Asmahan's secrets: woman, war and song 9780292798076

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Preface (page ix)
Introduction Disentangling the Diva (page 1)
Chapter 1 A Child of Ma'ruf (page 24)
Chapter 2 To Quiet the Nightingale (page 53)
Chapter 3 The Triumph of Youth (page 78)
Chapter 4 Mission of War (page 110)
Chapter 5 Passion and Revenge from Jerusalem to the Road of Death (page 143)
Illustrations
Chapter 6 Asmahan's Musical Legacy (page 167)
Chapter 7 Culture, Politics, and Gender (page 206)
Bibliography (page 223)
Index (page 245)

Citation preview

Asmahan’'s Secrets | Woman, War, and Song

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Asmahan’s Secrets Woman, War, and Song —

by

Sherifa Zuhur ~_

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies

The University of Texas at Austin

Copyright© 2000 by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies The University of Texas at Austin

All rights reserved |

ISBN: 0-292-79807-5 | | | Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 00-133419

Printed in the United States of America |

Cover photograph from the collection of Sherifa Zuhur |

| Book design and layout: Diane Watts | Editor: Annes McCann-Baker

Chapter 6 of the present work appeared in a different version in mages _ of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East. Edited by Sherifa Zuhur. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.

| This book ts dedicated to | | Natasha and Jean-Paul |

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Contents | Preface 1X | Introduction a

— Disentanghng the Diva 1 |

-AChapter | ' | | ; a Child of Ma‘ruf 24 BS Chapter 2 | a | To Quiet the Nightingale 53 a |

Chapter 3 | | / | The Triumph of Youth 78 ' a Chapter 4 7

Chapter 5 |

Mission of War 110 © a | OO

_ Passion and Revenge from Jerusalem to the Road of Death 143

Illustrations (after page 165) _ | |

Chapter 6 BS Asmahan’s Musical Legacy 167 | OO | Chapter 7

: Culture, Politics, and Gender 206 | |

Bibliography 223 |

Index 245 |

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Preface This project has evolved over many years from a short study on Intisar

_ alShabab to an obsession with an elusive historical figure. Portions of Asmahan’s personal history are controversial. The inclusion of certain _ material concerning Asmahan’s life, including controversial details,

| whether written or in oral form, is in the interest of scholarship. My conclusions may run counter to some rumors, popular beliefs, and assertions, and may support previously upheld claims in other instances. Readers should understand that in the review of contradictory accounts

one should apply logic, reason, analogy, and knowledge of wider historical circumstances. I believe a feminist reading of Asmahan’s experi-_

ence is essential to an understanding of her significance. | As for the many possible explanations of Asmahan’s death, I present

readers with a choice of possibilities constructed from existing facts, information, and various arguments. The readers may draw their own conclusions. All allegations referred to herein have been mentioned elsewhere and are not intended to offend, asin the references to honor | killings in the Arab world, which were mirrored in practices elsewhere in the world (in Asia, Latin America, and even in “the West”). These are

relevant to Asmahan’s story. I have not commented on treatments of Asmahan in recent fiction, as these works did not aid my quest as an

historian. |

Transliteration from Arabic has been standardized in the text except for text and endnote references to persons who employ an alter| nate transliteration system, sources that have been published under variant transliterations, and colloquial words in the song lyrics. For this rea- _ son, I refer to certain living members of the al-Attrache family in Syria _ who use the French system of transliteration, but to the writings or re-

: cordings of Farid al-Atrash. As this book is intended for general readers as well as specialists, other common transliterations, e.g., Beirut instead

of Bairut, appear as well. |

- 1X

The research for this volume was funded in part by a Senior Re- | _ search Scholar Award from the Fulbright Regional Program for the

Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia through the Center for International Exchange of Scholars. Thanks to the I. Austin Kelley grant at MIT, Margot Schevill, and Cynthia Nelson for support necessary to prepare and include the photographs in this volume. I want to thank Annes McCann-Baker, Editor at the Center for — Middle Eastern Studies, for her hard work and encouraging words, and to acknowledge Diane Watts, the Center’s artist, for her part in designing and formatting the book. Other acknowledgments are due to individuals at the Public Record Office, the Imperial War Museum in London, the Assad National Library and the French research center in Damascus, and the Ma‘ahad al-Musiga in Zamalak. In the field, a special thanks to the members of the al-Attrache family, especially Munir, Asmahan’s half-brother, Mansur and Abdullah who | gave me a sense of the legacy of Syrian politics, Akram Gatrif for his

photographs of the period, the late Jamil Faqih and Assad al-Attrache

for facilitating, and the late Fahd Ballan. :

Ali Jihad Racy, James Schevill, and the reviewers for the Center for

Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin made valuable suggestions, as have many other patient colleagues, friends, and

musical compadres. :

X|

ae | Introduction | Disentangling the Diva Te singer Asmahan entered my life as awould series say of unplanned inci| dents, a sudfa, or a happy accident as one in Arabic. These events were linked to my interest in music, both Arabic and Western

- music, which had been fostered by attendance at countless rehearsals, | performances, and concerts (thanks to my mother, a singer) and by my —

own sixteen years of nightly employment in entertainment. “You must hear this one,” urged jovial, dimpled Mustafa in his small

~ music shop. Silwani’s Imports on Hollywood Boulevard in the early1970s was similar to its counterparts in the Middle East: cramped, lively and _ filled with audio cassettes, key chains and souvenirs. Men from the Arab-

American community dropped in and drank tea and coffee with the

| owner. Tourists following the trail of stars encased in the Boulevard’s | sidewalks peeked in and muttered, “Cool, man.” I used to visit and browse,

| adding to my small collection of Arabic records and tapes. “Her name was Asmahan,” said Mustafa, loading the cassette deck. I put the cassette away, not playing it until I was on my way to Sweden, and then going from there to Cairo with a friend, entranced with adventure,

seeking and buying certain Arab musical instruments. In the sad early darkness of December in Stockholm, I switched the tape recorder on. Percussion instruments and violins plucked 4 la pizzicato began with a

| tango. The singer’s clear tones descended and rose, emphasizing the | rhythm. Suddenly, the Eastern character of the song became more pro- | nounced, as she began her improvisation (the mawwal) and modulated to another musical mode (maqam). The singer’s diction was precise,and _. she effortlessly executed the wider sliding, trills, and tonal patterns per| formed by eastern Arab singers. The song was “Ya Habibi Ta ‘al al-Haqni,” composed by Madhat Assim. “It sounds so...so old-fashioned. A cartoon

tango but sophisticated,” I told my friend. |

I had made this journey to Cairo after a business trip to Scandinavia _

with a strange companion—it was not clear if he had romance in mind | or simply needed to provide a cover for some shady business deal. After - many years of working in Arab nightclubs, I had encountered some of ~ the shadows of that world. Stil, he and I shared a love for Arabic music. ]

Disentangling the Diva | In Cairo, I felt I had come home. I experienced the oddest sensation of oneness with the city; odd in that I am not a fan of urban jungles. I wandered around the city by myself. Why was it that I knew just where to turn, and when to retrace my path? I wanted to see Muhammad ‘Ali street where the ‘awalim, experienced women instructors of singing and dancing, had held their schools | and entertained clients. That street meandered through an older quarter, where peddlers still sold tambourines and drum skins, Arabic lutes, — and other instruments. There, music and off-color life had flourished in times past. Wandering into. a small music shop, I saw Asmahan’s name on a tape. “That? That’s such old music!” the man exclaimed. “Don’t you want to hear the latest hits? Look here, this one is really something!” But —

I stubbornly bought only old tapes and wandered back out into the

crowded streets. |

Asmahan’s songs sat silently for some time in my bag. I was distracted

by the prospect of hearing Umm Kulthum with her ensemble, but she had fallen ill. Within days, Umm Kulthum died, and mourners throughout the region wept. I bought a memorial book of photographs, listened

to her songs, and was invited to attend a rehearsal of her ensemble. Then, , I listened to the Asmahan tapes. Sounds and words reverberated, having little to do with the bustling feel of contemporary Cairo:

For too long I have said “If only... , My passion overcame me,” | | sang Umm Kulthum.' But there were some interruptions—this was Cairo, after all!

“Beep Beep Bee—eep,” blasted ninety thousand and ninety-nine horns. I am afraid to tell you the state I’m in...

Oh come on, let your desire enter into my imagination,

7 entreated Asmahan.’? | “Ba—ang, bang, bang,” beat the hammers of the auto repairmen on

Champollion Street. : |

Far more in tune with the tempo of the city were the radio waves

2|

blaring the voice of male singing star, Ahmad al-‘Adawiyya. “Zahma, ya dunya, zahma!” (Crowded, the world is crowded), he sang in a near-shout. Listeners couldn’t care less about subtlety, diction, or text—rhythm ruled.

| Disentanghing the Diva As Fahd Ballan put it so many years later, “Could the pretty girls dressed in their tight skirts dance to it?”’ That was the question. We went to hear Fayza Ahmad sing in a nightclub out on the Pyramids Road. She was a star who had been eclipsed by Umm Kulthum’s fame, but who had excellent technique and exciting songs. She was not an Egyptian, but a Syrian, as was Najat al-Saghira. I was repelled by the dyed blonde hair, sprayed into an impossible helmet, and by the way she, like other singers and dancers, acknowledged tips from Gulf fans. “Thanks

a hundred times to our Arab brother from Sa‘udiyya, thanks to our brother from Kuwait,” they acknowledged over the microphone, while waving the bills. Ahmad’s voice and the orchestra were exciting, however, and I resolved matters by closing my eyes and drinking in this mod-

ern wave of song. Asmahan’s name cropped up again in conversation with a master instrument maker, Gaby Tutungi. Tutungi had a small shop in a Coptic area. His nephew was apprenticed to him, as is often the case. Tutungi was missing several fingers of his left hand. He wanted to play for me, and began fingering his violin with the right hand, his bow attached to his left hand with a rubber band. After he played, we listened to Asmahan and to Umm Kulthum, and, after prolonged bargaining, bought a ganun

(a zither) with American dollars. Tutungi murmured something about Asmahan’s vocal technique, but I was again distracted by the picture of

Umm Kulthum playing the qanun hanging in the center of the tiny workshop. That was in 1975. Within a month of my return, my life and work in

Los Angeles was interrupted by violent events both local and Middle Eastern, affecting those I knew and worked for. A move and an introspective hiatus led me to that bourgeois institution, the university—Berkeley first, then UCLA, the American University in Cairo, and a return to UCLA. I supported myself by working in the small family-owned night-

clubs and restaurants of the San Francisco and Los Angeles Middle Eastern communities, with ventures to the East Coast, the Middle East, Texas,

_ . and other points. My interest in music continued alongside other loftier _ subjects of study; Asmahan’s tango took a backseat to the hundreds of

more modern compositions I learned to earn my tuition fees toward | degrees in Arabic language and literature, political science, Islamic studies, and a doctorate in Middle Eastern history. In New York, while writing an MA thesis on Iran, my friend, musician Simon Shaheen taught me Asmahan’s song, “Imta Hata‘raf Imta?” for inclusion in my own nightclub routine. My curiosity about her life returned. Some of my musical acquaintances knew a lot about other 3

Disentangling the Diva musical personalities, but were surprisingly uninformed when it came to Asmahan. I was intrigued by the conflicting images of the artist their comments indicated: “She was so beautiful, a princess,” “A real man-eater,” “My father was in love with her,” “My mother’s chauffeur knew X about

her,” and so on. , Oo

After reading various suggested works, and puzzling over their veracity, Iwas even more intrigued by the disjuncture between historical record

and Asmahan’s popular mystique. Her story was not known to those of my generation, so I decided to write an account in English. I was also convinced that a journey to Asmahan’s territory—her physical and historical territory—would cure my unease with written sources’ lacunae and satisfy my own need for connection with the departed singer. One evening in the Jabal Druze (currently known as the Jabal ‘Arab),

the hilly, or stony, high plain where the Druze of southern Syria live, some eighteen years after I had first listened to Asmahan’s tango, I vis_ ited with Asmahan’s family. I emerged from the al-Atrash family madhafa (guest hall) with its silent stones and walked past the al-Atrash residence built alongside a massive Nabataean pillar. I had listened to the family as they responded to my queries for hours and hours. At times, I had worried that they also were reliant on versions of the written sources, told and retold many times, yet many of their corrections could be checked. I was most interested in contacting individuals in Syria who were old

enough to have known Asmahan. I hoped to confirm or disprove the rumors of her “espionage” during World War II, and that meant speaking to individuals outside her family, as well as those, however distantly related, who had witnessed the period. These included her younger halfbrother, Munir al-Atrash, as well as other relatives from her father’s branch in Suwayda; Mansur, the son of Sultan al-Atrash; the Atrash branch in al-

‘Era; and some other relatives who had been close to Asmahan’s father. I also went to speak to Asmahan’s brother Fu’ad in Cairo, who was quite elderly at the time and has since passed away, as well as individuals who performed with Asmahan and her brother, Farid, who were involved in the cinema industry during her lifetime. By written sources, I mean books and articles (primarily in Arabic) and investigation into the documents held in the Public Record Office in Kew and those belonging to the Quai d’Orsay on the French side.

I continued to track Asmahan, from the stone house of her family in the village of al-‘Era to Damascus, to Jerusalem, and back to Cairo, visit-

ing buildings she had lived in or frequented, trying to gather “the truth” and wondering about the “secrets” she carried to her grave. 4

Disentanghing the Diva

| Recovering Asmahan Oo This book represents an effort to resuscitate the historical figure Asmahan from the interwoven threads of fame, regional relations, and social mores that strove to define her, and thus to re-examine the meaning of her life. I hoped that in so doing, the life and mystique of a transitional female figure would be accessible outside of the Middle East. For many,

the West has focused on the dangers of the Middle East, the threat of holy war and Islamism to “our” oil, supposedly to the spirit of “civilization” itself. Western accounts overlook the culture of the region, demean it, or conflate it into a series of tourist sites of ancient and medieval civilizations. _

_ Aside from the general public’s interest in tourism and terrorism in | the Middle East, the current market in world music finds inspirations in the region, inviting novel experiments in “authentic” sound and culture. Europeans, Americans, and even youthful audiences in urban centers of the Third World listen to bizarre combinations of Middle Eastern folkloric and pop genres with Western rock, pop, and jazz. While raimusic of Algeria is one example of hybrid music developed in recent years, some of this experimentation is older and more rooted in Western tastes. One

may recall the inclusion of the Indian sitar in bands in the 1960s, and choral adaptations of Balkan music entering the American folk music/ folk dance movement. Recent musical syntheses have featured Ameri-

cans and Middle Eastern musicians combining flamenco, and the ‘ud | (the Arabic lute), Moroccan instruments and jazz congas, and so on. ; Music education has been responsive to these trends, and the students of ethnomusicology are encouraged to gain competence in a loosely defined “world-music” to meet the needs of general education programs in music. As the quest for “authentic” sound continues, audiences and afficionados ask, “Who are the natives?” “Is this truly their ‘sound’?” Or sometimes, “Why aren’t they the way we imagined?” Naturally, the process of my investigation led to a questioning of Asmahan’s agency as a performer and as a public figure of her era. My |

colleagues saw my work as being included in the feminist project of recovery and the engendering of history itself. Some scholars have never accepted the validity of these kinds of projects. Even more individuals outside of the academy simply view historical revision as a matter of more

subjective (or more objective) detective work. Perhaps the ideas of Hannah Arendt are relevant here; Seyla Benhabib builds on Arendt’s

work by pointing out that we are all— > |

immersed in “a web of narratives,” of which we are both the author and the object. The self is both the teller of tales and 5

Disentangling the Diva

, that about whom tales are told. The individual with a coherent sense of self identity is the one who succeeds in integrating these tales and perspectives into a meaningful life history.‘

Asmahan told her tales and her critics told “on” her. The tone of their writings tells its own tale, a story about the formation of popular discourse. I write of her and of myself in the writing. Perhaps I may claim some agency for her, posthumously, and also for myself. Agency, according to Benhabib, is achieved through the right balance of autonomy and solidarity, or justice and care. Asmahan may indeed have been able to reach the first of these mixtures, “autonomy and solidarity,” as far as her artistic persona was concerned but not via her personal life history. Even the former degree of agency is problematic, as it was certainly not Asmahan herself who integrated her stories into a “meaningful life history,” but her Arab public, her brothers Fu’ad and

myself. |

Farid, writers concerned with the entertainment industry—and now, The certitude of her narrative, its believability, is not in the end what mattered the most to those who lived with her through very interesting times. Instead, the narration itself verifies her family’s and fans’ conception of status and of honor; a discourse about materialism versus nationalism that begins with her mother’s exodus to Egypt and makes gender a key determinant. What is evident is that Asmahan was a great singer, but to her Arab community, the claims that she was a princess, a spy, a traitor, a national heroine, or an emotional failure could coexist without dilemma. When details could not be recalled with certitude, they were invented,

embellished, and repeated. | The details of her narrative mattered to me—and mattered more

strongly than my post-modernist colleagues thought important. “Let her be a symbol!” Or when I toyed with writing a script, “Let her be a bitch!” (The established formula would sell.) Or more cuttingly, “What may I ask, makes you think that you can discover the historical ‘truth’?” And, “Surely others have tried and failed.” I thought about this for a minute, and realized that some authors had in fact no concern with discovering the historical truth at all. I gleaned some insights from these exchanges. Perhaps the historians’ thirst for accuracy should now be subordinated to the feminists’ aim of creating a succession of active transformative symbols? Perhaps my methodology was too outdated, too “male” for history to speak to those in literature or philosophy? Was it too linked to the modernist approach of “inquiry”? No, I decided. Even the image of Asmahan operating in 6

— Disentanghng the Diva pure self-interest or, worse, in mediocrity would have to be explored, if it

might be true. After focusing for some twenty years on an image the West fears— _ the Islamists(Muslim fundamentalists) and the language of Islamism, I still hope for the broadening and deepening of cultural portraiture. -Communicating the various and shifting currents of Middle Eastern culture is arduous when, as in other aspects of social history, the West assumes it to be static. Yet Asmahan was transitional in a consideration of autonomy, not simply agency. A transitional state implies more than a condition somewhere between Western and Middle Eastern. I was not - concerned so much with defining her identity so that Westerners might _ notice its “difference.” Rather, I saw Asmahan as more than an extension — of her own history. Benhabib also writes, “The situated and gendered subject is heteronomously determined but still strives toward autonomy.” This book concerns the situating and gendering of her life story, and her life story is in turn a part of the process of female and artistic autonomy. In the Middle East, a whole generation has grown up and is unfamil-

iar with the period between the world wars, when many in the Middle East experimented with ideas, dreams and occupations never before attempted in their circles. Students are incredulous when I describe the great changes experienced by women in the region from the 1920s onwards. Some dismiss these pioneering women as elite misfits, or Western-

aping do-gooders. They prefer to believe that Middle Eastern women fall into two categories: poor, barefoot, illiterate peasants, or suppressed, urban, would-be professionals. And as for women in music, well, they have read or heard that music, along with pictorial art is suspect, or forbidden (haram) in the Muslim ethos, and they are convinced. They are therefore unfamiliar with several generations of female performers.

Greatest among them, Umm Kulthum, Asmahan’s one-time rival is the one exception cited or sometimes known to Westerners. Hers was _ the Arab voice of the twentieth century, preserved through technology as earlier talents were not—on records, cassettes, and now CDs. Umm Kulthum was born in Egypt’s delta and learned to recite and sing religious songs from her father. As she had a remarkably strong voice for a — child, she soon became a local attraction to be hired at festivals and weddings. Eventually, she moved with her family to Cairo and embarked upon | a tremendous, professional musical career.®

Umm Kulthum consciously maintained a circumspect profile, emphasizing her modesty and the Arab-Islamic character of the Egyptian

musical tradition. In so doing, she gained public respect as well as 7

Disentanghing the Diva | adulation.’ Part of her success in achieving such an untainted reputation may be due to the fact that she was no longer so very young when the gap

between her and other female competitors appeared. In her youth, in the 1920s and 1930s, her name was linked with quite a few men, including a member of the royal family, yet rumors concerning these liaisons never overshadowed her achievements. Some wondered why she did not marry

until much later in her life (and then to ayounger man).’ In her memoirs |

she de-emphasized her conflicts with her family and her own good business sense,”’ thus contributing to the picture of a great artist whose mores and family values were shared with her people.

Asmahan, on the other hand, was known only in the Middle East and in certain circles in England, and among emigrants. She was described as a glorious voice, a wanton woman, a daredevil, the mistress of many, and a self-destructive force. A scholar, who wrote of women’s par-

ticipation in many areas of public life, said of Asmahan that “lurid rumors” circulated about her.’ Raising eyebrows on the one hand, Asmahan

was simultaneously described to a more limited readership of musical history as a crucial vehicle for contemporary musical development in the Arab world. Perhaps she was even more essential to this process than her rival, the great singer Umm Kulthum. Her life and times, as well as her artistic contributions represent a flux, fusion, and conflict.

