called Al-Diwan. He died in 1964 in Cairo. His most famous works were al-'Abkariat, Allah, and Sarah. Some of his books were translated into English. Al-Aqqad was known for his use of flowery and complicated prose.

Romantic Relationships

Al-Aqqad experienced two major romantic relationships in his life. The first was with a Christian Lebanese lady, whom he called "Sarah" in his novel of the same name. The second was with the famous Egyptian actress Madiha Yusri. This relationship was ended by al-Aqqad himself, because of Yusri's career as an actress. Al-Aqqad wrote a poetry work about this relationship called Cyclones of a Sunset (A-Asiru Maghrib in Arabic).

It was reported by prolific Egyptian author Anis Mansour and various other attendees of Al-Aqqad's famous 'lounge' that he kept a painting in his bedroom that displayed a beautiful cake with cockroaches crawling over it. Supposedly, Al-Aqqad kept this in his room as 'the first thing he looked at in the morning and the last thing he saw in the evening'. It symbolized beauty and purity (the cake) that is wasted to the glamor of spotlights (the cockroaches) as was the case (as he perceived) with actress Madiha Yusri.

Death

Al Aqqad died in the early morning of March 13, 1964. His corpse was transported by train to his hometown Aswan in southern Upper Egypt, where it was buried the same day.

In the early 1980s, an Egyptian television series was produced about the life of al-Aqqad, which was titled The Giant (Al Imlaq in Arabic). It starred the late Egyptian actor Mahmud Mursi.