It would be logical to perceive of Asmahan as an unconventional Middle Eastern woman, if one were less familiar with the region in the twentieth century. The Hollywood star system, with its morals clauses and control over marriages and liaisons, might have penalized or hidden some

of her antics. Certainly, the denizens of her conservative Syrian Druze town and villages were horrified (thus confirming the West’s view of Middle Eastern gender rules). In Egypt, the new opportunities afforded _ female members of the entertainment industry were not so far out of the range of “normal” female activity as many today would have us believe. Social mores and gender ideology were rigid in the ideal and malleable in practice, as I have tried to show elsewhere.”

| Umm Kulthum, whose career spanned five decades, followed her family’s rules regarding the dress and comportment of a female, first dressing as a boy, and later appearing with her head covered appropriately. However, she also acted outside of the most conservative gender standards. She was an entertainer who convinced her conservative family that she could direct her career independently. She eventually bought out her relatives, a prudent and independent move, and ceased performing with them. She made exceedingly canny business decisions on her 8

| Disentangling the Diva

1930s and 1940s. | |

own, and adopted the fashionable and more revealing garments of the | In contrast, Asmahan’s family members—male and female—controlled her life and her memory more closely than anyone might have assumed. They interfered financially, politically, artistically, and emotionally with her life. Yet they loved her and believed that their interference and subsequent condemnation of her life style was rational and necessary. A public mythology of “bad” women, and “questionable” women _. Musicians in Arab-Islamic society led to the popular portrait of Asmahan. But, unlike Umm Kulthum who rose up from relative poverty, Asmahan

possessed a respected lineage. _ Through the intervention of events such as the decline of Ottoman ,

- authority, the failure of Faysal and his followers in the Arab revolt (which

included Asmahan’s Druze family), and the Syrian revolution against _

the French, the terms of a “normal life” for Asmahan were abruptly changed after her mother’s flight to Egypt. In Egypt she was an outsider; she received an education but was as poor as Umm Kulthum in her early

_ days in Cairo, perhaps worse off, since her mother lacked affinal ties. However, her origins in a Syrian notable family eventually provided Asmahan with another option: to live the life of an elite “princess” sheltered away from the entertainment world. When she ultimately rejected a return to “respectability,” or appeared to reject it by returning to Egypt and her singing career, she was reviled by her family and Syrian society. In Egypt, where her Syrian social status was meaningless, she became — a diva, and controversy swirled around her. She appeared utterly femi-

nine and tasteful on screen, but fast and daring in her private life. Asmahan was seen not as a young woman of a particular historical period, but as a moral and cultural warning to other women. Even when glorified, she was incarcerated in her screen persona as a tragic heroine, a femme fatale. Thus, the aim of this book is to describe the life of this Middle Eastern woman, the highlights of her career, and their meaning

in the context of her era. . , Gossip, stories, and hearsay formed the basis of much information

|9

about Asmahan. Some of the scurrilous nature of this information was. unavoidable due to the linkage of entertainment with illicit behavior and to its origins in hearsay and in the popular media, where music criticism combined promotion with actual critiques and chronicles of the lives of

_ the stars. The star system that emerged in Egypt of the 1940s was the first of its kind in modern entertainment history of the region. Curiosity about these larger-than-life figures sold tickets, magazines, and records. Industry —

Disentangling the Diva : heads knew that journalists could whip up public interest in a star, even

if they wrote little of substance. |

Slowly, as I studied Asmahan, I realized that the star system and its gossip machine were related to the nature of performance and women’s roles in society. While the narratives of Arab men in a rural setting, as Michael Gilsenan has shown us, provide important commentary on sta-

tus, violence, danger, and heroism,” the narratives of these unusual women provided a paradigm that included romance, seduction, punishment, resistance, repression, and sometimes social mobility. Women, particularly younger women in entertainment, have often been subject to social restrictions in many geographical locations and eras. In the Islamic and Arab context, there are problems with musical performance itself that are compounded when women perform. Music has been held to be dangerous to the faithful for it could unleash passion and sensuality if played skillfully. The pious might forget their prayers, —

and the not-so-pious might also imbibe alcohol along with their music and spend their money rewarding performers in fits of enthusiasm. Elite women were gradually set apart from Middle Eastern society due to Byzantine and Sassanian influences upon the growing Arab domain. Ideally, women were to venture from their homes only if suitably covered and chaperoned. Much of the early freedom of Arab tribal women was subsequently restricted.'* The process of seclusion intensified in cer-

tain periods, in urban contexts, and among the elites. From the Abbasid period onward, elite women or slave women possessed by the wealthy, were the most likely to be trained musically or play

an instrument. Elite women musicians included ‘Ulayya, the sister of the Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid, a superior composer who sang and

played the ‘ud as well. Medieval sources tell us that once her song affected Harun with such tarab (enchantment) that “he drank on it the rest of the day.” Music intoxicated the soul. Poets, writers, philosophers, and the ‘ulama, the religious scholars, were also competing for the soul. The harems of the rulers were filled with slave women who might gain free status upon giving birth, so the linkage of elite and slave status is not as unusual as it might sound. A courtesan trained in poetic composition, playing an instrument or singing, commanded a far higher price

than an ordinary girl. With her talent she might enrapture her master more thoroughly than with sexual appeal alone. Consequently, music was not only associated with the court but with the courtesan, correctly or incorrectly, for centuries. ‘This was the case not only in the Arab Muslim world, but outside it as well, in India, Afghanistan,’® and further to

the East in the courts of China and Japan. : 10

Disentangling the Diva Islamic law became more conservative in its approaches to women. - and gender issues, and after the first century of Islam, seclusion from public places was often demanded of most urban elite women, notonly __ those in the royal harems. Although musical performance retained its importance in rites of passage and in Sufi practice, conservative male scholars condemned it as well as female artists, from medieval times to _ the present. Leila Ahmed explains that Ibn al-Hajj’s objections were based

on his belief that women’s voices are ‘awra, “pudendal,” as indeed are © their whole bodies. Their bodies must not be seen, and their voices should not be heard by unrelated men. He recommended a strict segregation of the sexes and that women stay in their homes. Religious musical practice was frowned on as well. Ibn al-Hajj felt that the singing and practices of the shaykhas (female leaders of religious groups) in his city implied their independence from male guidance, a shocking and un-Islamic state of

affairs."” |

In later years, female performers were suspicious creatures for several reasons. Folk performances by older women were often tolerated; after all, these women were invariably married grandmothers and mothers and beyond the procreative period. However, musical mourners were occasionally harassed because they made a wage, in money or in kind. Certain cities in the Ottoman empire passed laws against public performances by females. These were intended to allow officials to control the prostitutes in these areas, and to extract taxes from their guilds and those of singers and dancers."® Therefore, female public performances came to be associated with prostitution, transvestism (boys dressed as women could perform in public), and lower social status. In the modern period, when the old Ottoman standards demanding segregated female entertainment were gradually dropped, and the re-

cording industry contemplated the profit potential for female artists, the history of women in the entertainment world remained in the hands of male writers, male agents, male critics. The narratives of female divas were constructed in male voices, and Asmahan’s story, such as it was, indeed primarily shaped by men. Most of these men viewed themselves

in relationship to Asmahan the woman rather than Asmahan the artist. Whereas a musicologist of our own period, Samim al-Sharif, wrote solely about her musical career and the compositions she sang, those who considered themselves personal biographers often claimed an intense personal proximity to Asmahan. Even her own brother Fu’ad excluded any mention of her musical achievements other than her appearance at the Opera, the titles of her films, and romantic allusions to the lyrics of certain Syrian-inspired songs for which she was known. Could these men

11 |

Disentanghing the Diva really understand the life of awoman of their era, or of their mother’s or grandmother’s era? And if they understood her, how could they explain _ her experience given their perceptions of societal norms? To some degree, Asmahan was sexualized by her fans and her foes. She was aware of this process and responded by acknowledging her femininity, instead of denying it. In doing so, she confirms a trend that Fedwa Malti-Douglas has explored. Malti-Douglas notes the pre-eminence of woman's body as focus from the classical literary corpus into the modern

and tells us, ,

Woman’s body is indeed problematic. The medieval Arabic male-

generated text assures us of this. The literary narratives deal with this physicality, often permitting the female to participate in the discourse. Yet her speech remains tied to the seductive power of her body."®

Malti-Douglas cites many examples of male efforts to equate woman with her body, and women’s ability to wittingly subvert their efforts.” Women

subvert their efforts, speaking a body language that still utilizes a discourse of gender. We cannot de-gender the female singer. In the middle of the twentieth century, she was never simply an individual, but also, and always, a female body emitting poetic text through song. In the private, segregated setting of elite functions given by and for women (common in the nineteenth-century Middle East as well as the contemporary Gulf re-

, gion),”' the performers’ female sexuality remained an important feature of their appeal, though sexual tension was diminished in the absence of men. But, in any other setting the singer had to struggle with history and cultural interpretations of gender as well as musical technique and poetic interpretation in order to be heard.

Syrian or Egyptian? In one of the awkward moments of my quest for Asmahan, I sat out-

doors in the courtyard of an Ottoman Damascene house that had been converted into a restaurant and was frequented by young and progres-

12 |

sive diners, mainly on the correct side of the ‘Alawi regime. I had agreed to come only at the invitation of an art historian with whom I had crossed

paths in Cairo years earlier. A young writer in our group sipped beer while we chatted. After I had explained the general subject of my research, the young man remarked, “Oh, you mean you are working on

Disentangling the Diva those Egyptian singers—Farid and Asmahan.” “No, no,” I responded, “they

_ were Syrian.” Somewhat sharply, he retorted, “No, not really. After all, | Farid always sang in Egyptian dialect.” And our prickly conversation (the subtext of which involved Syrian identity in the present era) moved to the prevalence of Egyptian dialect in lyrics, but also in films, in modern literature, and in the musalsalat (the television soap operas).

Another such moment arrived when I asked Fu’ad al-Atrash, ~ Asmahan’s elderly brother who had inherited Farid’s and Asmahan’s es- | tates, if I could speak to him about “Asmahan.” He corrected me loudly | (his hearing after all reflecting his ninety-three years) saying, “You mean you want to speak about the Princess Amal al-Atrash!” Yes, [had forgot- —

ten to employ her title, Princess. The contemporary Turshan (the collec- : tive form of the al-Atrash family name) in the Jabal Druze never spoke of her in this way, for her “title” belonged to her husband and had passed on to a younger relative, Salim of al-‘Era. The “Princess” ironically owned

| idolized her pretty face. | |

a private name, Amal, which was never the property of the masses who Asmahan experienced a number of repercussions from her dualiden- _ tity. Her family fled her homeland, Syria, and she grew so accustomed to Cairo that she longed for it after her marriage and return to Syria. She understood that options were open to her in Egypt, as a familiar stranger,

that Druze identity in Syria would prohibit. Yet she was proud of her | origins and patriotic enough to sacrifice her ambitions and her musical

ranking in a time of crisis when she believed “her people” needed her. The other side of her patriotism was to her adopted country, Egypt. That loyalty is hard to measure, since she and other singers were dependent upon the Egyptian elites, as were the recording studios. They were required to sing songs of praise for the king and his line and other songs with republican themes. Arabic poetry and song have long possessed this specific genre, panegyrics—or art in the service of empire. Egyptian officials harassed her during the war, particularly so after Hassanayn Pasha, King Faruq’s former tutor and chamberlain, became _ personally interested in her, and that interest became known outside the Palace. Syrians insist that Queen Nazli hated Asmahan, and one pre-

| sumes some trickle-down to various officials. She fought deportation after the passage of new laws controlling foreign nationals. Some of her

_ fans and foes were certain that she married twice simply to remain in Egypt. Those who understood what an affront it was for a Druze woman to marry outside of her community had reason to emphasize this point more emphatically than writers or fans who attached little importance to _

| 13 | | |

her origins. , , a

_ Disentangling the Diva The film industry exploited Asmahan’s foreign allure in the creation

of her film persona. That strange amalgamation of Eastern beauty in Western packaging persists; indeed, a large proportion of young Egyptians actively aspire to a “Western” look. Her exterior, her beauty, was an essential part of the artist, but journalists also enjoyed her impulsive behavior, since it allowed them to manipulate her image into the mold of ©

the ultramodern daring female. How did Asmahan feel about all this? One suspects from her remarks _ that she resented the rather rigid social stratification in Egypt—except when it worked to her advantage. Here is the pitfall of the artist to this day: reliance upon a public and a social system that she or he must work assiduously to cultivate. The put-downs, the drunken catcalls, the requests for banal songs, the whispers must all be ignored. The entertainer strives to hit the right balance in treating fans as close friends, but not so intimately as to exclude the making of new and potentially generous friends. Those who had a more cynical view of her felt that this whole process had hardened her and made her fixated upon success. And if it were not success she sought, then influence, and expensive clothes, and perfumes, and accolades from those who mattered. Another problem in understanding Asmahan’s position concerns a

flattening of the Middle Eastern experience into a monolith. Sources did not differentiate the Levantine perspective from the Egyptian. A sizable Syrian community had contributed to intellectual activity and commerce in Egypt with a primary wave of immigration taking place from

, 1730 to 1780, and with a second wave entering from the 1850s until the ~ onset of World War I.” Syrian importance in business and trade continued, as did a myth that Syrians arrived hungry, enriched themselves at the Egyptians’ expense, and then stayed aloof from them.” There were proportionally a large number of Syrian Christians in - entertainment and among instrument makers (although Muslims actually dominated both industries). The al-Atrash family was distinct, of course, as Druzes (not Christians), but during their early years in Egypt, _ ‘Alia (Asmahan’s mother) concealed the family’s Druze identity in order to enroll her sons in a Catholic school. Unlike some other Syrians, “Alia apparently did not apply for Egyptian citizenship under Law 19 of 1929, nor did Asmahan herself.** Egyptians downplayed Asmahan’s other world, as a Druze from a respected lineage, except to glamorize her. They knew little about that world, as the Syrians knew relatively little about theirs. Few Egyptians were very familiar with Syrian musical tradition or even the specificity of. Syrian politics. The traditions of a provincial and unfamiliar area had no

| 14

| Disentangling the Diva resonance in Cairo, thus the particularly shami (Eastern Arab) aspects of | _Asmahan’s heritage were not considered by most Egyptian sources. Other emigrants from Syria mentioned various problems of discrimination and competitiveness in the Egypt of Asmahan’s lifetime. Legal, political, and economic considerations had reshaped the Egyptian view of Syrians. The development of a specifically Egyptian consciousness and national goals alienated Syrian supporters of an Ottoman revival or an

-Arab-Ottoman solution. It also disturbed Arab nationalists who would eventually propose actions of Arab unity. The events of World War I temporarily slowed down immigration, although there was a wave of migra-

tion at the end of the War due to harsh conditions and famine. Most Syrians were or became Egyptian citizens, but their status was less and less certain after World War II. After the Revolution of 1952, some with

| large commercial and land holdings were attacked as “foreigners” and faced sequestrations, exile, and difficult years until a lengthy reparation process was eventually initiated.

| Some of these problems are rooted in foreign commercial exploitation of the Egyptian markets; the entertainment industry was after all merely another marketplace. Many immigrants did very well for themselves in Egypt. Other Eastern musicians and artists preceded and followed Asmahan to Egypt. Among them were Shafiq Shabib (1897-1982),

Jamil ‘Uways (1890-1955), Mary Jibran (1911-1952), and Fayza Ahmad (1934-1981).” It was not so much the provincial climate of Syria, but Egypt’s position as music maker and cinema producer for the region that determined this migratory pattern. Music was important but less commercially significant in Syria, and Syro-Lebanese music was unimportant commercially in Egypt (with the possible exception of the Lebanese singer Fairuz many years later). Also, the Turshan were not the only | link between nationalism and entertainment. Which Egyptian knew that the nationalist leader Fakhri al-Barudi was an ardent musician and sup_ porter of Arabic music? And that he had established an Institute for Syrian Oriental Music with ‘Tawfig al-Sabagh in 1928, which the French had closed?*® On the other hand, Syrians knew relatively little about Egyp-

tian entertainers and their world apart from their recordings and films. - However, Egypt was the dominant figure in this relationship, and ambitious Syrian entertainers considered going to Cairo unless their music catered to local patronage. When, because of political tensions, the bor ders became less permeable, some, like the great Syrian singing star of

| 15 .

the traditional Aleppine style, Sabah Fakhri, chose not to pursue a ca-

reer centered in Cairo. |

Disentanghing the Diva Those who moved to Egypt found the competitive environment chal-

lenging and troubling. Much has been made of Asmahan’s and Farid’s struggles as outsiders. Were these the insecurities of the immigrant speak-

tain social classes?

‘ing, or sensitivity to a social dynamic that restricted the mobility of cer-

Mervat Hatem has discussed the interaction of European, EgyptianLevantine, and Egyptian women in the era before Asmahan’s arrival in Egypt.’ But given the fact that Asmahan and her family came from the East, one might also consider the conservative Levantine perspective of Egypt and of the entertainment world there. Syria was somewhat more — rigid than Egypt of the late 1920s and 1930s. Women’s entry into public life, as with the symbolic discarding of the Ottoman veil, was delayed there until after World War I. The Druze were not the only conservative community in Syria; Damascenes prided themselves on their control over their women, and the men of Hama and Homs were stricter still. A young girl in Hashim al-Atassi’s family whose honor was blemished was assassi-

nated by her brother in 1934. And in the same summer there was an uproar over special soirées arranged for women at the movie theaters in Damascus and in Hama. When the mutasharrif of Hama followed the Damascene lead and decided to issue an edict permitting film showings with female attendance, forty religious leaders and merchants tried to force the mutasharrif to back down and pressured him and the French with a strike in the market. When the next soirée was held in Damascus, only French intervention prevented a riot.” The distribution of Egyptian films was further complicated by the public appearances of unassailable elite women as well as the cinematic appearances of suspect females—actresses and singers. Although Egyptians often confused the social mores of Syria with those of Beirut, to conservative Syrians urban Egypt represented the veritable “flesh pots” of the region.

On the other hand, it was commonly believed in Egypt that the members of the entertainment class were Levantines, and Jews and Christians more often than not. In a review of early female singers, Danielson points out that most were in fact native Muslim Egyptians,” though the

public liked to think they were “foreign” and unbelievers. A popular stereotype existed of the mustachioed, shami club owner, or entrepreneur, who took advantage of his female stars (as depicted by the great comedian Bishara Wakim in Asmahan’s first film, Intisar al-Shabab (The Triumph of Youth, 1941). Perhaps economic competition is too simple an explanation for these reflexive stereotypes. Instead, we may wish to remember Egypt's historical ventures into Syria and vice-versa. Whether for commercial or strategic reasons, or both, these exchanges took place

| 16 ,

| Disentangling the Diva for centuries. We can think of the invasions of the Hyksos under the Fatimids, Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, the Mamluks, Ibrahim Pasha, and more recently, the failed Nasserist union with Syria from 1958-1961. __ In the early decades of the century, national identity was being trans-

formed, and at the same time the dream of Arab unity was conceived _ and longed for, from Faysal’s movement onward. Differences could simultaneously be accentuated or downplayed. And the mandate powers

had a hand in fundamentally splitting the Syrian-Egyptian dynamic. | To Asmahan’s Syrian relatives, her Egyptian years were the result of fate and cruel circumstances that had foiled Syrian nationalists’ dreams.

Though they claimed ownership of this lively woman and her past, they admitted that she was unlike any normal Druze bride of her era. The stimulating aspects of life in faraway Egypt were subordinated to an imag-

ined country filled with beggars, temptations, and imminent calamities. Syrian entertainers who had ventured into the musical field in Egypt _ confirmed the cutthroat games and machinations there and the vices | (like alcohol and drugs) bedeviling those who weren’t up to the struggle. So, it was difficult for some of the Syrian Druze to imagine a daughter, a |

niece, or a cousin who felt at home in the burgeoning, heterogeneous Egyptian social scene. The clearly-defined confessionalism (divisions ac- | cording to religious origins) of the Syrian countryside did not operate in _ Egypt, and could not prevent that niece, daughter or cousin from associ-

ating with all sorts of people and ideas. | a

Of course, other members of her own family had more contact with Egypt, visiting, studying, living in the country in the 1950s and later. These

relatives included her uncle ‘Abdullah al-Attrache, a well-read political figure who declaimed in rhymed fushaand quoted passages from memory from Patrick Seale’s book on Syria; his wife Mimi, dressed in authentic | Druze garb, who could speak in Egyptian dialect; Munir, Asmahan’s halfbrother who provided many important details of her story; and fellow Druze, the late Fahd Ballan who happened to be in the Jabal at that time. These individuals viewed Egypt as having been the intellectual and cul- — tural capital of the Arab world, and had no difficulty identifying Asmahan’s

entrancement with the world she found there. _ But for other members of the family and the Syrian public in general,

the centrality of Egypt was less clear. In contemporary Syria, curious _ perceptions of Egypt, past and present, appeared in the media and interacted with political tensions between the two countries. Television _ broadcasted “Egyptian” soaps not of the highest quality and other series which used an imagined Egypt for a backdrop. Characters wore hilarious 17

Disentanghng the Diva “Egyptian” costumes and spoke in Syrian-inflected Egyptian Arabic. The primitive Sa‘idi of Upper Egypt was of more interest than the urban and

| urbane professional. | |

The essence of Syria was even less known in Cairo; the two coun- |

tries, after the end of the Union in 1961 moved gradually toward very different political stances, regionally and domestically, in the 1970s. Egypt opened to the world, while Syria remained closed for many years. Also,

whereas Egyptians once summered in Lebanon and sometimes visited Damascus by train or car, political divisions and then the Lebanese Civil War stopped tourist interchange. Rising costs and visa difficulties continued to make travel out of reach for many in the region. The interchangeable “Arab” coloring of the region—its music and its attitudes—

was more asserted than observable. | | | _ The Shocking Diva : Later in her life, sensational aspects of Asmahan’s story were released willy-nilly to the public. Her status as a divorcée gave rise to many rumors about her amorous attachments. She reputedly drank, gambled, and “lived high” when she had the means. Most intriguing were the stories about her patrons and friends and their political import. Asmahan’s involvement in the Allied and Axis activities is one reason for her special place in public memory. That public memory has neither checked the “facts” nor ascertained their meaning. Nor did many

otherwise responsible chroniclers of the period. One meaning of Asmahan’s adventure relates to her patriotism. Another may have had

| to do with greed combined with adventurism. Egyptian patriots were not inclined toward the British during the war, since the British were impeding their movement toward full autonomy. But the Syrian Druze

appraisal of Allied forces, coming from their own experience and the | Vichy occupation, was quite different. Asmahan played her part in the events of World War II as an effort on behalf of her country, Syria. | thought these accounts deserved some scrutiny, considering the part they represented in her public image and in her dual and unclear loyalties. For when Asmahan sang of her emotional ties, she sang of her Druze townspeople, but when asked to sing of cultural patriotism and love, she

sang of Egypt. |

Asmahan’s story may tell us a good deal more than the facts of a particular life. Did she understand the ways in which she reflected society? Did she understand the manner in which she took on the attributes

| 18

of her screen persona, Nadia, heroine of Intisar al-Shabab? ‘Throughout

Disentangling the Diva —

, his musical and cinematic career, her brother Farid mirrored the tale of : his screen persona, Wahid (which signifies “the lonely one”). His sister was likewise an immigrant, a singer with a brave but fatalistic nature. Her screen persona is both alien and alienated, though her biography insinuates that she was happier in her Egyptian incarnation than in her Syrian

homeland. |

Her story illuminates Middle Eastern perceptions of sexuality, power,

patronage, and entertainment, and how these views developed in the 1930s and early 1940s. Her career experience took place in the context of rising nationalisms and frustrations. Tensions between the West and | the East, and between the social classes reverberate in her own epic. The curious collision of honor. and fame, of mobility and convention, con-

tinue as we consider the woman, her music, and a world war. Fifty-odd years after her death, it is the sound of her vocal skill that remains, recorded in a whispering approximation of her powerful talent. It is the suggestive sound of her offstage personality that resounds in the minds of those who remember her fame (or infamy) in an era that transported Marlene Dietrich and Lana Turner to the East, and encapsulated

Asmahan within a debate about female comportment. | | Some of that debate is created by the voices of Asmahan’s own family, acquaintances, or biographers, and I have commented on the tone of these sources through translations of biographical materials, or interview material. The Turshan, Asmahan’s own family, understood the popular appeal but objected to certain aspects of Asmahan’s public coverage. I cannot thank them sufficiently for their graciousness, and for sensing an

: opportunity (in my interest) to correct, or at least question some of the details of her life, and to reconsider her importance as an artist. They will no doubt disagree with many of my own conclusions; and that is, in my

opinion, a beneficial aspect of our differing perceptions. | | _ The writing style of the journalists who “covered” Asmahan is romantic, chatty, familiar, and quite different than the approach taken by West-

| ern biographers or academics, although each genre aims to locate and claim particular facts in the lives of individuals. I referred to other biog_ raphies and autobiographies of women in the arts: Martha Graham, Lotte Lehmann, Edith Piaf, Marilyn Monroe, and Nadia Boulanger.* I looked also at academic biographies of Middle Eastern figures*’ to learn how these historical figures were represented, in contrast to the popular or | journalistic materials available in Arabic written since the late 1940s concerning Asmahan. I found that scholars describing Middle Eastern characters and Boulanger’s biographer dealt with lineage and social placement to describe the social setting of a historical figure, and also as a key

19 |

Disentanghng the Diva | device underscoring the weight of family ties. This key focus in the biographical materials of the Arab world does not always involve the psychological interactions of the family, as is more often the case in Western materials. The overwhelming emphasis on questions of honor and gender, as opposed to a more abstract treatment of sexuality in entertain- — ment, is also a major divergence when one compares the Middle Eastern and Western conceptions of women in the public eye. | Let us therefore consider Asmahan’s life as the convergence of many sources, a narrative that could itself be set to music and provide impor tant and familiar moral observations, or performed as a song with theme and variations.

1. From “Shajani Nuhi.” Text by the poet, Ahmad Rami, music by

Zakariyya Ahmad, 1934. |

2. From “Imta Hata‘raf Imta,” text by Mamun al-Shanawi, music by Muhammad al-Qasabji, and performed by Asmahan in the film Gharam wa Intigam (Passion and Revenge), 1944.

3. Personal interview with Fahd Ballan, 18 August, 1993, Suwayda, Syria. | 4. Seyla Benhabib, Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism

B.Ibid, 214.

in Contemporary Ethics (Cambridge: Polity, 1992, 1994), 198.

6. Muhammad al-Sayyid Shushah, Umm Kulthum: Hayat Naghm (Cairo: Maktabat Ruz al-Yusuf, 1976); Ni‘mat Ahmad Fu’ad, Umm Kulthum wa ‘Asr min al-Fann (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 1976. 2nd ed. 1983); Virginia Danielson, The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song and Modern Egyptian Society (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997

20

and Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1997).

| 7. Virginia Danielson, “Artists and Entrepreneurs: Female Singers in

Cairo during the 1920s,” in Women in Middle Eastern History , eds. Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 299.

Also see Virginia Danielson, “Shaping Tradition in Arabic Song: The

. a Disentangling the Diva

Egypt. |

Career and Repertory of Umm Kulthum,” Ph.D. diss. Dept. of Music,

University of Illinois, 1991; this idea recurs in her 1997 book. | , _ 8. Personal communication by historian ‘Adil Sabit, October 1993, Cairo,

| J. The other constant, nasty, and unverifiable rumor about the great _ singer concerned her trademark handkerchief. Did she use it to conceal _acocaine habit, and did that explain her extraordinary endurance on

stage? | |

10. Umm Kulthum as told to Mahmud Awad, Umm Kulthum Alati La Ya rifuha Ahad (Cairo: Mu’assasat Akhbar al-Yawm, 1969). 11. Sarah Graham-Browne, Images of Women: The Portrayal of Women in the _ Photography of the Middle East, 1860-1950 (New York: Columbia Univer-

sity, 1988), 182, and biographical sketch, 183. , ,

12. Sherifa Zuhur, Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in Contempo-

rary Egypt (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992). a 13. Michael Gilsenan, Lords of the Lebanese Marches: Violence and Narrative

in an Arab Society (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1996). |

1991). | a |

_ 14. Leila Ahmed covers the very complex and incomplete process of the

separation of the private and public spheres as it affected women in | Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press,

15. Suzanne Meyers Sawa, “The Role of Women in Musical Life: The

_ Medieval Arabo-Islamic Courts,” Canadian Woman Studies: Les Cahiers de

la Femme, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 1987), 94. , , 16. Ellen Koskoff, ed., Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective, (Ur-

bana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989), particularly chapters by Jennifer Post, “Professional Women in Indian Music: The Death of the Courtesan Tradition,” and Hiromi L. Sakata, “Hazara Women in Afghanistan: Innovators and Preservers of a Musical Tradition.”

| 21

17. Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 116, citing Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-’Abdari ibn al-Hajj, ALMadkhal (Cairo:

Disentangling the Diva Matba‘at al-Misriyya, 1929) 2:141; also see Huda Lutfi, “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy versus Male Shar‘i Order in Muslim Prescriptive Treatises,” in Women in Middle East-

ern History, 117. - | 18. Ahmed comments on these groups in passing in Women and Gender in

Islam, 115; and Judith Tucker, Women in Nineteenth-century Egypt (London:

Cambridge University Press, 1985), 151. 19. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Word: Gender and Discourse in Arabo-Islamic Writing (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 110.

20. Ibid, 33-37.

21. Kay Campbell, “Folk Music and Dance in the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia,” in Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle

East, ed. Sherifa Zuhur (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998).

22. Thomas Philipp concentrates on the Greek Catholic majority (apparently) of this migration, and mentions many important Syrians there including of course, Muhamad Kurd ‘Ali, Jurji Zeidan, and Rashid Rida,

on the one hand, and the Sednaouis, the Dar al-Hilal empire, and the — Shurbaji, Qabanis, Sa’b, Lutfallah, and Sursuq families in the business world. Philipp, The Synans in Egypt 1725-1975 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner,

1985), 112, 113, 122, 138-139, 141. ,

23. Ibid, 113, 114, and 122. 94. Asmahan and her family had not been in Egypt long enough to quality according to Philipp’s explanation of the law, Ibid., 145.

25. For a more inclusive list of artists, see Samim al-Sharif, al-Musiga fi Sunyya: Alam wa Tarikh (Damascus: Wizarat al-Thaqafa, 1991). _ 26. Ibid, 148.

27. Mervat Hatem, “Through Each Other’s Eyes: Egyptian, Levantine Egyptian, and European Women’s Images of Themselves and of Each Other (1862-1920) ,” Women’s Studies International Forum, 12, no. 2 (1989).

22

Disentanghng the Diva — 28. Concerning these events and an “extraordinary” campaign mounted in the mosques after an article judged offensive to the memory of the Prophet was published in a French journal, Seduction, see Letter from the French Ambassador to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, August 3, 1934.

Series FE Lévant, Sous-series Syrie et Liban, vol. 489. | 29. Virginia Danielson, “Artists and Entrepreneurs,” 301. 30. Edith Piaf with Jean Noli, My Life, translated by Margaret Crosland (London and Chester Springs, Pa.: Peter Owen, 1990); Léonie Rosenstiel, | Nadia Boulanger: A Life in Music (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1982); Glass, Beaumont, Lotte Lehmann: A Lifein Opera and Song (Santa

Barbara, California: Capra Press, 1988). |

31, Among many examples unrelated to music, but relevant to the Middle Eastern “placement” of a public figure, Fuad Ajami, The Vanished Imam: Musa al-Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon (London: I.B. Tauris, 1986); Cynthia Nelson, Doria Shaftk, Egyptian Feminist: A Woman Apart (Gainesville, Florida:

Universi University Press of Florida and Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1996).

23

| Chapter ] A Child of Ma‘ruf pots empire Middlewas Easttorn wasby inwar, turmoil in November of 1917. The Ottoman famine, and shortages. The Entente partners had secretly planned a division of the region the previous year and claimed their respective spheres of influence in the Middle East, pending victory. In the previous century, European financial interests had penetrated the various provinces of the Ottoman Empire with subsequent colonial occupations. After a long struggle with the last powerful Ottoman caliph, ‘Abd al-Hamid II, the leaders of the secret protest society,

the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), had assumed power in Istanbul. Only five years after the failure of “Abd al-Hamid II’s counterrevolution, World War I broke out and irrevocably transformed the Middle East.

The Porte, as the Ottoman government was known, had already lost control of its Greek and some of its Balkan provinces, and was concerned with rising Arab activism in Syria and the Hijaz. Informers provided the regime with news of the secret Arab societies fomenting discussion of an Arab nation. Some suspects were members of the elite families of Damascus, and the government wondered where the other factions and minorities stood, the Druze among them. The Turkish government tried to put down the insurgents, but also had to battle the Europeans on various fronts during the war. The grand debacle had dragged on, and the Greeks and the Italians pressed the Allies to let them claim their fair share of the Anatolian peninsula as well, when that secret Sykes-Picot agreement was revealed to the world.

Our narrative of the singer with a noble past begins in a castle in Dimerji, Anatolia, with a commanding view of the terrain below. Inside,

the family slept in silence. A horseman rode furiously down the road,

and slowed as he approached the gate. Guards challenged him, but he | insisted on speaking to the family’s father, Fahd al-Atrash, or to his wife. “The Greeks are advancing,” he warned them. “Within a day, or two at the most, they will arrive. You must depart immediately.” His wife ‘Alia was pregnant, very pregnant. A sudden journey could force her into premature labor. Despite her pregnancy, Fahd and ‘Alia decided to bundle up their children and travel with all haste to Izmir.

24 a

| A Child of Ma‘ruf At Izmir they boarded a boat for Beirut. Fahd had misplaced or not had time to find money for the trip. ‘Alia lent him all she had, and they worried that the voyage would cost more than they had on their persons.

Then ‘Alia’s labor began, and continued through the night. On the 23rd |

of November, a baby girl was born at sea. 7 | vO

, PDD DL LD LY QD LD |D_'— YS’ - This account of Asmahan’s origins was told by her older brother Fu’ad

to writer and journalist Fumil Labib in Cairo.' The story is replicated in other media materials and biographical sketches. The year of Asmahan’s birth was questioned by music critic, Muhammad al-Taba‘i, who claimed

that she was born instead in 1912.* The supposed Greek invasion of Dimerji was problematic, although fighting and devastation in Izmir was

documented later. As a historian, I tried to ascertain the details of this | story and other “secrets” of Asmahan through living family members and | any available written materials. Another disparity was the actual title and function of Asmahan’s father at this time, and prior to his assignment in Turkey, when Fumil Labib/Fu’ad tell us that he was a ga’im-maqam (ad-

- ministrator) in Beirut, and refer to him in the opening narrative as an “amir” (prince), while his mother, ‘Alia, was an “amira” (princess). The Syrian al-Atrash family and the written record deny aspects of these claims,

although he certainly held some office with the government at that time. My other task was more difficult. I was attempting to establish connections with Asmahan’s world by retracing her path through the Middle East, reconstructing destroyed vistas and visiting those still standing. With _ conflicting sources and memories, I was able to some degree to separate real events from gossip and apocryphal versions of Asmahan’s actions. Historical revision can revive the voices of past figures whose family, friends, and critics speak for them after they have been silenced through _ death. Indeed, feminist historical revision has shown us the value of such

exercises. Oo | | |

_ Fu’ad al-Atrash, the voice of brotherly authority, is the main source for Labib’s account of Asmahan’s life. Fu’ad fulfilled the family expectations of an eldest son, voicing expressions of disapproval for his mother’s

and sister’s roles in the entertainment world. He spent the better part of his life closely associated with his brother Farid, after his efforts to control Asmahan failed. He tried to establish a special identity for himself _ through his connection to the Syrian al-Atrash clan by writing a book _ about the Druze, but their world was no longer his. His vicarious exist-

ence through his brother and sister was not unusual in the idealized | 25

A Child of Ma ‘ruf Middle Eastern family, but his relationship with his sister was consequently filled with unresolved issues. From the outset of his story, a certain sentimentality, which attracted Arab readers, accompanies his intent to assert

control over his topic. The family’s flight from the enemy had lent an aura of danger to Asmahan’s first moments on earth. Fu’ad’s account then moves to her beauty as a newborn baby—like “the moon”—and to the first dispute over her name. While Fahd suggested the name “Bahriyya” (of the sea, or seagoing), her mother objected that the name had no meaning. She was named Amal (hope) instead, spelled with the letters alif, mim, and lam, in the Syrian style.

The Druze The family were members of the al-Atrash clan, a powerful family of the Druze religious sect. The Druze trace their origins to Egypt, although

they are almost always associated with the mountains of Lebanon and Syria. The Druze, or Muwahhidun, migrated from Egypt after the disap-

pearance of al-Hakim ibn ‘Amr (996-1021), the sixth Fatimid caliph. Perhaps it was because the Fatimids, Isma‘ili Shi‘a, failed to achieve their goal of an Isma‘ili world system that the Druze sect arose during or after the rule of al-Hakim. Al-Hakim governed Cairo for some time and then became a mystic, choosing an ascetic lifestyle and purportedly forcing a nocturnal schedule upon Cairo, since he slept by day. Al-Hakim had supported the religious texts of Hamza ibn ‘Ali of Zawzan. Hamza’s followers formed the bases of a new Islamic reform movement. Hamza’s rival, another Druze missionary, al-Darazi, was, however, executed by al-Hakim, who himself disappeared after a ride in the desert one night, leaving the

Muwahhidun without caliphal patronage. oe

The Muwahhidun were persecuted under al-Zahir, the succeeding — Fatimid caliph, and many left Egypt, aided by the previous governor of _ Syria, Baha al-Din.* Some traveled as far north as Aleppo, though most eventually settled in the region of Mount Lebanon, and their lords ruled over the Maronite peasantry in some areas. Certain clans relocated later into the Jabal al-Duruz of Syria, and in some areas of modern-day Jordan and Israel. The name “Druze” derives from al-Darazi. The Druze accepted the tenets of Isma‘ili Shi‘ism along with unitarianism, or “oneness” (tawhid) with God, veneration, principles of initiation, and esoteric knowledge (ma‘rifa). Unlike other Muslim sects, they also accepted and taught the

26 ,

| A Child of Ma‘ruf notion of transmigration of soul, tanasukh, or the Druze term tagammus (re-embodiment) in which Druze return to earth.® The modern Druze interest in religions and peoples of the East—of China and India—stems from their awareness that tanasukh/taqammus is philosophically related to some degree to the Hindu samsara. The Druze of the Jabal told me that some believe there are Druze in China, and that one day the separated peoples will be reunited. —

The beliefs and practices of the Druze appeared unorthodox to other | Muslims: worshipping on Thursday evening instead of Friday, meeting

in a building other than the mosque, and teaching an esoteric body of , knowledge to the elite. However, in their mountain or remote havens, they were safe and influenced local politics through their feudal lords. As time went on, other groups established ties with foreign powers or their merchant interests: the Maronites, for example, with the French, and the Orthodox Christians with the Russians. The Druze, however, essentially lacked outside allies, until they turned to the British in the aftermath of the hostilities of the 1860s in Lebanon and Syria. The Druze as the madhhab al-‘aql (the sect of reason obtained through initiation) are divided religiously into two basic segments, those who have

access to the esoteric doctrines of the faith and those who do not. The first set, the elite, are called the ‘uqqgal (enlightened ones) and the others, the juhhal (the spiritually ignorant). A jahil may become ‘agil after training and a long observation by the ‘uqqal, who lead the community.° The ‘uqgal must be learned, and lead exemplary lives from a moral stand-

point in order to maintain their status. The most select group of the

‘uqqal are the ajawid (good). | The Druze are also socially partitioned into the shuyukh (the fami-

lies of the shaykhs), the ‘ayan (notables), and the ‘amma (ordinary people).’ Intermarriage in the past did not occur often between these groups. The most elite families entertained each other, but would not be expected to mix with common callers when visiting.® Druze, unlike Sunni Muslims, are not supposed to practice polygamy and should not remarry a divorced spouse. Druze are endogamous: they socialize their families to believe in the value of remaining within their community and marrying only to other Druze. They did not, in Asmahan’s

lifetime, recognize the marriage of a Druze to a non-Druze, although | such cases occurred. Many of the Druze migrated from the Shuf of Lebanon to Syria dur- | ing a period of strife in the eighteenth century. The Qaisi clans in alli-ance with the Shihab family had defeated the Yamani clans in 1711. Qaisi and Yamani divisions stemmed from the pre-Islamic tribal schisms 27

A Child of Ma‘ruf | and were represented in Arab Muslim politics as well as Druze affairs. The families fled southeast to a lonely steppe beyond the Hauran. Once volcanic land, it was colored grey by the thousands of black or grey basalt rocks scattered all over it and by pieces or standing remnants of basaltic Nabataean buildings, temples, columns, and baths. Below the area known as the Refuge (al-Lija), is the hilly, rocky region, subsequently named the

Jabal al-Duruz and bounded on the east by a tongue of the Great Syrian desert. There in 1858, Isma‘il al-Atrash, more popular with the local Druze

than their oppressive Hamdani lords, began to challenge the Hamdani clan’s suzerainty in the area. By 1869, the al-Atrash clan replaced the Hamdanis as the dominant clan of the area. Isma‘il had eight sons: Hilal, Sa‘id, Yahya, Shibli, Mansur, Mustafa, Ibrahim, and Muhammad. The eight produced the various branches of the existing family, who live in various _ towns and villages of the region. Ibrahim begat the Suwayda branch of

the family, which included Asmahan’s grandfather, Farhan, and his brother, ‘Abd al-Ghaffar, who was an ‘uqqal, and the father of my respondent and host in Suwayda, Abdullah. Another branch of the family whose base was in the village of al-Orayya produced Sultan al-Atrash, a hero of

the revolution. I met and interviewed his son, Mansur ibn Sultan. Although the Druze were ostensibly part of the Ottoman Empire, neither the Ottoman governors of Damascus nor Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Muhammad ‘Ali of Egypt who ruled Syria for some years in the nineteenth century, had much success in taming, taxing, or in conscripting them. They and the Hauranis are still regarded as a combination of “hillbilly” and fierce, proud, tribal Arabs by urban Syrians; even their Lebanese Druze counterparts characterize them in this manner. The French also repeated the common stereotypes of the Druze—fierce fighters, but

cunning, and secretive. ,

28

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uncovered, they would make an iniifadha (uprising) and search her out wherever she might be to thrust a knife in her heart.”” Asmahan was palpably disappointed, but she felt that other offers

- would be extended, and she concentrated instead on the challenge of | live performances at Mary Mansur’s. Audiences in a public setting composed of entirely strange faces were still new to her. She sensed that she had much to learn before she could artfully manipulate her audience as could the more experienced vocalists. They elicited admiration from their

audiences who exclaimed, “Ah!” or “Ya latif!” ,

59 |

To Quiet the Nightingale It was in this period that al-Taba‘i wrote:

| I first heard the name Asmahan in 1929 or 1930, I don’t remember exactly when. Perhaps I read her name or some gossip

about her in the weekly paper... But I do remember... Mary

Mansur, was one of the producers of the Ramsis theater, and | she had opened a salon (a sort of nightclub) on Imad al-Din _ street. She sent me an invitation to attend the opening party. But I didn’t go.

Mary Mansur approached me after that one time in the street and chided me. I thought about that event while walking one evening along Imad al-Din street with one of my friends.

We passed by Mary Mansur’s place, and went in. : The salon was very crowded. We couldn’t find anywhere to sit So we stood in the cramped space listening to a sad and deli-

cate voice... It was the voice of a young girl standing on the stage. Her appearance was refined. She wore a black robe anda black zzar (veil) wrapped around her head and face. She stared

straight ahead without turning either to the left or the right. What a feeling of sweetness and tragedy she imparted! This was the performer, Asmahan, and that was the first time I saw her.

And the sensation that touched my soul that night was “something else,” something young, vulnerable, poor, searching for genuine mercy. There was that “something” in that sad thin voice which reached my ears for the first time...something that reaches

me to this day. That took place in 1931. I never returned to Mary Mansur’s salon and I didn’t hear Asmahan there again. But I never forgot her voice or her name.” _ Singers could also be booked for public parties, and Asmahan owed her invitations as much to connections with the various musicians as anything else. When she became more famous, she did not book as many such events, as she reportedly loathed the audiences and the atmosphere _ of these public concerts. The critics claimed that she suffered from stage fright, but that does not match up with accounts of her confidence. Other singers complained about the unpredictable or obnoxious behavior of certain male patrons, especially when they drank. Such incidents tended to occur more often in clubs than in public concerts. Perhaps Asmahan, unlike Umm Kulthum, thought she could rely upon an exclusive private audience, instead of consistently expanding a pool of new fans. Perhaps her brothers were advised against booking these public concerts. Then, 60

To Quiet the Nightingale

too, in the early 1930s they did not yet possess the sort of connections

that Umm Kulthum did for booking such events. |

_ . Conditions in many spheres of life were shifting in Egypt. The Depression had affected the country, and the lower overhead in maintaining the nightclubs compared favorably to the costs of large troupes such as that formed by Munira al-Mahdiyya. Isma‘il Sidki Pasha, strongman of

Egypt, wielded his grip on the country—basically in the service of the Palace. That meant, in turn, that censorship was imposed, and the pub-_ lic began to weary of the politicians’ promises. Indeed, the British were _ still in Egypt, and a treaty reducing their presence was yet to be achieved.

A new religious movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, was established. | Its members, the [khwan, considered music and films to be anathema, and circulated through neighborhoods of the city, spreading pamphlets

about a return to shari‘a rule. Asmahan’s patrons were aware of these new pressures, and all considered their social, entrepreneurial and po-

_ litical options carefully. |

_ Fw’ad returned from his extended trip to the Jabal. Asmahan was stunned when he disrupted the first evening back in their home in Cairo by rudely asking their guests and musician friends to leave. Over their _ mother’s protests, he thundered in a totally unfamiliar voice, “There will |

be no men in this house! Do you understand or not?” |

| She was still perplexed when he uttered roughly, “Amal, you know _ that owr women, that is our Druze women, do not keep company with strange men. They don’t sit with them and make them laugh. They don’t

~ work as actresses in the movies!” And then, the clincher; “And Druze

don’t marry anyone except other Druze!” — oe What in the world could have come over Fu’ad? She knew that some men were interested in her and flirted with her, certainly, but she herself wasn't the least bit tempted and had never dawdled over any talk of mar_ Ylage. Her musical career was all she really wanted to focus on.

, Then Fu’ad’s secret emerged, “The Amir Hassan al-Atrash wants to marry you, Amal. And he is a man unlike other men. Your father has agreed and so have I.” And she coolly retorted, “And what about my — _ mother’s opinion?” “It’s you who will be married,” yelled Fu’ad, “Women

But they did. a oo |

have no opinion in this matter.”*

| 61

Fu’ad faced the resistance of his mother, Asmahan, and his brother Farid, from whom he expected eventual acquiescence. He had plotted

To Quiet the Nightingale

this outcome the previous summer,” but seemed not to take into ac- , count the difficulties in adjustment his sister would face in village life in

the Jabal. He was overwhelmed when Hassan had suggested marrying | his sister himself, although he had first intended to find a match for her from among his extended family. ‘Alia’s resistance did not satisfy Fu’ad or Asmahan. She opposed the marriage, in Asmahan’s view, for the wrong reasons—these being mercenary. Asmahan and Farid contributed funds crucial to the household. Da’ud Husni, al-Qasabji, Madhat Assim, and her other musical acquain- __ tances had predicted a bright and shining future for Asmahan, who was

, quite young to end her career prospects so abruptly. Various assurances had to be made to ‘Alia before she would agree to the marriage, and these were arrangements which were to benefit ‘Alia directly.

Sir Edward Spears wrote concerning Asmahan and her early marriage:

Her mother, like herself, had a beautiful singing voice. She established herself in Cairo, and, being without an income, took to singing at the parties of Arab friends. That was all right according to Druze custom, but when she went on to sing in cabaret and music halls it was not, and the Druze decided she must be stopped. They passed the hat around and collected quite a considerable sum. They then drew lots and the young heir apparent won the lucky number, which gave him the task of going

to Cairo and murdering the lady. |

Arrived in Cairo, he went to the house where she lived. The door

was opened to him by her seventeen-year old daughter, with whom | he fell instantly in love, and spent all the murder money on tak- | ing her out. He subsequently married her and brought her back to Soueida, the Druze capital. How the subscribers to the murder fund took this use of it I] do not know, nor what became of her mother, except that she was dead by the time I began my mission.*° Just to place this in perspective, it must be added that ‘Alia was quite alive at the outset of the Spears Mission; in 1965 she moved to Beirut and died there in 1968.’ But the Arab defense of female honor was fascinating to the British who saw themselves as the enlightened race which could

| 62

| To Quiet the Nightingale prevent honor killings. Here the “truth” is not what matters, but the

| intent of the “untruth.” i

Hassan ’s relatives corrected the record. It was ‘Ali Mustafa, Hassan’s _

politically incendiary cousin who thought he might be interested in Asmahan at first, for Fu’ad had told them of her beauty and of his concern for her future.** Hassan’s elder relatives wrote to ‘Alia concerning their cousin. She was old enough to be married according to the stan-

dards of the Jabal, and her reputation would be compromised if she remained in Cairo. Fu’ad and Fahd gave their assent. ‘Then ‘Ali Mustafa and Hassan decided to travel to Egypt and settle the engagement. However, as soon as Hassan glimpsed his young relative, Asmahan, he decided to marry her himself, and “Ali Mustafa did not stand in his path.

Hassan explained that Fahd had already agreed to a match but he faced ‘Alia’s opposition. She refused, but later relented when Hassan promised her a residence in Damascus, and a cash settlement. QV DEIZDY?,-— Q’@ QD” LY — DY” s DY”— LY’”_—scY"’

Asmahan had known in the depths of her consciousness the probable outcome of the family negotiations. She was attracted to Hassan, or at least to the idea of Hassan, and wondered what it would be like to have an Amir in love with her. Later on, after a bitter battle with her family,

she spoke cynically about the whole incident toa friend. |

My mother refused [Hassan] the first time, and gave all sorts of excuses for her refusal. You see, I was the goose who laid the golden eggs. If I married, who would support her? How would

she live? Farid was also working as a singer in the clubs, but he | | was a young man, a man, able to stand on his own feet and take what he wanted, leaving the remainder for my mother! I had always been the weak one, and nothing could help that. My mother took whatever she wanted from my earnings.” Asmahan had been proud, as a young girl of fifteen, to contribute to the

family earnings, and dreamed of buying her mother clothes with her own earnings. But her mother had became more dependent on her than she anticipated, emotionally as well as financially.

| According to Asmahan, Hassan had communicated a certain amount of pressure on her mother from the other family members after ‘Alia’s preliminary refusal. “He told them that I was working as a singer and that my mother had pushed me into this profession.” Perhaps Spears’ : 63

To Quiet the Nightingale story is not completely unfounded, for one can imagine the initial reac-

tion in the Jabal to such information. :

As Asmahan remembered, Hassan made two formal requests to her mother before they agreed upon the engagement. Hassan was a small man with a sensitive face at that time; later in his life he put on weight. He did not wear the kaffiya, but wore the tarbush or went bareheaded and dressed in European suits. And Asmahan was attracted to this man, who had already married five wives! Asmahan formulated her own conditions. She insisted on living in Damascus, not in the Jabal. She refused to adopt the hzad (veiling). She wanted Fu’ad to travel to Syria with her and begin a new life there. After

all, he had arranged this whole exodus and he wanted to rebuild and solidify his ties with the family. And she wished to spend each winter in Cairo.*” Hassan promised her mother five hundred gold lira along with

the house in Damascus, and he agreed to Asmahan’s conditions. AlQasabji and Asmahan’s musical contacts were informed that she was returning to Syria. She cried whenever she thought of them. Fu’ad had agreed to accompany her, although he had fallen in love with a Jewish neighbor of theirs. None of his immediate family seemed to have objected to this choice, and he planned to take his fiancée with them and marry her after Asmahan’s wedding. Just before they were due to depart, a strange man, a fortune-teller

of sorts, lurched into the house and predicted dire fates for the three siblings. Asmahan, he said, would die by water. Furthermore, she would

be pregnant three times, but only one daughter would live. Fu’ad, he declared, would not end up with his current love, and Farid would become deathly ill. They laughed off the shadows these strange words con-

- jured, but the very next day, Fu’ad’s fiancée discovered that she could not obtain the transit permits or visas to Syria. Fu’ad knew that they couldn’t postpone their trip, and he promised to return for his girlfriend directly after Asmahan’s wedding. He said this easily enough, but he felt a curious disquiet when he thought about the strange man’s prediction. Asmahan and Hassan were married in 1933. The British and French

documents contained information concerning their second marriage, but not this first union. Many of the important Druze figures attended the wedding. ‘Alia was present for the event, but returned to Egypt as soon as the festivities were over. Almaz, Asmahan’s old nurse agreed to stay on with her, and Asmahan began her new life, as Amira Amal alAtrash. Hassan altered her first name as well, changing the spelling in Arabic from the singular version of Hope (Amal) to “Hopes” (spelled with a long alif and pronounced Amaal). 64

To Quiet the Nightingale Hassan rented a villa in Damascus and furnished it for her. The , Atrashes had their own “palace” in Qazzazin, an area of Damascus, but the French were occupying the large and elegant building at that time. Hassan began to divide his time between the Jabal and the city. For the | time being, Fu’ad accompanied him to the Jabal, but requested Hassan’s

permission to return to Cairo for his own sweetheart. |

| Hassan shocked Fu’ad with his stern refusal. He told him that mar _ riage to a Jew was absolutely unacceptable to the family, and Fu’ad was now, according to Hassan, really an integral part of that family. He had

_ admired Fu’ad’s courage in coming alone from Cairo in order to pre_ serve his sister’s reputation and secure her future. How then, could he expect Hassan to stand by silently while he ruined his own life. “Our people simply would not accept your union with a Jewish woman,” he explained. “We would not entertain her as a guest in our houses.”?! Fu’ad felt physically ill. The little family in Cairo had known which of their friends were Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, but the distinctions had hardly mattered. Here, prejudices were so strong that there could be no discussion. And, deeply wounded, he stayed on in the Jabal. According to his Syrian relatives, he began to drink a good deal more than

he had before. | |

_ Asmahan came to understand her husband, and realized that he was _ terribly anxious about events in the Jabal at this time. Though he traveled back and forth, crises had occurred while he was with her in Dam- | ascus. Rival families and upstarts used his absences to their advantage. _ She enjoyed the liveliness in Damascus. She wandered down the darkened main passage of the Sug al-Hamidiyya, turning into the small alleys . that extended from the wider covered walkway, where she could hear her own records being played. Meanwhile, she shopped for the gorgeous

was created for!” | |

cloth sold there, and for perfume. Labib commented, “This is what woman _

But pure hedonism gave way to her worries about Hassan. He laughed away her remonstrations and took her off to Beirut on holiday. Finally, one day she forced him to hear her out. “Hassan,” she said, “listen to me. I give up my first condition. I want to go with you to the Jabal. And as I

will have to adopt the hijab there, I drop my second condition.”

“You're joking!” he exclaimed. “Aren’t your” :

| 65

“No, I mean it. And if conditions are still uncertain at the end of the fall, I want to spend the winter with you. I shan’t travel to Cairo.” He stopped her with a kiss before she said anything about Fu’ad. Although the family had a guest house in Suwayda, it was intended for entertaining visitors, and could not serve as adequate living quarters.

To Quiet the Nightingale Hassan’s real home base in the Jabal was in his village of al-"Era, south-

west of Suwayda. The Atrash feudal holdings extended south from there | to the Jordanian border, and all along the border cutting up north around Melah, and skirting the Darwish and Kiouane family holdings extended back up northwest to Suwayda. The family patriarch, Isma‘il al-Atrash had operated from ‘Era where a stone villa was built (according to Hassan’s grandson) back in 1878. Rivalries had developed among Isma’‘il’s

eight sons, and later a rift grew between the Atrashes of al-Qrayya and

and Beirut. |

those of al‘Era and Suwayda.*? Hassan decided to add on four extra rooms

for Asmahan, ordering the furniture that she specified from Damascus When Hassan first drove Asmahan out to al-‘Era, she gazed at the houses of the Druze guards clambering up the hill, and Suwayda far off in the distance as were the mountain tops. The Atrash villa was built as solidly as a citadel, of ancient dark gray stone, a great contrast to the Atrash “palace” in Damascus. Through the stone archway she walked into a courtyard and spotted the rooms above the dark madhafa, the receiving room, and along the sides of the courtyard. The madhafa itself, with its stone floor and benches, and vibrant green walls reminded her of the drafty castles in her French schoolbooks. Perched on the top of the hill, the house received the blowing wind from each direction, and one felt it if one ventured out of its gates. After several days there, she felt like a bird whose wing needed mend-

ing, grounded on an unfamiliar plain under a cruel sky. She sensed the spirits of the dead congregating on the hilltop near the villa’s walls where

the Druze would celebrate the most important funerals and gatherings. If they were all reborn, as promised, what was she feeling? She vowed to submerge her thoughts and make life as gay and lively as possible. Asmahan convinced Hassan that he must receive the French cordially in his home, in his role as the Amir. She felt that with the specters of famine hanging over the Druze—these were lean years—the flies should be lured with honey rather than vinegar. She was as charming as only an entertainer can be, and even the gruffest visitors dropped their arrogance around her. For all this, she empathized with the Druze complaints about the French, especially as she began to personally witness their prejudice and high-handedness. She threw parties at the old house, and the guests danced, while the huge old tree in the courtyard looked on in amazement. Hassan enjoyed hunting and Asmahan learned the sport quickly. Game included gazelles, birds, foxes, and rabbits, but the rider had to be familiar with the stony terrain. She was such an avid equestrian that when Hassan was ready to 66

To Quiet the Nightingale fall on his face with exhaustion, she was still cantering ahead. Apparently she was not squeamish about other aspects of country life. When a fox began running about her rooms one day, all the French visitors screamed. Asmahan grabbed it by the tail, and set about bashing its brains out against the stone floor.* _ Asmahan employed all her energy in devising new projects for her-

self and the guests. Gradually, however, a strange depression settled over . her, mixing with the boredom she had kept at bay until then. Her appetite suffered, and Hassan noticed the change. He told her gently that he really thought a move to Suwayda would be their best option. Suwayda was still a sleepy little town, but there would be better company there, more visitors, and she would surely feel less isolated. Hassan assembled plans and workers and began the construction of

a new and larger house in the center of Suwayda, just above the main . square. A large solid house with a peaked roof would emerge from the rubble, the stones and the cement. Construction. of the yellow ochre building took two years, and was completed in 1936. Asmahan had the __ workers plant evergreens resembling Italian cypress around the building so they would eventually tower over and shade it.

| In this period, Syrian politics simmered like the proverbial witch’s cauldron. Hassan helped Asmahan’s quick and attentive mind understand the machinations in Damascus and the importance of the FrancoSyrian treaty. The players consisted of the Nationalist Bloc; Dr. Shahbandar

(an old friend of Sultan al-Atrash) and his followers; the Independents; and others such as the nascent Parti Populaire Syrienne, led by young Antun Sa‘adah. The latter, with its leader’s goal of a Greater Syria, per-

- turbed the French as much as the more familiar and established Bloc.” | The French had changed some of their perceptions of the Syrians by the mid-1930s, but nuances in their delineation of the mandate had not hastened independence for the Syrians. After they smashed Faysal and his Arab nationalist supporters, the French envisioned a civilizing mandate that would eventually propel Syrians toward self-rule within a French orbit. The Druze revolt had divested them of some of their optimism.

Subsequent High Commissioners hoped to conclude a Franco-Syrian _ treaty like that achieved in Irag. However, all the earlier attempts had floundered due to the French desire to preserve authority and work _ through weaker, more “moderate” politicians. Forceful types such as Subhi

_ Bey Barakat scared the French off, and the Nationalist Bloc wanted a more thorough indication of eventual French withdrawal included in the treaty.*°

67 |

Lo Quiet the Nightingale By 1936, the French resigned themselves to legitimizing the Nationalist Bloc by signing a treaty. The agreement would alter the status of the Jabal and of the Alawite territory to the north, ceding it back to Syria so the country would represent a unified state. The French argued that the _ Druze and the Alawites resisted this plan, and that their duty was to protect them. Indeed, in official correspondence they claimed that they alone could convince the “minorities” to support the treaty. The Druze, however, in general did not oppose the plan, although they naturally hoped

| to represent their own region rather than deal with the ignorance of outsiders, whether from Damascus or Paris. The French tried to find Druze families who would oppose the treaty from amongst the less-dominant families in the region. One Francophile al-Atrash, Fawzi Bey, could be counted on for support. His father had

been a French collaborator, and he protested re-attachment lest the Muslims overrun the Druze and other minorities. “The Muslims,” he wrote, “are the sworn enemies of civilization,” who intended to extinguish the minorities as could be proven by the many massacres of the Jews. He cites M. Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, in his argument.” The French faithfully preserved Fawzi Bey’s communications, for they provided an

excellent pretext for French reticence to leave the Jabal. But his stance infuriated the other Druze who were intent on independence.* Hassan’s cousin, ‘Ali Mustafa, concurred with the Nationalists and wrote to the French in April of 1936 to formally condemn their efforts at inciting separatism in the Jabal. He then produced a manifesto, drafted around May 31, 1936, in favor of union. It began, “The French authorities in the Jabal Druze have sought, and always seek to stifle the voice of Truth which acclaims Syrian unity, for it represents the aspirations of all Druze who care for their country’s best interests.” ‘Ali Mustafa complained

that the French had tried to impede legitimate meetings of Druze rep- __ resentatives intent on reunification, while they set up their own meetings with Francophile leaders and notables. He then reiterated that the Druze stood behind Syria and reunification, and no amount of French interference could budge them.” “Ali Bey’s responses and subsequent letter to Léon Blum himself greatly alarmed the French. How could they insist that all Druze were separatists who hated the Sunni Muslims, when the Turshan made such public statements?

| Hassan walked the line in this period, worried that the Jabal would explode or be irretrievably fragmented. The Shahbandarists in Damascus opposed the treaty on the grounds that it did not go far enough. Hassan supported the treaty, but worried about the aftermath of its enactment. 68

To Quiet the Nightingale An ardent nationalist, his patience would run out in the years to come,

when he fought the still-resisting French in the 1940s. The French never formally ratified this treaty, but changes were instituted in the Jabal as if it had been legally instituted. Nasib al-Bakri was chosen to be the first governor of the Jabal under its new status. As a non-Druze he was greatly resented. Hassan replaced him as governor, _ which had according to some critics been Hassan’s long-held ambition. _. - Asmahan was sufficiently mature to comprehend the full import of events and the implications of factionalism within the Jabal. And by now the Druze of the Jabal had came to know Asmahan, who had interceded for them on occasion with the French.” Since she was a notable, those in

difficulty turned to her as well as her husband. She apparently intervened in the case of a young girl who was being harassed by her guard- _

ian, and in a melodramatic kidnapping case where the errant couple took shelter in the al-Atrash home. Asmahan pleaded the lovers’ case to family members who preferred another match.* In both instances the young girls appealed directly to Asmahan, as the Amira, a mediator designated by custom, and a potential ally of justice.

, Conservatism was not restricted to the Jabal but permeated Syrian life. It was a sore point between the French and the Syrians, and the French graded its degree via a cultural thermometer. It was noted earlier | that in 1934 the French Ambassador was concerned by the persistence of

“social prejudice” among Syrians, despite external appearances which _ led the observer to believe that there has been a “deep occidental influence.” The Syrian mosques mounted a fervent campaign in response to publication of an article in Seduction (a French journal) that was judged _ offensive to the memory of the Prophet. And the brouhaha over separate cinema matinees (“séances”) for women continued to be a matter of dispute.** Community representatives threatened a strike if the French authorities allowed female theatre attendance. Police guarded female theatre goers in Damascus. Asmahan felt cut off from the Egyptian films

and from the former freedoms she had enjoyed.

After four years in the Jabal, she longed for her former life in Egypt.

Young enough to wonder about what might be as well what could have | been, she tortured herself dreaming about the entertainment world. She had finally been able to go to see a screening of Widad starring Umm _ Kulthum produced by Studio Misr. She bought Umm Kulthum’s new recordings in Damascus featuring ever more ambitious compositions by al-Qasabji. Asmahan listened, as a little voice whispered to her that she might have rendered these songs somewhat differently. ‘There was news from Farid who had a great success in his second film, Bulbul Effendi.

69 ,

To Quiet the Nightingale She thought of “Alia, who had not visited as they once had promised

each other. Then she felt guilty, realizing that, due to Hassan, she had shifted emotionally from her mother and her earlier life in Cairo to her new understanding of life in the Jabal. Had she changed inexorably or

would music always be her muse? |

Hitler’s forces had strengthened in Europe, as all knew. Mussolini’s armies invaded Ethiopia in 1935, alarming the British in Egypt. And there was a good deal of talk in Damascus (and elsewhere) about the future configuration of power in Europe. Asmahan wondered, as many did, what might happen in North Africa, and of course, in Cairo. Many nationalists were pro-Axis in Syria, and the fact that the French never ratified that hard-fought treaty was surely a part of their motivation. QP YP? QD? DI?’ DL! ®DY”™_—_ DD”_— DD” ODY_—s YL’

: Asmahan did not recognize the changes in her body immediately. But her longing for the people and places of her past burned more strongly than ever. In the mornings, she woke early, feeling choked, thirsty

and nauseous at the same time. After dashing to retch in the basin, she drank tea, sitting out on her balcony and gazing vacantly out over the road. Matters became clearer when she realized that she was pregnant. _ But her moodiness and depression increased, and she felt that her pregnancy was a sort of seal of doom. A wife who truly loved her husband would not feel trapped, would she? Why did her nausea and sense of suffocation increase when he was near her? But she did love Hassan. It was just that she felt her whole identity had shifted; it was buried somehow, and if she stayed on, she would never be herself again. She apparently went and asked some women in Suwayda about methods of ending a pregnancy. But as they spoke she experienced a choking sensation— she felt she could not breathe. She suddenly began to entertain the idea of a visit to Cairo, to her mother, to Farid, to her old friends. Tensions arose in this period between Asmahan and Hassan’s sisters, leading to a heated confrontation. At issue were various financial matters and questions of family property.*® Asmahan was furious and felt as _ if she were fighting without allies. Then, she asked Hassan directly for permission to visit her mother. Put in that manner, and despite her condition, or perhaps because of it, he agreed. She set off for Cairo, exuberant on the one hand, but terrified on the other, as she had decided to try and terminate her pregnancy. 70

, To Quiet the Nightingale She arrived and evaded the journalists—she had promised Hassan

| to try to avoid publicity. Her mother was thrilled to see her. Asmahan made a few calls and then left home saying that she would return soon. Asmahan requested an abortion from the doctor she had been referred to, and he refused in no uncertain terms. Her initial pique and fear gradually subsided, but the pregnancy and the labor were difficult. Just before the labor she dreamed of a girl baby with golden hair riding a horse! The delivery nurse told her that she had delivered a girl child, just as predicted, but she had come into the world

without her mount,* thank goodness! |

Labib could have known about Asmahan’s turmoil before the baby’s birth only if Asmahan communicated these sentiments to Fu’ad or Farid. _ It is curious that her brothers would communicate her indecision about motherhood and the story’s inclusion in a published work intentionally indicts Asmahan as an immoral woman fending off her maternal role— for abortion is outlawed, with some exceptions pertaining to the health

sible. ,

, of the mother, even today in the region. Could this have been a juicy but false rumor that Labib could not resist including in his work? It is pos_ After her daughter Kamilia was born, Asmahan was transformed into a doting mother. She had to admit that she did not want to return to the Jabal after living again in the familiar warmth of her family in Cairo. But Hassan was waiting for her! _ She left baby Kamilia in Cairo with her mother just as, Labib comments, the Arab Everyman Goha of popular stories left his mismar (doublereeded musical pipe) in the house he sold—to visit it whenever he wanted. Asmahan went to the Jabal.“ It was not unusual for grandparents to raise

| small children, or to care for them for extended periods, so we should | not immediately judge Asmahan as a mother behaving inappropriately. Hassan threw parties for her, and constant parades of guests trailed in and out of the house. But Hassan was aware that her heart and mind were elsewhere and he felt wounded and indecisive, as never before. | General Puaux, a Vichy official who toured the area at this time, visited Hassan’s home in Suwayda and remembered Asmahan, though not her name. This visit probably occurred while she was residing there after Kamilia’s birth. Puaux wrote:

...She didn’t take well to the hardships of Druze life, and tried

to create, in sad Suwayda, an Occidental atmosphere. She | received us unveiled, in a pleated white gown; speaking a clear, pure French learned in a convent in Egypt. Cocktails were being 71

Lo Quiet the Nightingale served in front of a mahogany bar built into the salon of the villa. The aged “Abduljaffar” with his white turban regarded the scene with an ill-concealed disapproval. French officers, sabres _

in their uniforms, surrounded the Amira who laughed while drinking a mixture of champagne and whiskey. It reminded me of a film based on a scenario of Pierre Benoit. Not a thing was missing, even the scholar in his cassock, living in the dream of a

forbidden world; the chaplain of Suwayda, the relentless archaeologist who spoke only of relics and rubbings. He had introduced me to the Nabataean civilization and made me admire the sumptuous mosaics discovered at Chahba (a site near

Suwayda). The Roman decor retained a strange Syrian voluptuousness. Eros was a God of Hellenism that Mohammed

could not dethrone. . . The Amira-songstress left Suwayda one day and never returned. ... Lhey say that had she remained, Azrael would have been forced

to make a choice twixt her and the aged “Abduljaffar.” The an- | gel of death would have spared one or the other...” , SE? EI? DL? DY?-W— LY?” EOL?” OOD”_—-«_ EP!_—«-§ WO"'’'—sO_ lL’

Labib contended that Asmahan began to resent Hassan at thistime, _ even to hate him, and in quarrels blamed Fu’ad for ever having arranged

the marriage to begin with. A chance meeting with Dr. Baida of the Baidaphone recording company in Damascus certainly played a role in her decision to return to her life of singing in Egypt. This time, Hassan asked her: “And when will you return?” Her face was inscrutable. But the tiniest gleam of cruelty could be seen in her eyes. “Dream on,” she responded, “if you ask me to return.””

1. Fu’ad al-Atrash, 23 October 1993, Cairo, Egypt.

, 2. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993 and

17 August 1993.

| 72

3. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 82-88. | |

Oo To Quiet the Nightingale 4. Personal interviews with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993 and : 17 August 1993. Although Munir was certain the visits took place in these years, it is possible that Fu’ad visited in 1929 and 1930, or in 1930 and |

1931, for Munir was a young child at that time. Oddly, Fu’ad only recounts one visit to the Jabal, undertaken, he says, purely on his sister’s

account. Labib, Qussat Asmahan, 82-88. _ 5. Personal interviews with Munir al-Atrash and ‘Abdullah al-Attrache.

17 August 1993, Suwayda, Syria. |

— 6. Ibid. | | | | , 7. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 65-66. See also, “And in 1930, the Columbia company began to promote Asmahan although she couldn’t have been -more than fourteen years old.” Ni‘mat Fu’ad, Umm Kulthum wa ‘Asr min _ alFann, (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma lil-Kitab, 2nd edition, 1983) 300.

| 8. Selim Sednaoui, “Western Classical Music in Umm Kulthum’s Coun-.

_ Arts of the Middle East. a | try,” in Sherifa Zuhur, ed. Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing

9. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 71-72. | , 10. Ibid, 74, and repeated in al-‘Aynayn, Asmahan, 13. 11. Nabil Azzam, “Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab in Modern Egyptian Mu-

sic.” Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles, 1990. | |

12. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 74-75; al-- Aynayn, Asmahan, 13. _ 13. Personal interview with Fahd Ballan, Suwayda, 18 August 1993. 14. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab, and Mahmud Sharif, George Ibrahim | — al-Khuri, Baligh Hamdi, Muhammad B. Sarfiya, Muhammad al-Mawiji, Ahmad Fu’ad Hassan, Mahmud Lutfi. Dhikrayat Farid al-Atrash (Cairo:

Dar al-Ma‘araf bi Misr, 1975). , ,

15. Lizbeth Malkmus and Roy Armes, Arab and African Film Making. (Lon-

don and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1991).

73 |

To Quiet the Nightingale

16. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 76-77. |

17. Ibid, 78. : a 18. Graham-Browne mentions that Asmahan was Tal‘at Harb’s mistress, _ citing information from Virginia Danielson. Sarah Graham-Browne, Jmages of Women in the Photography of the Middle East, 1860-1950 (New York:

Columbia University Press, 1988) 183; Virginia Danielson wrote “she [Asmahan] returned to Egypt and involved herself with the well-known

journalist Muhammad al-Taba‘i, the banker Tal‘at Harb, ... Ahmad Hassanayn, Badr Khan, and Salim etc. all in a period of less than four years.” “Shaping Tradition in Arabic Song: The Career and Repertory of Umm Kulthum.” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Ethnomusicology, Univer-

sity of Illinois, 1991, 149 and citations, al-Taba‘i, (2nd edition) and al Maw ‘id, 31 August 1978, 10-13. The men Danielson lists included Asmahan’s three husbands. If her other inferences are based on al-Taba‘i’s account, it should be noted that al-Taba‘i does not mention Tal‘at Harb in this light, and never specifies the degree of intimacy between Asmahan and Hassanayn Pasha, or al-Taba‘i himself. It is not likely that Tal‘at Harb could have had a liaison with Asmahan in 1931, due to his age and infir-

-mities, and her chaperones. 19. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 108.

20. Danielson, “Shaping Tradition,” 146. | 21. Personal interview with Samim al-Sharif, Abu Rumaneh, Damascus, Syria, 13 September 1993.

22. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 80-81. 23. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 8-9.

24. Ibid, 91-92. 25. If, as Labib relates, Fu’ad made this journey after Asmahan received her first film offer and was already working for Mary Mansur, it could not have taken place before 1930 as stated in the Syrian Turshan’s version. As for other inconsistencies: Fu’ad claims to be only six years older than Asmahan was, which was not true. He also mentions that Sultan Pasha and the French had arranged a truce, and that Sultan’s men had returned

74 |

| | Lo Quiet the Nightingale to the Jabal before his journey, which would have been impossible. ‘They

did not return until 1936. These errors might be Labib’s or Fu’ad’s. | 26. Sir Edward Spears, Fulfillment of Mission: The Spears Mission to Syria , and Lebanon 1941-1944 (London: Leo Cooper, 1977) 170. 27. Sabur al-Rahman al-Jabaqji. ALQism al-Awwal (& al-Qism al-Thani) min Diwan al-Musiqar Farid al-Atrash (Collection of Chants) Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

(Beirut: Maktab Dar al-Sharq, 1993), 11. |

28. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, 22 July 1993. Labib writes that Hassan declared his intent to marry Amal when Fu’ad first disclosed his dilemma over her to Hassan. This occurred, according to Fu’ad, before he even spoke to his father. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 87. Munir nei-ther corroborated Fu’ad’s version, nor Spears’ tale. Rather, he gave the

version here in the text. , ,

29. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 50. : 30. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 94. | |

81. Ibid, 96. | | 32. Ibid, 97. | 33. Général Andrea, La revolte druze et Vinsurrection de Damas 1925-1926 (Paris: Payot, 1937) 40; and conversation with Salim al-Atrash, al-Era, 18 | August 1993. Asmahan came from the Suwayda branch of the family, but

during her lifetime more animosity seems to have grown between the Qrayya and Suwayda branches than in the early period. And that animosity stemmed only partially from differences of opinion regarding rela-

tions with the French. , 34. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 100.

35. Archives du Quai d’ Orsay. Sous-series E, Syrie et Liban, File 491, 22

November 1935, 142-144. : 36. Itamar Rabinovich, “Between ‘Nationalists and Moderates,’ France

| 79

and Syria in the 1930s,” in The Islamic World: From Classical to Modern Times,

Lo Quiet the Nightingale | C. E. Bosworth, Charles Issawi, Roger Savory and A. L. Udovitch, eds.

(Princeton: Darwin, 1989). ,

37. Letter to Léon Blum and the French High Commissioner for Syria and Lebanon from Fawzi Bey al-Atrash, 11 June 1936. Archives du Quai

d’ Orsay, Series E) 1930-1940, Vol. 493: 22-26. 38. Mansur al-Atrash remembered that his father, Sultan, had ordered Fawzi's house to be set on fire as a warning to other collaborators back in the 1920s. Personal interview with Mansur al-Atrash, al-Orayya, 18 August 1993.

39. Archives du Quai d’Orsay. Sous-series E, Syrie et Liban, “Manifeste” written by ‘Ali Moustafa Bey al-Atrash, sent along with a note disclaiming ‘Ali’s significance, from Meyrier to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 29 May 1936. File 492, pp. 142-147. Générak Puaux remembered meeting Fawzi Bey at Salkhad wearing a magnificent citron yellow robe and speaking of “brotherhood and justice.” G. Puaux, Deux Années aux Levant: Souvenirs de Syrie et du Liban 1939-1940 (Paris: Hachette, 1952) 155.

40. Fu’ad claims that she bravely confronted the French officer in command at.al-Orayya at one point after an incident in the village. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 102-103. If the story is true, one wonders where the al-

Atrash family heads were at the time. Otherwise, the tale is a part of

Fu’ad’s effort to describe his sister outside of her artistic milieu. |

41. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 104-105 and 106-107. 42. Archives du Quai d’Orsay. Sous-series E, Levant, No. 489, 3 August 1934, French Ambassador - HC to Minister of Foreign Affairs. 43. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993 and 17 August 1993.

44. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 109. -

45. Ibid, 110. | 46. Munir, her half-brother, corroborated, seeing her action not as the sign of a “bad mother” but as a strategy for escape to Egypt when necessary. 76

1993. | |

To Quiet the Nightingale

Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July and 17 August

47. G. Puaux, Deux années aux Levant, 153-154. Puaux continues “... and his Excellence, Hassan, equipped himself with another wife.” His descrip| tion of the tension between ‘Abd al-Ghaffar and Asmahan may have been obtained through hearsay, although Puaux probably accepted the story, for when Hassan next hosted him, he was married to Hind ‘Alam al-Din. That visit was in April of 1940, and his last visit to the Druze was on 30

October 1940. Ibid, p. 157. | 48. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 115. |

| 77 po

, Chapter 3 Lhe Triumph of Youth ASmaban was reunited with her daughter Kamilia and her mother ‘Alia in Egypt. The family spoke lightly to Asmahan about the ebb and flow in family fortunes that had occurred in her absence. Farid had pursued contacts, practiced assiduously, and developed artistically since his debut. In addition to his growing mastery of the ‘ud and skill with his voice, he had begun to compose. The future looked bright. Their conversation turned to Egypt, the Court, and dominant British personalities. With King Fu’ad’s death, his young son Farug had come _ to power in May of 1936. He was fairly popular at the outset, and initially utilized some alliances with al-Azhar, Cairo’s great Islamic university. Fac- _ ing interference and opposition from both the British and various political actors, he soon started creating his own kitchen cabinet. Asmahan was curious about the young king who had been studying in England when she left for Syria. His father, Fu’ad, had been a master manipulator, probably a difficult legend to follow. Faruq’s rollicking good nature had already imprinted a few worry lines on the foreheads of Egyptian and British officials. A courtier and prize-winning explorer, the intelligent Ahmad Muhammad Hassanayn Pasha had been put in charge of the youngster. Faruq’s tutors could not motivate or control the young man, who was good-hearted but lazy and who tended to conflagrate scandals if events were not “handled.” Hassanayn eventually became the court chamberlain, a powerful position. He had married Latifa Yussri, daughter of Princess Shevekiar, who also had some influence over Faruq. Farid pointed out that Hassanayn provided a needed counterweight to Queen Nazli, a strong and doting mother, and the earlier influence of ‘Aziz alMasri, a military man and an Arab nationalist, who often caused British

wariness and intolerance. | On his return from England and ascent to power, the young King’s propensity was to rely on politicians opposed to the Wafd party. His late father, more skilled in the arts of politics, had employed similar tactics.’

, Farid explained to Asmahan that Sir Miles Lampson (the British High Commissioner) berated Faruq when he dismissed al-Nahhas Pasha as Prime Minister. For the Wafd still had a majority in parliament, and even 78

| The. Triumph of Youth | | though the British disliked al-Nahhas, they wanted someone in power who could pressure Farug more effectively than they could. Sir Miles Lampson had written in his diary on December 29, 1938, “They do so overdo this Palace business in this country, but unfortunately I don’t see any remedy for it. No one—not even Prince Mohamed Aly (the heir to the throne)—has the guts to stand up to the boy [Faruq]. Indeed he is becoming a fair pickle, and the latest reports show that even

Aly Maher is losing what little influence he had over him. It’s a great problem.” Entry after entry illustrates Lampson’s irritation with “the boy” mollified at regular intervals by Faruq’s good-natured promises to “do bet-

ter” after each maddening incident. When the war fever heightened, Lampson grew more anxious over Faruq’s purported sympathies with the Axis, and the impression thus given of Egypt as a whole. He argued that the King must go. Others disagreed, among them Archie Wavell, who commanded the British forces. The Egyptian public’s perception — of their monarch differed from that of the British. © Farid added slyly to his mother and sister that friends were saying

_ that Farug suspected a romance between his mother, Nazli, and Hassanayn. Their dalliance supposedly began while the royal family went

on its spring vacation in 1937. Rumor had it that Faruq heard that the couple had arranged a rendezvous one evening, and, armed with a pistol, he came dashing into the queen’s wing of the Kubbah palace. “And, then?” Asmahan pressed Farid. “Go on!” “Well, Hassanayn was there all right, but he was reading from the

Qur’an itself to the queen. Can you imagine?” a The story lodged itself in the recesses of Asmahan’s mind. Soon she

would meet Hassanayn Pasha for herself. With the resumption of her own career, she met more and more of the political players of the era. As > for Farugq, it did seem that he was in an impossible position fora young ruler: condemned by the British for displaying royal willfulness and criti-

cized by Egyptians when that will was chastised.* | . |

The Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 implied a reduction in British powers, on paper, but did not bring about an exodus of British forces, personnel, or influence. The British High Commissioner had been transformed into Her Majesty’s Ambassador, and he was intent on strangling any vital opposition to British interests, whether this sprang from the

| 79

political parties or the Palace. , | The Capitulatory Treaties were a series of trade agreements that had extended extraordinary privileges of low tariffs and diplomatic legal standing to Western agents, merchants, and governments. They were finally

The Triumph of Youth abolished in 1937. And the Mixed Tribunals, providing an alternative — Justice system for foreigners, were to be closed after twelve years. Furthermore, Egypt had joined the League of Nations. But the British maintained a grip upon their former colony, if not a sustained choke-hold. British fears only heightened as the tensions in Europe increased. The Fascists in Italy did not appear to represent a force sufficiently strong to threaten Egypt single-handedly, but they had decimated the population of Libya earlier, executing some 24,000 Cyrenaicans and herding the others into prison camps from 1931—1932.° They intended to build an empire in northeastern and eastern Africa. By the time Mussolini conquered Ethiopia in 1936, the British and the Egyptians were shaken, leading to the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance. Another significant pattern in an alarming series of events was the rebellion and continuing hostilities in Palestine.’ As Syrian nationalists, and as Egyptian residents, Asmahan’s immediate family opposed the British policies on Jewish immigration, as did her extended family, the _ Turshan. However, her relatives in Syria considered the British to be the only viable allies against the French—unlike some Syrians who perceived the Italians or even the Germans as potentially viable challenges to the existing colonial power. Naturally, this attitude contrasted with Egyptian | sentiments toward the British and with the generally Francophile atmosphere of Asmahan’s youth. During Asmahan’s absence, the musical industry had grown by leaps and bounds. Umm Kulthum was still the favorite of large numbers of the public. Her onetime rivals, Fathiyya Ahmad, with her “Turkish” style, and Munira al-Mahdiyya were fading into obscurity, but there were other young female singers. These would-be divas were no longer imitating the young Umm Kulthum in manner, swathing themselves in black, but had adopted

the romantic allure of the decade. Their hair was permed and swept up. They posed in evening gowns and wraps. Asmahan took it all in avidly; she had kept up with recordings in Syria, but the style, ambiance, and

, gossip of the industry could not travel via phonograph. She adopted a new look herself as she rekindled her singing career. She also renewed her old friendships and made some new and entertaining acquaintances. One was the wild and daring Amina al-Barudi, also a beauty, though of a different physical type than Asmahan. Dark, small, and sleek, she came from Circassian stock. Amina inspired many of her friends’ standards, with her furs and turbans and her astounding - automobile. Asmahan had her hair done like Amina and envied her bearing and poise. British gossip had it that Amina was secretly called the Black Rabbit, a code name. It was suggested that she was in touch with 80

a The Triumph of Youth - foreign powers—perhaps Asmahan’s contacts with the world beyond entertainment were made through Amina, but there is no proof in the

| circuit.® |

official files. According to those who remember the period, the two young women were the most daring and striking members of the Cairene party

| Fu’ad observed sadly Asmahan’s involvement with this fast set, her ~ Jate hours, and her white lies, with a lump in his throat. He confronted her, now and then, blustering like a novice teenage baby-sitter. He questioned his sister and his mother closely about her appointments, followed her, walking or driving inconspicuously. He tried to restrict the flow of

- guests and visitors to the house but to no avail. Didn’t Asmahan realize that she was still a married woman? He was shocked to learn when his sister returned from an evening of escape that she had slept on the sand dunes under the stars, near the Pyramids at Giza. He took to locking her

out, and she slept in the stairwell.

“Matters deteriorated to the point that she ran away from home, seek-

ing shelter at the country residence of an important Egyptian family _ friend. He tried to mediate, extracting a promise from Asmahan to return home on the condition that Fu’ad would deal more fairly with her. Fu’ad could barely conceal his rage in order to obtain her return. When — he came out to the ‘zba (farm, or here, country estate) to collect her, he found her singing to the peasants, charmed by their simplicity and entrancing them, no doubt, in turn. Fu’ad was horrified. She stayed home in the evenings after her return for a short while, but she soon continued her rebellion, as he saw it. She contacted al-Taba‘i and asked if she could stay at his house for a few days on March 3, 1940, and eluded Fu’ad for two days, until Samir Zaki and Prince Ahmad Tal‘at came to fetch

her.’. , . On one particularly galling occasion, an unusually rainy evening (it

| rained a few times in the winter season), Fu’ad drove Asmahan to a palace in Heliopolis where she was to sing at a private party. He had not been invited and decided to drive around for a while and return to pick her up at the appointed hour. The lights were all extinguished when he returned to the palace. He learned from a servant that the young lady he described had left the palace from a rear door less than ten minutes after

| 81 | | she had arrived. Needless to add, there had been no social gathering

held at the palace that evening.” : 7

Hassan wrote to Fu’ad, Fu’ad wrote to Hassan, and the two planned |

a showdown. Hassan traveled again to Cairo, and, together with Fu’ad, forced Asmahan to return with them to the Jabal. Inwardly despairing, she felt her resistance collapse. Outwardly, she was as calm as the day she

The Triumph of Youth | had waited to hear if she might sing at the Opera, packing slowly and © methodically. This time around, news of her recordings and shocking public appearances had preceded her to Syria. Any Druze who had not already heard the whisperings about the daring Asmahan/Amal “who showed her hair to men” now heard plenty. But Hassan’s position in | the Druze community pre-empted any unpleasantness to his face—and all expected that he and Fu’ad would deal with her themselves. Not fully conscious of the depth of her own resistance, Asmahan began to experience a troubling energy, rage, and a bottomless despair. These feelings soon replaced the peacefulness that washed over the plateau dotted with black and grey boulders. She would be trapped here, with him, with them in this wilderness...forever, unless... She woke up too early, before dawn, her heart pounding and her thoughts whirling.

What could one do but ride down the hill, past the vineyards, by the stones, and through the peach trees outside of al-Qrayya, Sultan al-Atrash’s

small village (the lair of the tiger, as it was known). Nothing and no one answered her, not the stones, not the broken Roman columns, nor the reddish-breasted birds swooping by, not the old men in their baggy shirwal (trousers) and wrapped turbans driving their wagons loaded with grapes. She went off riding with a group of young women one day, goading

_ her horse on faster and faster. It was as if she were daring him to leap over the edge of the wad. All watched with their hearts in their mouths. Miraculously, she and the horse were not dashed into pieces. Fu’ad gazed at her, when the group cantered back, wondering. He wanted to discuss Asmahan with Hassan, when the latter dashed back briefly to Suwayda. Hassan, as governor, was clearly preoccupied with yet another political crisis, and Fu’ad held his tongue. But when Asmahan told Fu’ad she wanted to go to Damascus to buy clothes, he ordered her to stay in Suwayda. She ignored him, and her cousin Yusuf

al-Atrash took her to the city where they stayed at the then-fashionable | Orient Palace Hotel. The Orient Palace still stands kitty-corner to the magnificent Hijaz Railway Station in the heart of Damascus. In recent

nian tourists. |

years, it has been occupied exclusively by bearded and chadorclad Ira| Yusuf was summoned to Asmahan’s room in the middle of the night _ (according to Fu’ad) to find her unconscious, and an empty bottle of sleeping pills at her side. At three in the morning, Damascus, a smaller and more conservative town than Cairo, slumbered heavily. Yusuf commandeered the nearest tethered horse, and dashed off to bring a doctor. He revived Asmahan, and as her eyes opened slowly, Yusuf said softly,

| “What did you expect to see? The blazing fires of hell?” 82

| The Triumph of Youth

(hell).”” |

| And as the tears coursed down her cheeks, she gasped, “Truly, this is

| A horrified Fu’ad contemplated the situation. Hassan, as governor of the Jabal, was busier than ever. Asmahan refused to open up to her husband, not even to explain her despair, and Fu’ad decided that she really no longer loved Hassan. She had not been able to give Hassan the son he wanted, though Hassan would not renounce her for that failing. It was the first time she had tried to end her life, but he reasoned, it might not be the last time. And indeed, it was not.’® Suddenly a telegram arrived from Cairo announcing that “Alia was quite ill. Asmahan packed

quickly, crying. Fu’ad and she returned once again to the city—to Cairo, , immense and constantly moving in its yellow haze. She soon resumed her life as Asmahan the entertainer, and, although the battles with her

brother continued, her musical career flourished. ,

Muhammad al-Qasabji, the composer, heard that she was back in town and quickly snatched her up to learn and record several songs. Three of his compositions soon established her as a musical force, ac_ cording to music historian Samim Sharif. The first, “Layta lil-Buragq ‘Aina

Fitra,” telling the story of the prisoner Ma’asa, had been sung by Bahia Hafiz in the film Laila Bint al-Sahara. That film, with its historical allu-

| sions had been suppressed for fear of offending the Shah of Iran, who had come to Egypt to arrange his marriage with the beautiful Farida, Faruq’s sister. Asmahan’s rendition was a great success, though the lyrics are certainly dark and gloomy.

The text follows: |

Layta lil-buraq ‘aina fitra ma al-aqi min bila’ wa’nan : ‘adhbatu akhtaku ya wailaku _bi‘adhab al-nakr sabahan wa masa’an ghalluni gayduni dharabuni malmas al-iffat minni bi al-’asa qayduni ghalluni wa af’alu. —skulli ma shi’tum jami‘an min bila fa ana karahah bi ghaikum _ wa yaqini al-mawt shay’un yartaji | (If only the flashing of the eyes abated.

What was their brilliance without us? :

a My closeness to you pained me, oh woe is you. | | | With torments of denial, in the morning, and in the afternoon

They shackled me, they chained me, they beat me , | The virtuous touch of the stick upon me

They chained me, they shackled me, and they did ) all of your will from without. ,

83

The Triumph of Youth

I hold hatred for your transgression , , _ And my death is certain, a thing I hope for.) The gasida “Asqaniha bi Abi, Inta wa Ummi,” written by the poet Bishara al-Khuri was another hit. (“What a song!” exclaimed Madame al-Sharif to me during one of my visits to musicologist Samim al-Sharif. “Don’t you

remember it?” Asmahan’s uncle and brother remarked on “Asqaniha” and told me that as in other songs in this period, it was Asmahan’s expression of feelings about her own family that made it so captivating.”"* )

inta himmi |

Asqaniha bi abi inta wa ummi_ La litajlu al-hamm ‘anni

Imla’ al-ka’s ibtisaman wa gharaman

fa laqad nam al-nadami wa al-khuzami | zaham al-subh al-dhalama fa-l-ama

(Forgive her for the sake of my father and mother. It was not a matter for anxiety deemed far above me

| You are my anxiety.

Fill the cup, smiling ! And with passion | For the remorseful slept _ And my disgraces)

The third Qasabji milestone in Asmhan’s progress was a ballad, “Farq Ma

Bayna Leh al-Zaman?”” |

Farg ma bayna leyh al-zaman?_ Da al-‘umr kullihi ba‘dak hawan

Fu’adi fi hubbak majruh Wa galbi min ba‘dak baynuh Ta‘ala shuf, ya habib al-ruh Da al-‘umr kullihi ba‘dak hawan Asbab shigaya dhill al-fu’ad = Waal-‘ayn dhanaha kutr al-sahad

Imta ya’udli ‘ahd al-widad? Da al-‘umr kullihi ba‘dak hawan (Why is the separation so lengthy?

This is life, all of it follows you as love. My heart is wounded by your love And by your remoteness. Come let me see you, oh my soul’s beloved. This life, all of it follows you as love.

The heart’s descent is the cause of my distress. | | And my eyes are weak from sleeplessness. When will the time of love come to me? This life in its entirety follows you lovingly.)

, 84

| The Triumph of Youth In the lyrics, one notes classical imagery contained within colloquial _wordage. This song made such an impact that Asmahan’s artistry “began to shake the throne of Umm Kulthum” writes al-Sharif.’° _ Al-Sharif describes the “rivalry” of the two artists, Umm Kulthum and Asmahan, at a purely vocal level—in that the potential, the range, _ musicality, and the interpretive skills Asmahan possessed surpassed those _ of other voices with the sole exception of Umm Kulthum. And al-Qasabji was the catalyst who could stretch and push Asmahan’s instrument to its limits. Another dimension of the divas’ rivalry began at this time: a grow-

ing estrangement between Umm Kulthum and Qasabji which resulted

, in Qasabji’s exodus from the grand singer’s takht (ensemble)..” : About this time, the journalist and critic Muhammad al-Taba‘i spotted Asmahan at a theatrical evening, and she soon began to send signals

, that she would like to meet him. Fatima al-Yusuf, the entrepreneur and actress turned magazine publisher of Ruz al-Yusuf, regarded al-Taba‘1 highly, calling him “ustaz” (professor) and a specialist in the art of criticism.'* He wrote for her publication and for others, al-Akhir Sa‘a, for one. A thin, tall, immaculately dressed man, curly short hair receding slightly, he was photographed without the tarbush. His work creates the impression that he fell in love with Asmahan, the diva, knowing full well _ that she needed him for publicity. He feels pity for Asmahan as a person—her offstage personality—and perhaps exaggerates their friend-

_ ship in order to create a sense of proximity to and authority over his | subject matter. At any rate, he writes that he was summoned to meet Asmahan by none other than Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab. _ ‘Abd al-Wahhab had already worked with Asmahan, who sang the operetta “Majnun Layla” in the film, Yum Sa‘%d (1940). But she did not

appear in the film; her voice doubled for the actress, Samiha. Some | critics said that this was because her appearance was not classically “Arab.”

Others assumed that her brothers had convinced her not to appear, or that she was afraid of appearing on camera. ‘Abd al-Wahhab wanted her

to make a further recording of the operetta which had been a great success. This consummate musician was aware of the value of a good _ publicist and invited al-Taba‘i to his home. But the journalist experi-

enced a mixed reaction to the young artist he encountered: They finished their rehearsal and ‘Abd al-Wahhab introduced

85

me to Asmahan. She extended her hand and said in a sulky , tone, “Charmed.” And, in an instant, Asmahan was transformed

from the singer who sings from the soul and displays her deepest emotions in song, into a lady of the nightclubs—or at least,

The Triumph of Youth

| into her notion of that sort of lady. She drew her hand back... she wore a diamond, but it was really glass." Al-Taba‘1’s interest in the young artist resulted in friendship, if not com-

plete trust, for according to him, she soon began to confide to him her

unhappiness concerning her family situation. Yet, the specifics of this information and the details she supposedly told him of her background were often vague or inaccurate. Perhaps, al-Taba‘i did not question her closely enough or tended to generalize. Occasionally, he, like Labib, seems

to have gained his information from other (inaccurate) journalistic sources. In any case, Asmahan and al-Taba‘i gave the impression of shar-

ing a close acquaintance for a limited period of time, and al-Taba‘i’s notes enabled him to reconstruct Asmahan after her death more carefully than other published sources (save Labib’s family-informed text). Al-Taba‘i did not view Asmahan as a classic beauty, although her strik-

He wrote that: |

ing looks were more in vogue in this period of Vivien Leigh imitations. The truth is, Asmahan was magnetic, attractive, and feminine, but she was not beautiful—not according to the standard measures of beauty. Her nose was a bit more pointed than one would

like...and her mouth was wider than one might wish, and her chin was more than a little prominent. But her eyes! ... Her eyes were everything. In her eyes were secrets and enchantment. They were smoky green tinged with blue.*°

These eyes animated her features and captured her audience once she

rable eyes: | emerged from the recording disc onto the silver screen. They also

wounded a great many male admirers. Sir Stephen Hastings, a British officer who made much of her erotic impact, also noted these memo-

...one saw them as dark, another as clouded amber with the

| light piercing through, like the sun behind a Highland mist. Large, green and challenging, they held a man’s attention as though locked on a radar beam.” Though al-Taba‘i initially assumed that Asmahan was superficial, he

discovered that there was more to her than “show biz.” She was emotional, materialistic, and superstitious, and a pious side contrasted with her frequent lack of inhibition. He tells us that she cried at beautiful 86

, The Triumph of Youth sunsets and songs she loved, and that she carried a small Qur’an in her handbag at all times. She insisted that he call her Amal, her real name. Al-Taba‘i, who considered himself a gentleman, was not in a position to suggest a serious relationship with Asmahan (as far as we know), and was shocked by her disregard for propriety. But one also senses that he | was jealous of Asmahan. He had fairly conventional ideas about the nature of female artists and women in general. Nonetheless, al-Taba‘i was hurt when he suspected her duplicity and especially when she (or her family) wrote a series of letters threatening the various journalists who were “defaming” her, and even initiated a law suit following her flight from Egypt in 1941.

Asmahan was in demand, musically and socially. Her circle of close friends traveled frequently out of Cairo, to Alexandria, or to Asmahan’s favorite retreat at Ras al-Barr. Or she visited the homes of her friends, patronesses and patrons closer to Cairo. Some had “chalets” out near the

Pyramids where one could simply relax. | |

Madhat Assim, their old family friend, contacted her through Farid, and asked her to sing “Ya Habibi Ta‘alil al-Haqni Sawfa Illi Jarali” (the tango that had first enchanted me)—a thoroughly modern composition for the times, which had been sung previously by Mary Kwini in the film Zawjat hi al-Niyaba. The piece required ample breath and an effortless

delivery. oe Ya Habibi Ta‘ali

Ya habibi ta‘ali al-haqni sawfa illi jarali...min ba’dak , Sahranuh min wajdi anaji khayalak...min qudak

, - w-ana katmah gharami wa gharami halk(q) ani _ (My beloved, come to me, spare me, see howl am wounded from afar.

He stays up late at night due to my ardor, rescuing your | | imagination...who is your equal? As for me, my passion is his prisoner and my passion is deep.)

The success of the various compositions she sang in this period and the versatility and tone of her voice put her in a new position.” She had become a serious contender to Umm Kulthum, and according to several sources, had a more solid musical training in solfege, less of a tendency _ to alter the written score, and a wider vocal range than the other singer. The fact that she was younger and, to many, more attractive was noted by the public.

| , 87

_ The Triumph of Youth The songs she selected to present in private parties and recorded were not all of the sophisticated modern genre. Some resonate with classical mastery, while others demonstrate Egyptian or Eastern Arab folk inspiration and rhythms. Her repertoire will be discussed at greater length in Chapter Six. Her unhappiness with her family increased. Al-Taba‘i echoes Fu’ad’s

contention that Asmahan’s behavior was outrageous. The critic wrote that she could out-drink any man, smoked, spent money wildly, and stayed up late partying. About this time, she startled al-Taba‘i, who was leaving for his vacation to St. Moritz. He would normally have traveled to Lebanon, but due to the uncertainty of European hostilities and the difficulty of obtaining visas to French areas, the elites shifted their vacation plans. Asmahan suddenly appeared at the dock in Alexandria with her suitcase packed, ready to board his ship with him. He exclaimed, “It’s impossible, impossible, what you suggest. You are a madwoman. What will those on board say? There are hundreds of Egyptian men and women on board.” She merely shrugged, and said she had already sent a note to her family,

and added, “Am I not free?” Indeed, this was a question central to Asmahan’s existence. “Not to that extent,” replied her more conventional friend, and left her watching from the quay, wounded to the core, he was sure.*°

The chilly rumors of the war circulated to St. Moritz and drifted over

the Mediterranean to Egypt. With the German invasion of Poland on

September 1, Britain had declared war on Germany. The British Dominions were to follow in declaring their status. On September 13 of 1940, trumpets blew as Mussolini’s Arditi (commando force) in their black shirts marched toward Egypt from Fort Capuzzo ahead of a truck CONnvOY. Mussolini was so certain of victory that the trucks carried marble

statues to commemorate Italy’s progress against the British enemy. And,

it was not until February of 1941 that troops from Australia and New Zealand would arrive in Egypt to join existing forces and the Indian Brigades. The Italian commander, Marshall Graziani, was not as optimistic as his Duce (Mussolini). He was aware of the Italian overextension after the fighting in Spain and of their inferior tanks and materiel. His men set up camp at Sidi Barrani, not far from Marsa Matruh with its turquoise wa-

ters. The British battened down as well. |

When al-Taba‘i returned from his trip abroad, he did not immediately

contact Asmahan. He had read a newspaper tidbit concerning her involvement with a handsome young man who had rescued her from the

waves at the beach. When he rang her up, she admonished him for 88

a | The Triumph of Youth

better. | | | listening to silly stories—after all, a journalist of all people should know

_ There were other stories about her, including a reported romance with none other than Hassanayn Pasha. Hassanayn would have been a bit old for her, sophisticated, and probably useful for his own elite contacts. One of Faruq’s tutors, Sir Edward Ford had described Hassanayn:

__ _Hiis reminisces of Oxford are a delight to me ...Slim, sharply featured, with a sallow colour and grey hair brushed straight back from a high forehead, he has an unmistakably Bedouin -look...He has never had political inclinations [sic] and, although

nature are of the east.” | his culture and his intellect are occidental, his mentality and |

Later, in the post-revolutionary haze, some claimed that Hassanayn Pasha was in the service of the British and therefore a traitor. Perhaps, this category of rumor was intended to indict the entire Court, or to hint at ©

Axis complicity when Hassanayn died in a lorry accident. _ One can only wonder at the true nature of the December-May rela-

tionship, which may have been exaggerated by a jealous al-Taba‘1. Asmahan had reason to kindle his jealousy; after all, he had trampled on her spontaneity in Alexandria not so long before. Asmahan’s beauty, artistic reputation, and racy spirit were attractive, but she may only have

viewed Hassanayn as just another patron. One should remember that certain spectators paid a great deal of attention to the love interests of those attached to the Court, as such knowledge of such attachments could be useful in the pursuit of various goals. Their “romance” may have consisted of no more than visiting, dinners out, and simply being seen to- — gether. Asmahan, however, knew the rules of the game—and was mak-

Ing astatement. _ | | | Asmahan did report a phone call made to Hassanayn to al-Taba‘t,

and also to her family. Apparently, her telephone call was interrupted by _ ajealous Nazli. The fact that she communicated this matter to the jour-

nalist tells us that it may have been an incident she wanted others to know about. It may have been a rumor that al-Taba‘i heard elsewhere, and she may (or may not) have corroborated it. Or, perhaps, she simply wished al-Taba‘i himself to know that she had been rebuffed, and was once again available. However, this rumor was repeated and expanded into a tale of Nazli’s continued jealousy of the singer.

, — «89

At the end of October, Mussolini invaded Greece, and the British

were obliged to help the Greeks. Concerned with Churchill’s

The Triumph of Youth | commitments in the face of Egypt’s vulnerability, General Wavell decided

upon a secret attack against the Italians. The attack commenced in ' December, and the British victory was dramatic. Asmahan paid attention to the news; she was concerned with two fronts—Egypt and conditions in Syria. She was meanwhile busily engaged with promoting her career and

that of her brother, Farid. She and her brother had been approached with a bona fide film offer. The producer Gabriel Telhami, then operating

the Aflam al-Nil company, had heard her and her brother sing. His opinion was crucial to her film career. Her first film appearance, Intisar al-Shabab (The Triumph of Youth), imprinted her indelibly in the memories of a wider audience. The film, made in 1940 and released in 1941, was produced by Gabriel Telhami

and directed by Ahmad Badr Khan, a top director from Studio Misr. It ; starred Asmahan and her brother Farid, along with seasoned actors and actresses ‘Alawia Jamil, Ruhiyya Khalid, Mary Munir, Thurayya Fakhri, Latifa Amin, Anwar Wajdi, Fu’ad Shafig, Hassan Fayiq, Hassan Kamil, Bishara Wakim, ‘Abd al-Salam al-Nabulsi, Edmond Tuwayma, and ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Qasari. Samia Gamal, dancer, actress and Farid’s future heartthrob, made her first appearance as well. The film featured Farid’s music and songs. Texts to the various songs were elegant, most of them written by the poet, Ahmad Rami.*® Lengthy negotiations took place before ‘Telhami assented to the use of the siblings as his stars, though the film was a milestone in both their careers. Various elements of the plot mirrored real life, and effectively har__ nessed the struggle of social classes to achieve a popular myth of success. And to performers and audience, the film’s appeal was also based on Arab society’s inherent love-hate relationship with the musical entertainer. The love of music in Arab culture stemmed after all from an ancient oral

tradition. But the performer was often an object of scorn. A startling aspect of the twentieth century was performers’ abilities to move upwards in society in the fantasy of the film world, and, in the young al-

Atrashes’ case, also in reality. ,

Farid and Asmahan went over the various drafts of the script together. _

_ Asmahan read a plot summary: Two young singers, Wahid (Farid) and Nadia (Asmahan), brother and sister, arrive in Egypt by ship intending to seek their

fame and fortune. A man on a crowded train offers them a place | to stay in Cairo. When they arrive at their host’s residence, his wife takes offense at Nadia’s presence, so they stay with Umm Isma‘il, a friendly dint al-balad (lower-class Cairene woman). As

| The Triumph of Youth they settle into their new surroundings, each sings a solo and the singing neighbors include a comic trio, Walnut, Almond, and Filbert (Latif Amin, Fu’ad Shafig, and Hassan Faruq), while

other neighbors gather to listen. |

The trio assists them in finding employment at a local night- | club. The Levantine club owner (Bishara Wakim) hires them chiefly on the basis of Nadia’s appealing face and figure. One scene of their nightclub act is performed along with a corps of ballroom dancers. A wealthy regular, Mohi (Istafan Wasti), expresses his desire _ to know Nadia better, and the owner asks her to come sit with his favored customer. Nadia is horrified and refuses. Mohi com-

plains, and the owner fires the brother and sister, innocents

who had no idea such “mixing” would be required. Mohi, hear- | ing of the outcome, feels responsible and guilty, and invites Nadia to sing for a party at his villa where he then proposes marriage to her and she accepts. Nadia begins her married life with Mohi, while Wahid and the comic trio are still unemployed and hungry. Wahid visits an

entertainment impresario, Taha, and flirts on his way with a pretty girl who turns out to be Taha’s sister. The girl prevails on her brother to let Wahid audition. He sings a beautiful mawwal —

that entrances the musicians, and Taha rather grudgingly offers him a job. Wahid sends a note to Nadia and Mohi to ask them to listen

to him on the radio. On the air, he sings a song to his sister

| about his loneliness without her, utilizing the metaphor of a | bird. Mohi’s mother is very disturbed with Nadia and complains about having a “singer” in the family. Nadia is deeply hurt. Walnut, Almond, and Filbert stop in to say hello to Nadia, —

. 91

| and let it slip in front of her in-laws that all used to work to-_

gether in a nightclub. The mother-in-law declares that she cannot live with such a daughter-in-law and issues an ultimatum to Mohi: divorce Nadia or be her son no longer. Nadia leaves Mohi _ sorrowfully as he sleeps and she returns to her singing. Mohi

becomes ill. Nadia tries to visit him, but her mother-in-law for- | bids her to see him. She manages to meet him anyway and urges | him to accept a divorce, as she does not want to be the cause of

: his estrangement from his mother. Mohi does not wish to divorce her. _

The Triumph of Youth

_ Wahid goes to another producer to try to have his operetta staged. The man toys with him at Taha’s instigation. The comic trio approaches the club owner who will back and finance the production if Nadia will marry him. The trio say nothing about

| this clause to Nadia. |

Wahid’s operetta, Ash-Shurug wa-l-Ghurub is then performed, telling the story of a young heroine (played by Nadia) betrothed

to an old man but in love with the hero played by Wahid. The hero, representing youth versus wealth wins his girl. During intermission following the operetta, Mohi praises Nadia and indicates that her troubles are over with his mother. Wahid’s love interest, ‘A’isha, returned from abroad, also discovers that Wahid is indeed unattached, and still very interested in her.”?’

The title of the film derives from the lyrics of Wahid’s first vocal solo:

The day when youth shall triumph is near, Tomorrow the tears of sadness shall be tears of happiness...

The youthful protagonists are non-Egyptian, Arab singers, whose struggles are tied to their precarious position in an alien society. Their

: representation of the entertainment sector is markedly modern in contrast to earlier portrayals of singers in musical theatre and film. They marry or aspire to marry into the landed Egyptian aristocracy and the successful indigenous commercial class. Yet these two groups were ex-

pected to feel disdain for the hero and heroine, and “shame” for their _ - connection to them. Artistic success is the key factor in overcoming these social barriers, and achieving social mobility. The music of Intisar al-Shababrepresents a range of styles from a very Egyptian use of tarab (enchantment) in a vocal improvisation to the many

Western features of the operetta. The utilization of the true duet form, singing melodic lines together instead of simply echoing the musical phrase in response, was still a novelty. The duet had been introduced in the theatrical productions of Sayyid Darwish as a call and response of each voice, similar to the manner in which a solo instrument played the melody, while others responded with the lawazim (a brief cadence at the end of the melodic phrase) rather than the harmonically scored simulta-

neously sung duets one heard in the West. Various instruments had recently been incorporated into Arabic composition: the cellos and double bass supporting the string section, brass,

and woodwinds. The chorus was utilized both in traditional and more 92

| | The Triumph of Youth — modern fashions. In Intisar al-Shabab, the orchestra was situated in a pit just as in the West, whereas its traditional position in the Middle East is on stage. The performers wear tuxedos and a conductor leads them— another Western innovation—for the takht had been typically directed in the past by a key player: the ganunati (zither player), the ‘awwadi (lutist),

or, since the turn of the century, by a kamanjati (lead violinist). Background music, another novel addition, was developed in the film, and

Farid incorporated interesting rhythms throughout. | _ Whereas Wahid’s initial message is optimistic, “Youth will conquer all,” Nadia’s message and meaning is quite different. Tragedy is more predictable in the fate of a vulnerable woman. Her own solo improvisation begins, “Where are you, oh nights of torment?” ... and is addressed _to the birds, who symbolize the lover and his beloved, but also stand for _ sibling singers/actors. Asmahan’s musical lines and interpretation are

both more complex and modern than the improvisation sung by her brother, and a Westernized/modernized style (lawn gharbi—or Western | ~ “coloring”) continues until she reaches the line, “The moon is smiling...” __ With this image from classical Arabic poetry, the musical tone shifts to the more traditional (lawn tarab) cadences as she sums up wistfully, “..our

pure hopes are disappointed ...””8 : :

Both Wahid and Nadia are as pure as their “hopes” and the music itself. It is the evil forces in the world and society around them that threaten their happiness. The social order imposes tragedy upon its

members, although it can be overcome. : oe | _ Audiences delighted in Asmahan’s rendition of Farid’s songs: “Layali al-Bashar,” “Ya Bada‘ al-Ward,” “Idi wa Idak” (a duet), “Kana li Amal” (a

| play on Asmahan’s real name), “Ya Illi Hawak Shaghal Bali,” and the | operetta, which included “al-Shams Ghabit Anwarha” (actually titled “Ughniyat al-Ghurub” and “Ughniyat al-Shuruq).” When probing © Asmahan’s family regarding the approximate period when she achieved fame, I found it a little disturbing, after the display of Asmahan’s musical accomplishments in this film, to hear some family members’ opinions that Asmahan achieved her fame as a film star solely through her rendition of Farid’s musical genius.”” More will be said about this interesting

misperception in Chapter Six. —

In hindsight, this film and others of its era were unfortunately graded

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by Orientalist and Western dramatic standards, and those of the ensuing neo-realist school. From the modernity versus traditionalism model, Jacob Landau, for one, attributed the Arab cinema public’s preoccupation with plot and music to the particular development of the theatrical tradition

The Triumph of Youth —

in the region (from shadow-play to musical theater), and to the func-

tional illiteracy of the masses.” 7 :

In the Nasserist period, when the common Egyptian was praised and elevated, it was the “Westernization” of the period that was attacked. El Mazzaoui lumped the films of this earlier period all together, explaining that their themes were: unmistakably the same: the singer, male or female, is pardoned for his flaws or his lack of social graces thanks to his beautiful voice and wins the admiration of everyone and the heart of his

beloved, or her prince charming.” Socially progressive criticism was even more damning, accusing the entire industry of pure commercialism and unabated European influences.”

~ In the 1980s, European and Arab analysts (Tawfiq Salah for example) gave the impression that Egyptian cinema, indeed all worthwhile artistic conception, derived from Europe, and that the worth of Egyptian prod-

ucts rested on their imitative success, at least until the 1960s.” Cluny

does note that Egypt produced cinema from an early period that was | relatively “autonomous” financially, because of banks’ support.” This financial underpinning was responsible for “native” Egyptians filling such positions as technicians, producers, and directors. An example of a pro-

lific director who had “a certain sensibility" was Ahmad Badr Khan (1909-1970), who had traveled to Europe to study his craft. Yet, the Arab public of that era did not view Intisar al-Shabab and the other films of the war years as a mockery of Arab culture. Although one commentator on Egyptian cinema admits his inability to understand the public’s fascination with Asmahan, he looks to the mysterious aura of her life and her mythic death*’ and ignores the romantic and musical bases of her popularity in her first film appearance as Nadia. There are other rather obvious motifs in Intisar al-Shabab. At first, it would seem that the character of the club owner is stereotypically greedy and malevolent, although Bishara Wakim’s comedic talent enlarges the role. The Syrian immigrants were an object of suspicion in Egypt, although the official fiction was that Egypt was hospitable to all, and especially to other Arabs. Many would quote “Misr umm al-dunya” (Egypt is the mother of civilization). After the development of Arab nationalism,

it was even more difficult to discuss regional xenophobias. The Syrians, natives of today’s Syria and Lebanon, had immigrated to Egypt in two waves, and settled in specific quarters of Cairo. (See In-

troduction.) Some married into pre-existing Syrian communities and 94

| The Triumph of Youth often socialized with Syrians of other confessional groups, although the Greek Catholic contingent remained fairly closed, and they tended not to marry Egyptians.*’ The stereotype of Syrians being of “treacherous | character” and vile origin was played on by Mustafa Kamil, the Egyptian

nationalist leader and protested by eminent Syrians such as the salafi (supporter of Islamic reform) Rashid Rida.* Similar prejudices probably stemmed from a combination of economic competition and differ-

ing attitudes vis-a-vis the colonial powers. |

A number of prominent success stories occurred among the Syrians, _ including some mentioned earlier in this volume: Khalil Sa‘b, the Sursuq

family, the Tutunjis who built up Sudan Import and Export, and the Sednaoui family (of Sidnaya, Syria) whose huge department stores were frequented by Asmahan’s set.*” Most did not wish to return to Syria and became Egyptian citizens under the provisions of Law No. 19 of 1929.

_ Those who for one reason or another (like Asmahan) did not become Egyptian citizens were under French authority after the French assumed

the mandate. | |

Syrians who remember the period often regard Farid and Asmahan as “their” singers and comment on the keen competition Farid (in particular) faced in Cairo with Egyptian male counterparts. It is interesting that the film encapsulates this dilemma and assigns the role of the crafty, greedy Syrian to a clearly delineated, unsympathetic character, the club owner. That allows Wahid and Nadia, who are also Syrian immigrants, to struggle, display their honesty, and retain popular appeal despite their

Levantine background. Life imitates art as well. It is important not to identify Asmahan’s “foreignness” with the bitter overtones that the Levantine community later adopted after Nasser’s nationalist policies destroyed their lives and

appropriated their holdings. For the singer was in many ways a sophisticated “foreigner” to her own home province—a bi-national, or a transnational as we might now say. And an immigrant, or a bi-national, is not always an exile—sometimes one may embrace many “homes,” vistas, foods, and circles of friends. Asmahan fell into this category, with her knowledge of Damascus, Beirut, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Ras al-Barr, | as well as the Jabal and Cairo. Many in the West (and East) remember only the bitterness of the words in Leviticus: “For we were strangers in — the land of Egypt” to be delivered only by the Lord. This notion presents too overt a simplification of the Farid/Asmahan “strangers and musicians

, and outcasts” formula and too simple an indictment of Arab culture.

, The film also addresses a central artistic conflict concerning the musician's image in Egypt, when the club owner demands that Nadia sit 95

The Triumph of Youth with his favored customer. Men as well as women performers could be asked to “mix” or fraternize (and sometimes drink) with their public,

though the concern over women interacting with unrelated men was and is more obviously objectionable. It is a more complex matter than noting the need for artifice or the potential for prostitution (of the body or the soul).

The artist cannot usually exist on the income from his or her art without a patron, but that patron exacts a price. The song, the composi| tion, the poem, the work must often be written with the patron in mind, thus limiting and delineating the activity and the creativity of the artist. In a nightclub context and at private or even public party performances, the artist is expected to lift the spirits of the patron, even when offstage. The patron may reward the performer through tipping, through future engagements, or through gifts. Conservative Arabs bemoan not only the behavior of the performer but that of the patron as well, who loses control of himself through enjoyment of the music—that is through its tarab and who may throw money lavishly to demonstrate his enjoyment. Vices related to the entertainment world such as drinking, drugs, and gambling are also a problem due to their proximity. Asmahan did not become rich overnight. Indeed she suffered from a constant lack of money in the period during which she became wellestablished musically. While this lack did not always affect her status among

her social set, it was certainly a limiting and difficult condition, especially for one who had experienced real poverty earlier in her life. The innuendos concerning the performers Nadia and Wahid, who are “bought

and sold” to some degree by their patrons, also held their parallels to Asmahan’s own performing schedule, reliant as she was on the connections and popularity necessary to be invited to perform at private parties for thirty to forty Egyptian pounds per evening. These payments were necessary to boost her rather meager earnings from her monthly radio

broadcast, which were raised from fourteen to seventeen Egyptian pounds.*” She was short of money because her family—‘Alia, Fu’ad and Farid—constantly demanded money. As she put it somewhat bitterly, “My | family would not say ‘good morning’ for free!”*' The litmus test for social acceptability is marriage, as the film clearly

conveys. Therefore, whether Wahid and Nadia, the film characters, or Farid and Asmahan, the flesh-and-blood singers, the pair were becoming economically mobile through their success but were unlikely to attain social mobility in a society such as Egypt. And yet, they were nobly born and entered their careers through necessity. Here, we can sense a 96

| The Triumph of Youth difference between Egypt in the war years and society today, where suddenly acquired great wealth can almost erase class distinctions. Asmahan must have realized that the key to portraying Nadia lay in the role’s resemblance to herself. She chose a natural approach to acting and appears confident, clear, and compelling. Her body language is uncomplicated, free of mannerisms, yet unabashedly alluring. Somewhere

(from watching other actresses? from direction?), she learned to chan- | nel all her energy toward the camera, to manipulate her own features _ into appropriate expression. Did she leave “Nadia” behind when the film wrapped? Not entirely.

| The film’s production led to increasing offers from composers and also to a whirlwind romance with the film’s director, Ahmad Badr Khan. The two were observed in each other’s company before and during the

| filming. Entanglements on the set are commonplace the world over, and Badr Khan was attractive, sophisticated, intelligent—and, perhaps, more influential than a co-star might have been. Al-Taba‘i actually stalked _ the couple (could this have been merely a journalist devoted to his story?) and discovered that Asmahan visited a building where Badr Khan main-

tained an apartment under another name. The couple decided to marry, and al-Taba‘i miraculously shed his jealousy, writing that Badr Khan rep-

| resented the best possible hope for a mate for Asmahan. He saw him as ~ an honorable man, and one devoted to creativity and art, who would not denigrate Asmahan’s talents and abilities.“ Badr Khan was to all who

knew the couple truly in love with Asmahan. an

The match was star-crossed. As in the many romances of Arab litera-

ture or in the tale of Intisar al-Shabab, family interference ruined the happiness of two individuals. In this case, both families intervened and appealed to government officials to annul the union. Her family’s argu-_ ment was based on her Druze identity; Badr Khan was not Druze and the marriage would be unrecognized. (This problem was not even mentioned in the Egyptian sources.) But also, officials contended that Asmahan was not legally divorced from Hassan al-Atrash. The marriage lasted only forty

— days.* | , | |

Some have contended that this story was made up simply to provide | a cover for the couple’s affair, while others have asked me about the differentiation between the shar2 (from Islamic law) contract that the

couple tried to obtain and the ‘urfi (like common-law) marriage they contracted. Without proof of divorce, even today, no contract could be

registered. , : _ Another rumor concerned Asmahan’s need to marry an Egyptian to

stay in the country, and that Badr Khan’s clout would do her no harm. 97

The Triumph of Youth These were war years, and a special edict had been passed forbidding Egyptians to marry foreigners without some extenuating circumstances. It is interesting that Asmahan had not become an Egyptian citizen early on, probably because she arrived in Egypt too soon before the 1929 immigration act to declare residency, or because of her marriage to Hassan. In any case, the couple’s legal difficulties ensured a victory for Asmahan’s family. Al-Taba‘i verified that Asmahan could not produce a divorce certificate from Hassan. She argued that, after all, a man was not required to register a divorce in the Jabal, but merely need proclaim his intention thrice in the presence of witnesses. The Egyptian government sent them to the French authorities to review her papers. Meanwhile, both families and the powerful friends of Fu’ad al-Atrash called and contacted Egyp-

tian and French officials. Asmahan finally caved in under all the pres- | sure, and Badr Khan was devastated by their separation.”

, According to Asmahan’s family, Hassan had not divorced her until the appearance of Intisar al-Shabab. Yet, Asmahan declared over and over

that she had been divorced previously, and would surely not have embarked on a marriage with Badr Khan were she certain that her marriage still bound her. Nonetheless, according to her relatives, when the film was released, Hassan was mortified by Asmahan’s appearance, as was the young Druze who apparently shot at the screen when Asmahan appeared. As was mentioned earlier, Hassan married nine women. He was no

callow youth when he first encountered Asmahan. By the time he divorced Asmahan, he had apparently already married Hind ‘Alam al-Din. As the Druze forbid polygamy, the date of his divorce from Asmahan is important, yet inconclusive due to inconsistencies between the sources. After Asmahan’s death, he married Linda Junblatt, the sister of Kamal. Yet he loved Asmahan painfully, and a divorce (despite all the others he had) was a reluctant concession that he could not reconcile with her. LDP? LIE’ QD?’ DX DY”? LE” PY’”%? L-E_ OY’ LY’

| Asmahan’s Syrian relatives emphasized Hassan’s passion for Asmahan. ‘Abdullah explained, “His love [Hassan’s] blinded him to the problems with Asmahan. Besides that, he had married only those from his own | environment before her. She represented a different civilization, new ideas, high culture.” Munir added, “She gathered all his cousins around him (that is she gained him family support), whereas the other wives hadn’t understood politics.” “Abdullah went on, “Asmahan was from Suwayda, which represented the strongest branch of the Turshan, and she was strong, and had her family to back her up [within the marriage].

, 98

| | The Triumph of Youth ‘Abd al-Ghaffar (his own father) was behind her at least initially. Later on, he [‘Abd al-Ghaffar] disapproved [of her] partly because he consid- _ ered her a daughter of Suwayda, and at the end she was siding more with Hassan (who supported different policies in that period) .””

_ According to Labib, Hassan arrived in Egypt, and drove out to the Mena House Hotel in Giza with his cousin. Asmahan was there, for, ac- , : cording to Labib (and Fu’ad), she had earlier escaped from the family flat to “live” at the hotel.“ Hassan found her chattering away with a group

of socialites, but she left her company to deal with the matter at hand.

| Hassan was in great emotional pain, and he had already realized that there was no happy ending in sight for them. However, her film appearance was too much to bear. She took the offensive, telling him that she could not be coerced into returning with - him. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him, and she had tried to live with him |

and take on his political cause against the French. But, she was a creature of art, not of devotion and tradition. “I stood with you, for indepen-

dence and liberation, I did. But I was created for another purpose. I prefer the work of Farid, and the work of Umm Kulthum, and of art,” she said. She spoke hurriedly, for she wanted to return to her guests. It

was as if she were daring him to strike her down dead for once and for | all. But of course, she knew that he loved her too much to do it. So he _ asked her meekly if she wanted a divorce, and she replied that she did.” According to her brother, once freed by her divorce, she was aimless and unhappy. Her fall into a fast and wild life accelerated. She eventually - moved into her own flat in the Imobilia Building. This huge set of buildings in the heart of Cairo is still standing today and was a highly desirable

location for offices and residences then, and later after the building’s , exterior and driveway was remodeled.* We can imagine Asmahan en_ tertaining in her high-ceilinged flat with its intriguing slightly asymmetri-

cal planes and contours and wood paneling, looking out from the balcony over the downtown skyscape. Her independent state must have infuriated her family, accustomed to a closer watch over her affairs. Fu’ad claims that at about this time another side of his sister’s personality appeared, an evil twin. The drinking had already begun before the divorce. The odd part was that Asmahan never seemed to get drunk but was trying hard to obliterate her anxiety and tension. He rationalized his sister’s behavior by depicting it as the product of emotional pain. | _ He lost control of Asmahan’s earnings at this point; she spent amazing sums with her friends and began to gamble. Again, this might be

99 ,

taken with a grain of salt. She was certainly spending more on herself, as

she still retained some income from her film. According to him, she

The Triumph of Youth couldn't sleep at all, and spent the nights out, no matter how he threatened or beat her. He does not deny abusing his sister, but responded to interference from others, a family friend, Khalid Muhassan Pasha, and al-Taba‘1 with anger. After all, it was his fraternal duty to deal with the

impossible “devil” his sister had become. |

Her move into her own apartment was an unheard-of situation for a

“decent” woman. It was a step she felt compelled to take in order to distance herself from her family. Fu’ad was enraged by the situation throughout his consideration of this period. However, it meant that her brothers could not keep track of all her activities, some of which involved politics.

On the political front, the Vichy were in control in Syria. General Henri Dentz had succeeded Jean Chiappe as High Commissioner, and | the British were still somewhat uncertain about the potential of the Vichy in Syria. Axis intentions appeared more serious in Iraq. The British, who

had rejoiced over Desert Victory and the capture of Benghazion February 6, were now worrying about the arrival of General Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox who would arrive to save the Axis campaign following the

rout of the Italians. There was also German pressure on Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey. In March more worrisome events took place. On the 8th a terribly heavy blitz was launched against London. Food shortages and demonstrations were taking place in Syria, and Dentz imposed martial law by the 26th. The bombing of Malta began on the 23rd, and,

by the end of the month, the Axis attacked the British near Benghazi and drove them back to Tobruk fairly quickly. — Although Asmahan was thoroughly involved in her own work, she was concerned about the news from the East and from the Western front. She sang Madhat Assim’s composition, “Dakhalat Marra bi Jinayna” (She

Entered the Garden). Then, she had an opportunity to work with yet another legendary composer, Riyadh al-Sunbati. He had written “Hadith ‘Aynayn” (A Tale of Two Eyes) to a gasidah by Ahmad Fathi and intended it for Umm Kulthum. But in rehearsal, Umm Kulthum tried unsuccessfully to make musical changes in the piece, which bore Sunbati’s characteristically strict rhythmic restraints. Qasabji convinced Sunbati to give the song to Asmahan and it was another triumph for her. Following this work, Qasabji composed a ritha’ entitled “Hal Tayam al-Ban.” It was with this song, writes Sharif, that—

a she departed from the robes of Mahmud Sabah and his uncle Zakariyya, and escaped from the fingertips of Da’ud Husni, and the sighs of Farid Ghusn, and to the amazement of Qasabji, this

| 100

| The Triumph of Youth

the world.*

single long qasida, became the apex of song [through Asmahan’s

| delivery]. Emotion gleamed in her voice...and she radiated it to It was not the last occasion that a song intended for Umm Kulthum was _ given to her rival. There was also the monologue “Taghrid al-Balabil” (The Warbling of the Nightingales) known popularly as “Ya Tuyur” (Oh

You, Birds), which employed a Western-sounding coloratura section. When “Umm Kulthum turned pale from this song,” because “her golden _ throat hadn’t reckoned with the science of Western music, solfegio,” — Qasabji promptly turned it over to Asmahan.*° The “Queen of the Night” section of the song may seem peculiar to modern listeners, but to listen- __

, ers in the period, it also showed that “our girl,” Asmahan, could mustcally equal the Deanna Durbins or the Jenny Linds of any country. The rift caused by this incident between Umm Kulthum and Qasabji did not heal, and after Qasabji’s departure from Umm Kulthum’s orchestra,

Zakariyya Ahmad composed for Umm Kulthum. | | _ The Cairo nightspots were becoming more and more crowded. And

cler, Freya Stark, | a .

a stream of khaki uniforms steadily increased. Wrote one intrepid chroni- —

a mere trickle in 1940, with slender young officers making their

way diffidently among the tarbushes and civilian clothes, it

swelled imperceptibly into a mighty torrent...°! | |

They crowded in for rest and recreation and sat at the tables for tea or coffee, pastries, and conversation at Groppi’s, or the dining and terrace areas of the Shepheard’s Hotel, where the wicker armchairs were so close together that one could overhear all sorts of conversations when the pianist paused. Waiters in brilliant white galabiyyas served tea, and unfamil- _

iar faces were noted. Asmahan also would go out to the roof garden at the Continental; to the popular bar at the old Cosmopolitan in the center of town, a darkened, lively center of conviviality, and to the Mena _ House with its beautiful grounds. Asmahan was often at the center of the

party or arm in arm with Amina al-Barudi. And mixed in with the party goers were ears and eyes for the Axis, as the British warned, alongside

their own efforts at espionage. oe

| 101

| The elites who were her “patrons” were not all Anglophiles by any

means. Egypt was technically neutral, and the elite’s Francophilia often served as one means of resisting the British. “Ali Mahir, the Prime Minister, was thought to be pro-Fascist; certainly, he was anti-British. British

The Triumph of Youth and German propaganda competed in the warm Cairene air, and there

, was not after all much substance for confidence in the Allied side. Throughout the fall of 1940, General Wavell’s forces, not exceeding some

thirty thousand at the front lines, had confronted the Italian advance. When Hassan Sabry, who replaced ‘Ali Maher, died, his replacement, Hussayn Sirry Pasha, backed the Allies. On January 10, 1941, the Germans bombed an entire British convoy, including the 23,000-ton warship Illustrious, which was moving toward the British base at Malta. When Rommel arrived in North Africa later in the spring, there was good reason for concern on the Allied side. Princesses Lulie and Lina Abu al-Huda, also partly Syrian, daughters of the renowned Abu al-Huda Sayyadi (of Sultan Abdulhamid’s court), frequented the same salons and parties as Asmahan and Amina, though

they were of a more serious temperment. Lulie, an Oxford graduate, began working for Freya Stark’s organization, the Brothers of Freedom,” designed to promote the values of freedom and democracy—that is the less tangible rewards of opposing fascism. Stark had her offices in an-

other substantial building in Zamalak. Were there any links between Asmahan and her pro-democratic, pro-British group? Not especially. She and Amina traversed some of the same social and party circuits, but in parallel, rather than unified, movements, as they were not really in the

| same set according to Lina Abu al-Huda.” Young people argued that these European powers were oblivious to the rights and aspirations of Middle Easterners and would only devastate the region and kill off the young men as they had in World War I, without any credible support for future sovereignty. Stark’s enterprise was aimed at eroding that cynicism and planting seeds for liberal and demo-

cratic ideas, a difficult task. a

The al-Atrash children had grown up, somewhat overshadowed by the political reputation of their relative Sultan al-Atrash, who demanded continuous revolution until independence was achieved. He saw any accommodation with external powers (the French) to be be unacceptable. His uncompromising position was somewhat refreshing and after all pre-

dated Nasserism. Nasser visited him during the union. But given the _ struggle of powers in the Middle East, it was significant that he found all

the colonial powers foul-tasting medicine, and simply considered the English less foul.*

Asmahan and her brothers had nevertheless acquired their education in the French system (in Egypt) and were shocked by the German invasion of France. Though careful to reply correctly to her pro-Fascist 102

| The Triumph of Youth patrons, Asmahan supported the French resistance and the British, inasmuch as she believed in independence for her own people. By early April, the mood of Allied supporters in Cairo was glum. The situation on the Western front was critical. In Iraq, Rashid ‘Ali Bey Gilani, along with four colonels, had enacted a coup d’état on April 5, 1941, and on the next day, the Germans marched close to Salonika. The Allies were very concerned about Syria, as they received reports that the Germans had sent reinforcements to the Iraqi rebels through Syria, as well as additional air fuel and supplies. In Cairo, General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the “Free French” forces, arrived and tried to raise support for his cause. He spoke at Ewart Memorial Hall at the American University in Cairo, which served as one

of the city’s important venues for entertainment and lectures, and Asmahan attended. Her emotions were stirred by the appeal for allies of the “true” France,” and she was photographed in her becoming turban _ with the Croix de Lorraine, symbol of the Free French, pinned promi-

nently to her jacket. The Free French required Allied support for a move into Syria, and. the British were not unanimously convinced that they should or could

lend men and materiel. Both the British and the Free French had initially hoped that a substantial portion of the Vichy French forces in Syria and Lebanon would ignore their orders and join up with the Free French if an appeal could be made in time. General Catroux who was sent in to © Cairo to coordinate a Free French Syrian campaign initially insisted that his “French brothers” would switch sides if faced by their compatriots.

Wavell favored this argument, but mainly because he did not want to - commit any troops either to Iraq or to Syria, for fear of losing Egypt.” On the other hand, the archives show us that the British knew that German propagandists in Syria and outside it were aiding and arming various Arab forces. Much has been made of their intent to aid Palestin- | ian and pro-Palestinian rebels in order to provoke action against the British in Palestine, and of their connections in Iraq. Turkey was still neutral, but German agents were present there, and one could not expect the Turks to do much to prevent any German moves to the south, into the Arab states. In hindsight, we may understand that Germans were constrained by their own alliance with the Italians, and by the Vichy’s insistence that they defend their own mandate possessions.°’ The German plan for the Eastern Mediterranean, Opera-

tion Barbarossa, was grand and complex and raised fears concerning Syria. Hitler wanted the Axis to occupy the Balkans, move (from either direction) to close off the Suez Canal, seize Gibraltar, and then invade 103

The Triumph of Youth

- the Soviet Union after sealing off the Mediterranean. Operation Barbarossa might have been accomplished without holding Syria. The British did not foresee that the plan would falter and that, after their defeat in Crete, the Germans would reserve their energies for the campaign against the USSR. Despite Wavell’s reservations, a plan to invade Syria and overcome Vichy resistance was formulated in Cairo. Any potential allies in Syria must be contacted. Several were extremely important, for example General Collet, the commander of the Circassian forces from whom Catroux anticipated assistance. The Allies also hoped to secure some guarantees

from the Druze in the south of Syria, who could aid or impede their passage toward Damascus. Any and all channels were to be utilized. Word of a sympathetic Druze princess who lived in Cairo was an opportunity

that the British hoped to exploit. ,

1. al-Sayyid Marsot, A Short History of Modern Egypt, 98-99.

2. Lord Killearn, The Killearn Diaries 1934-1946: The Diplomatic and Personal Record of Lord Killearn (Sir Miles Lampson) High Commissioner and Am-

bassador to Lgypt, edited by ‘Trefor E. Evans (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972) 101.

3. On Hassanayn (and for a more fair and thoughtful portrait of King Faruq), see Adil Sabit, A King Betrayed: The IllFated Reign of Farouk of Egypt

(London: Quartet Books, 1989) 23-24, 26, 63, 69, 76. Regarding this | particular incident, see William Stadiem, Too Rich: The High Life and Tragic Death of King Farouk (New York: Caroll and Graf, 1991) 188-189. Stadiem

tells us that the king recalled his words to Nazli and Hassanayn in his memoirs (without citing the page): “Unless this ceases, one of you shall die. You are disgracing the memory of my father, and if I end it by killing one of you, then God will forgive me, for it is according to our Holy Law, as you both know.” It was rumored that Hassanayn was assassinated when

he died in an automobile accident in 1946. Asmahan described him as something of a dandy—and they began their “affair’—apparently restricted to dinner and nightclubbing, before the height of her career, al-

Taba‘i, Asmahan, 85-88.

4. Personal communication by Adil Sabit, Cairo, 25 October 1993. 104

| | oe The Triumph of Youth 5. See P. J. Vatikiotis for a political description of the period. Vatikiotis, A History of Modern Egypt from Muhammad Ali to Mubarak (London:

_ Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1st edition, 1969) 291-292. | 6. Mansour O. El-Kikhia, Libya’s Qaddafi: The Politics of Contradiction _ (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997), 21. 7. Elizabeth Monroe, Britain’s Moment in the Middle East 191 4-1956 (Lon-

don: Chatto & Windus, 1963) 86-88.

Cairo, October 1993. |

8. Personal communications from Adil Sabit and Lina Abu al-Huda,

9. al-Aynayn, Asmahan, 65-68. | | 10. Labib, Qrssat, 143. |

‘11. Labib, Qissat, 120-121. - a 12. Labib, Qissat, 123. Though the two stayed in separate rooms, one _ cannot help wondering what the bawwab who summoned Yusuf was doing in Asmahan’s room at three in the morning. Had she cried out? Incidently, Yusuf’s own son did not know of this story when I met him in

Suwayda in 1993. |

_ 13, Al-Taba‘i reported that later on, whether out of despair over her family, or, as he intimates, out of a feeling of rejection following a fight with | al-Taba‘i himself, Asmahan attempted suicide again. He rushed her to the hospital and her life was spared. He took care to register her under another name. 14. Mme. Sharif, during personal interview with Samim Sharif, Damascus,

August 1993; personal interview with Munir al-Atrash and Abdullah al-

_ Attrache, Suwayda, 17 August, 1993. |

15. Samim Sharif, “Al-Oasabji wa Asmahan wa al-Aswat al-Jamila fi alMarhala al-Sinima’iyya,” Al-Ughniyya al-‘Arabtyya. (Damascus: Wizarat al- .

16. Ibid, 223. oe

| 105 Thaqafa wa al-Irshad, 1981) 221-222

The Triumph of Youth

17. Ibid, 224. , | 18. Fatima al-Yusuf, Dhikrayat (Cairo: Kitab Ruz al-Yusuf, 1953) 79.

20. Ibid, 17. | | | 19. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 17-18.

21. Nicholas Faith, “Mad Jack and the Princess,” The Independent, (Sunday 21 June 1992) 9. The quotation is from Sir Stephen Hastings who _—

saw the lady once “in the bar of the Normandie Hotel in Beirut...and

that instant is just as vivid forty years on.” | 22. Sharif, “Al-Oasabji,” 222. 23. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 60-61.

24, Richard Collier, War in the Desert (Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1977) 18. 25. William Stadiem, Joo Rich, 135.

_ 26. Murad Radwan says the poets included Ahmad Rami, Bishara alKhuri, Bairam al-Tunisi, Yusuf Badrus and “Hilmi” al-Hakim. “Farid alAtrash wa Asmahan Yaqaduman: Intisar al-Shabab.” Hurtyya 2: 18 (2 January, 1993) 49. However, another writer who presents a “complete” catalogue of Asmahan’s songs mentions only Ahmad Rami, Ismail al-Hakim, and Bairam al-Tunisi. Marwan Ghattas, “Asmahan: Sawt Ghadirna Bakiran wa Yabqi fi Asma’na.” Fann, No. 180, 16 July, 1992. 27. Sherifa Zuhur, “Themes and Motifs in Two Egyptian Films: Intisar alShabab and Intabthu Ayyuha as-Sada.” Unpublished paper, 1985.

98, Ibid. 99. Personal interviews with Isma‘il al-Attrache and Majid al-Attrache, Suwayda, 16 August 1993.

30. Jacob Landau, Studies in the Arab Theater and Cinema (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1958) 169, 191, 197.

| 106

| The Triumph of Youth. _ 31. El Mazzaoui, Le Cinema en R.A.U. 1912-1970 (Ministre de la Culture, .

Cairo: Abdel Salam Fl Cherif, May 1970) 34. | 32. See Merip Reports, No. 52 (November 1976) particularly, Guy

Hennebelle, “Arab Cinema” and Ken Whittingham, “Egyptian Drama.” 33. Claude-Michel Cluny, “Origines et differences,” CinemAction et Grand

Maghreb edited by Guy Hennebelle (Paris: 1987) who cites an unedited

paper by Tawfig Salah, 20. , | |

34. Cluny, 19. | |

35. Ibrahim al-Ariss et al, “Dictionnaire de 80 Cineastes Arabes,”

CinemAction, 173. , 36. “Neither the marvelous voice of Asmahan, nor her few films could solely explain that incredible aura surrounding her name.” Abbas Fadhil _ Ibrahim, “Genres et star-system dans le cinema egyptien,” CinemAction, 40.

37. Thomas Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt 1725-1975 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1985) 152.

38. Ibid, 113-114. 7 | 39. Ibid, 122, 18-139, and verified in conversation with Selim Sednaoui, |

Cairo, October 1993. | 40. al-[aba‘i, Asmahan, 101.

41. Ibid, 102, and continuing, he cites her inability to pay the doctor or her electricity bill, 103-104.

42. Ibid, 122-126. | , 43. Radwan, “Farid al-Atrash wa Asmahan,” 49; al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 126-

130. Al-Taba‘i never mentions the inability of aDruze to marryanonDruze, but certainly emphasizes her family’s opposition to the match. |

a 107

44, Al-Taba‘i writes that Asmahan told him that Hassan had divorced her back in the Jabal, in the presense of witnesses. However, since she couldn’t |

The Triumph of Youth produce any registered paper of divorce, the Egyptian authorities refused

to accept her claim. While interceding with officials for Asmahan, he discovered that the birthdate on her passport has been altered from 1912 to 1915, Asmahan, 67-68 and 122-128. It is curious that the family then claimed 1918 as her birthdate. 45. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, ‘Abdullah al-Attrache et al,

Suwayda, 17 August 1993. Ot

46. Labib, Qissat, 144. 47. Al-Taba‘i is not our witness. Instead, we rely on Fu’ad’s version as told

to Labib. Fu’ad may not have been present at the couple’s parting in the Jabal. But, here, the wording and sequence of his version has the ring of

| truth to it, although any sympathies he had were with Hassan, and his sister appears quite heartless in his version. Labib, Qissat, 129-130.

48. The Imobilia Building is featured in Minaret (Winter, 1998); when our Cairo Choral Society was invited to hold its spring party there in the flat of opera singer Ra’uf Zaidan, I was able to obtain a sense of how Asmahan’s flat might have appeared.

49. Sharif, “Al-Oasabji,” 224-225. |

50. Ibid, 227. , | 52. Ibid, 69-75. —_

51. Freya Stark, East 1s West (London: John Murray,1945) 69. |

53. Personal interview with Lina Abu al-Huda, Cairo, 27 October 1993, and subsequent conversations in 1997-1998. 54, Personal interview with Mansur al-Atrash, al-Qrayya, 16 August 1993.

55. Charles de Gaulle; “Discours Prononce au Caire” at l’Ewart Memorial Hall, 5 April 1941; also see “Discours Prononce a une reunion des Francais Libres 4 Alexandrie,” (6 April 1941) in De Gaulle, Lettres, Notes et Carnets, Juin 1940 a Juillet 1941 (Paris: PLON, 1980) 288-295.

108

| | The Triumph of Youth 56. Lord Killearn, (Lampson). Entries made on 15 April 1941, 3 May __ 1941, and 5 May 1941 in The Killearn Diaries, 162-164, 167-169. : 57. Lukasz Hirszowicz, “Germany and the Syrian Campaign,” in The Third Reich and the Arab East [first published as IT Rzesza I Arabski Wschod (War-

~ saw: 1963)] (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966) 173-192.

58. Ibid, 98. a Oo

, 109

| Chapter 4 — Massion of War At oversurveyed Syria andthe Lebanon mounted.onBythe theMap dullRoom electric light, | Churchill Mediterranean wall of London’s underground Cabinet War Rooms. Typewriters clacked and telephones rang around him. The War Rooms provided meeting and - bunking space built to withstand the bombing of the city. He considered the situation: the British had conducted a partial blockade of the Levant. Black-market trade had burgeoned as a result; then, with inflation and rumors about shortages, demonstrations broke out in Syria. The Vichy’s High Commissioner turned toward the Syrian nationalists of the National

Bloc for some support in restoring order. Hence, the Allies could not expect backing from these politicians if they sought to recover Syria. The situation in Iraq in the wake of Rashid ‘Ali’s coup was not yet clear; the British had been besieged in their own embassy. And Churchill worried about Turkey and Palestine as well as the Levant. The British were quite concerned that the Vichy authorities of Syria and Lebanon would accede to German designs and, specifically, any approach to the Suez Canal as a part of Operation Barbarossa. That spring, the British were particularly troubled by reported German use of the Syrian airfields in the wake of events in Iraq. A Franco-German protocol legitimized any assistance the Vichy French should give the Germans in Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East. As the bottom line in terms of justification, the Brit-

ish pointed to German use of the Syrian airfields as being intolerable when they announced their participation in the Allied invasion of the Levant on June 8, 1941.’

Churchill had favored action in Syria for some time. His general, Archie Wavell, was not in accord. Indeed, Sir Miles Lampson (Lord

Killearn) recorded on May 18, 1941: | | I cannot understand Wavell’s attitude over Syria. It reminds me

of the attitude which he took at first about Iraq where he was prepared calmly to let the situation slide on the argument that it was only an additional commitment. That may be all right militarily (though I doubt if it is), but it certainly isn’t all right from the political side....( His attitude is that) he has no troops 110

| | Mission of War to spare and he prefers to stay with arms crossed and let things take their course. This once more seems to me absolutely crazy. It allows the Germans to get the pincers well round us on both

sides.” |

Sir Alexander Cadogan, head of the Foreign Office, was however dubious of Churchill’s intent, asking, “Why—a week before your effort in

North Africa—do you blunder into a war with the Vichy?” Cadogan thought that the Prime Minister’s decision was politically motivated, and

other nay-sayers pointed out that British efforts in the Western Desert fell short once depleted by those troops needed for Syria.’ Wavell was relieved of his command, and Auchinleck replaced him. De Gaulle sent urgent telegrams to Catroux in Cairo concerning the action needed on May 3 and 13. On May 7, the Allies had received a report that Henri Dentz, the High Commissioner and the Commander in Syria, had been ordered to permit Germans to pass through Syria on a drive to the Suez. That particular report was not verified, but it bolstered earlier fears kindled by cables regarding pamphlets dropped in © Syria by air designed to prepare civilians for a German advance.* It was known that the Germans had landed planes, air fuel, and personnel in civilian garb in Syria.> Anthony Eden addressed the House of Commons and emphasized the German threat in Syria, thus preparing the British

public for action. , , a Discrepancies in British and French approaches to Syria were apparent from the very start. The Free French might be weak allies, but the

British could not divert sufficient forces to the Levant to do without them. The British firmly held that Syrians should be promised a tangible ben-

efit in return for cooperating with the Allies, a benefit that had been _ withheld since Faysal’s defeat in 1920—independence. Catroux and De

Gaulle labored over the draft of a speech promising independence to the Syrians.

, French fears and concerns over British intentions in the Middle East complicated the alliance. The French emphasized their historic ties with the Levant and their role as protectors of the Christians (especially the Maronites) in Lebanon, as well as other minority populations in Syria. If the British committed to Syrian independence, then the invasion could be regarded as the ascendancy of British aims and loss of face for French authority, Free or Vichy. Their claims in North Africa (and possibly Southeast Asia) might suffer further damage. Yet, their British allies were firm on the necessity of such a promise. De Gaulle and General Catroux wor-

ried constantly about the consequences of their collaboration with the __ 111

Mission of War | British and about the Arabist leanings of Britain’s designee to the Levant mission, Edward Spears. The Allies refined a plan to move troops up toward Jerusalem and thence from northwards in three columns. Other troops, the Indian Di-

| vision and Glubb’s Girls, the forces of the Arab Legion (so called for their founder Sir John Glubb and their costume of Arab robes instead of _

trousers and their long hair), would be pulled in from the East and Transjordan. De Gaulle and General Catroux expected that some French

tion Exporter. |

forces would defect to the Allied side: certainly General Collet’s Circassian

troops for example. The entire invasion effort was code-named OperaEnglish troops on leave milled through Cairo. Some were there for weeks, while others, having come up through the muddy waters of the Red Sea, knew that they would be sent out soon. A pharmacist with the Fighth Army recalled the journey:

You can see either side, treeless and red clay, deserted ...The : long convoy was now in single file. Arab Dhows sailed past from time to time. Next I saw a peculiar mirage, each ship in the

a convoy ahead was inverted on itself, funnel to funnel as though you held a coin to a mirror, the reflection being upside down and on top of the next which gave it the appearance of gigantic gates moving along.°

Once in Cairo, the young pharmacist went out by tram to the Pyramids, although he thought the swarm of locals who gathered to entertain the tourists, “was all a bit of a racket,” and mounted a camel along with the

other sightseers, to be “photographed at the Pyramids as though they were miles away in a waterless desert.”’ Egyptians tolerated the hordes of

young men and women in trousers parading through the city and into the night spots. They brought in money, and the presence of foreigners was not novel, although the Muslim Brothers, a political movement established by Hassan al-Banna in 1928 and aimed against secularization, objected. The Brethren identified the ambiguity and damage to Egyptian morals financed by certain Westerners’ leisure activities.

Another young man explored the city with his mates, frequenting less soignée spots. He remembered dancing with “Sudanese girls who all towered over us in height” and the St. James bar where one “could feast on a plate of free prawns” and the Sunday afternoons spent swimming at the Mena House Hotel.® He was “boggled” by the spectacle of Oriental 112

; Mission of War dance. “It was quite staggering and beautiful to witness it from the wings only about ten feet away ... The slow crescendo of the dance from start to climax was unbelievable and gave us a new insight into the professionalism of this performance done by an expert” who dripped with perspira-

tion by the finale.’ | Asmahan, by the way, did not look down on dance as some of her contemporaries did. She enjoyed both Western-style social dancing in

feverish wartime Cairo and Oriental dance (raqs shargi) . In fact, al-Taba‘i _ remembers that she rose from her seat at one gathering and danced with passion to the mawwal of the talented performer, ‘Abd al-Hayy. This was

somewhat improper; one simply did not dance to instrumental tagasim . (improvisation) or vocal mawawil in this period. Asmahan was uninhib- — ited by such conventions and was expressing her appreciation of the tarab |

in ‘Abd al-Hayy’s performance.” -

_ It was also during these years that historian Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot _

remembered Asmahan’s visits to her own home. “She used to visit my parents, and I do remember one occasion. You see, I was very small. I was sitting at the table drinking my soup, while she was visiting. She began

_ singing, and I was so engrossed in the beauty of her singing that I just

forgot about my soup for the moment." an

A turning point in Asmahan’s life came in 1941. Known solely as an

artist up to this time, rumors of her second life as a spy (Asmahan al- | jasusa) stem from this period. Two detailed written versions of Asmahan’s involvement in Operation Exporter, the Allied invasion of Syria, exist, and a third book is based mainly on this information and other oral accounts. Neither of these authors (nor her brothers Fu’ad or Farid) actually witnessed her actions. I reviewed a fourth, unwritten version of events reconstructed by Asmahan’s Syrian relatives and the British and French | records that are available for the period. Al-Taba‘i’s ability to witness events _

extends only to her departure from Egypt, and much of his account is subsequently based upon hearsay, reportedly from Asmahan, but possi_ bly from other journalists. After Asmahan departed for Syria, al-Taba‘i - lost contact with her, and reconstructed some of the ensuing details when he later saw her in Jerusalem. Al-Taba‘i knew about the end of her life

through her brother Fu’ad. | | , Labib witnessed none of these events, and his informants actually did not see Asmahan until her remarriage to Hassan. Fu’ad’s account as _ told to Labib partially contradicts the recitation of events Asmahan gave to al-Taba‘i. Perhaps Fu’ad wished to be thought responsible for planning and involving a successful patriotic mission or for supporting her

efforts to be reunited with her ex-husband, Hassan. | ,

113 ,

Mission of War The image of a “lady-spy” has a universal appeal, as well as a particu-

lar effect in the region, where external forces have wielded power and influence out of proportion to their numbers. Mata Hari became a legend; and, during World War II, there were female operatives of the Of-

fice of Strategic Services (the predecessor of the CIA) like Barbara Lauwers Podoski, Virginia Hall, and Maria Gulovich and “Cynthia” (Amy

Thorpe) of the British Security Coordination. The OSS even utilized entertainers like Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya to record songs broad-

| cast to troops behind enemy lines in Europe. Some were simply musical, | while others held propaganda value.'? Was Asmahan one of these elusive creatures, and, if so, for whom did she spy? Asmahan told al-Taba‘i that she received a telephone call one morning in mid May from a mysterious Mr. Napier and agreed to meet him at

the roof garden of the Continental Hotel. He asked her to serve as a courier to the Druze in Syria. The Continental boasted military patrons, socialites and their hangers-on, and propagandists, as did other favored Cairene social spots. One can only wonder precisely how Mr. Napier tar-

geted Asmahan. Her family members claimed that either her brother Fu’ad or her brother Farid “arranged” the meeting.’ This explanation seems highly unlikely to me, inasmuch as Fu’ad was sufficiently unaware of the British plan to be completely taken by surprise by Asmahan’s departure from Egypt, according to witnesses. The al-Atrash’s bawwab (door-

man) reported that when Fu’ad discovered that Asmahan had cleared out of her flat, he threw himself on the sidewalk in front of the door, struck his face, tore his hair in despair and cried.** He valiantly covers up

his own ignorance of her plans when relating his tale to Fumil Labib. The Turshan suggested that it would have been improper for the British to approach Asmahan directly, whereas, if Fu’ad had suggested using his

| sister, the “patriot,” for the mission, any impropriety could be denied. Probably this is what Fu’ad later told them. In any case, Asmahan never mentioned Fu’ad’s involvement to alTaba‘i when she first reported the incident to him on May 23. At that

, time, she told her friend that she was set to depart for Syria, having accepted the “mission” to serve as a courier, and would leave the following Monday on May 26." On that Sunday, Asmahan had Jamal Jabr write up a document leaving her apartment and belongings in safekeeping with Muhammad al-Taba‘i. The document was witnessed by Amina al-Barudi and written up at her home (and reproduced in al-Iaba‘i’s book), probably to safeguard her possessions from her family or creditors.'® As it turned out, she actually departed on the evening of May 25.

114

Mission of War Another chronicle of Asmahan’s adventures relies on information from Sir Stephen Hastings. Hastings told Nicholas Faith that it was Amina al-Barudi who made contact with the British, and convinced Asmahan to take on a “mission.”’” Amina may have been privy to Asmahan’s secrets,

but she does not appear in the al-Taba‘i version of the story, except for witnessing Asmahan’s “will.”

: There was no “spying” to be accomplished. She was to go to Jerusalem first and from there to Syria to inform the Druze chieftains that the Allies were marching north and to obtain their word that they would not block the invasion. As a clan member, she could communicate with ‘Abd al-Ghaffar al-Atrash, a senior representative of the family who possessed _ religious and moral as well as political standing. In addition, she knew that her ex-husband Hassan would be amenable to such an appeal for personal as well as political reasons: he wanted Asmahan to return to him. These two leaders, along with Sultan al-Atrash, could notify the Druze of the Allied intent, gain their allegiance, and resist Vichy-led opposition that might emanate from the garrison at Suwayda, or from reinforcements sent from the north. Asmahan may have wondered about what degree of personal danger she might encounter, and also how Hassan would react to her apparent re-abandonment of her career. Her brother dwells on this point at great length, casting himself as the reconciliator of his sister’s only legal union (in Druze eyes), despite all the Druze rule condemning remarriage.*®

He suggests of Asmahan and Hassan’s reunion, that she so hated his own fraternal efforts at control that she would utilize any patriotic argument to flee to Hassan. He tells us that she felt, “the hell of the Jabal was preferable to the paradise of Fu’ad.”!® He, Fu’ad was, of course, only obeying his familial duty in rigging circumstances so that Asmahan would

distractions. | :

forget her life in Egypt, Badr Khan, and all other dishonorable

_ Others assumed that her motives for “joining up” were mercenary. Napier promised that she would be paid for her services. Al-Taba‘i writes that she told him she was to receive forty thousand pounds. He earlier spent much time writing about her need for money, but also emphasizing | that her “nobility,” or her honor, always came before her financial need. There is no mention of the forty-thousand-pound payment in any of the

British files from the War Office or the Foreign Office, or in © correspondence for that year. However, we know that other agents were

recruited, and there is no record of payment for them in these files either. | Her family later insisted, and still maintain, that her patriotism was her primary motivation. Nonetheless, the forty thousand pounds to tide

115 | |

Mission of War her over into a new life had to be taken into account. And, in Hasting’s rather vague version of the story, unnamed British officers “who tell the tale today assume that she was interested above all in the gold.””° As was explained earlier, the Druze of southern Syria had sympathies toward the British dating back to Faysal’s movement, and they had hoped to be included in an enclave along with Transjordan rather than linked to the French in Syria. The British had supposedly left arrangements between the tribal peoples of Jordan and southern Syria (which

included the Druze) to Sir John Glubb and to their agent, Sir Alec Kirkbride, who wrote about his mission and who was to have ascertained the way the wind blew with the Druze. Ql RE? QD? LEXIE EDL?” L’=—DY_— Y”_—sx—"’

“Wasn't it all set,” I asked, “for the Druze to cooperate with a mis-

sion?” According to British records and his own account, the agent Kirkbride had been in and out of here. “Well,” answered Asmahan’s uncle, ‘Abdullah, his proud moustache quivering, “maybe, yes, but some of the

Druze did not trust him—the English made false promises to us before, you know. It meant more to hear through one of our own what the Allies were up to. We knew Asmahan, we knew her brother, and her father, and we could be sure that the Allies meant what they said.”

PVP VP VPP LD LY LS LY —L Asmahan celebrated determinedly at a Cairene party the night before her departure. Adrenaline fueled her through the evening. For all her pains dressing for the party, she held remarkably few regrets for the world she was abandoning and little anxiety for the risk she was entering. Gaily, she met old friends and new—one of the acquaintances she made that evening was to become very special to her, Mary Qilada. With uncharacteristic restraint, she told no one of her plans to leave nor breathed a hint of political events to come. She packed secretively, although her

servant surmised a lengthy departure, and reacted with dismay. (Her © servant seems to have been a key source on this incident for al-[aba‘s.) Asmahan settled into her train compartment on the line running to Palestine, presented her ticket, and stared absently out at the shadowy | landscape. After several days, her absence was noted. Her family first learned of her departure from her servants. Her brother Fu’ad claimed to have traveled to Suwayda as well”’ (though no one now living confirms this journey). Journalists’ ears pricked up with the news that the 116

Mission of War beautiful Asmahan had fled the country. Why would one of the most popular young divas leave her career without a word? Some exhumed the various official investigations of Asmahan during her union with Badr

_ Khan. They wrote that she had been expelled by the government for corruption, for spying perhaps, or for her scandalous behavior. Press notices did not reach her immediately, and she tried to respond by letter,

threatening to sue a number of the waspy voices, including al-laba‘l, who was shocked and hurt by her accusation, and assumed that her fam-

ilyhad putheruptoit. | |

At the outset of her own journey, many other souls were already on | their way northwards. Two Circassian squadrons under the command of General Collet came from the other direction, leaving Syria on May 21

- to meet up with the Allies to the south of Syria.” Motorized brigades moved in from Iraq into eastern Syria once the action had begun. The Allied Forces from the United Kingdom and Australia, the British-Indian and the Free French would encounter the forces of Général André de Verdilhac. The British pulled all but one brigade of the Australian 7th

_ Division from Marsa Matruh for Operation Exporter, the Indian 5th Bri| gade of the Indian 4th Division, and other sundry forces, like a com‘mando unit from Cyprus and some of the Ist Cavalry. The Free French utilized Foreign Legionnaires, Senegalese infantry, Moroccan spahis (cavalry deriving from the Ottoman tradition), some battalions from French West Africa, and the previously mentioned Collet’s troops. | _ As the three prongs of the invasion moved up, one group was stuck at Quneitra after the Vichy attacked with vigor, and then had to retake that city before moving on to Damascus. A “mission” like Asmahan’s could

possibly help the British understand the problematic linking of different _

- groups in Syria and Lebanon. |

As our campaign seems to be opening from the Druze country,

| we are moving into a region where anti-French feeling is pre| sumably still strong. This involves moving into a region inhab- ,

again.” | | |

ited by the hostile and proud Maronites—neighbors of [the] _ Druzes [and] pro-French—we just hope that there are no inci- , dents and that their religious and tribal feud does not blow up

| 117

_ They crossed the grey-green canal by pontoon bridge into the Sinai by | - dark, about 2:00 a.m. one June morning in 1941. They camped, then | marched through the Sinai into the frontier port of Palestine. “We in the

, lorries were choked by dust and sand, we were not yet experienced in

Mission of War ; desert ways. Had we been we would have rolled back the tarpaulin cover at the front of the lorry, and sat behind the cab,” recalled pharmacist J.

Platt.** |

They camped the second night near Bethlehem, then moved on to Jerusalem where he conversed one evening with an Arab sergeant in the Palestine Police Camel Corps, who spoke excellent English. The cook

called out for him to: , ,

come get his food & stop talking to that “wog”. The Arab police

sergeant [sic] stiffened but otherwise gave no sign of leaving. Some times one feels apologetic for one’s own people and realizes why they are not always popular abroad.” Asmahan, traveling in a much more comfortable style, went directly to the King David Hotel once she arrived in Jerusalem. This establish| ment sat atop a hillside facing the Old City on one side. It was extremely popular with British, visitors, and locals wishing to be seen. It was appar- _ ent that some major action was imminent. Asmahan met with Commodore Bass who reiterated much of her previous instructions, and their plan was solidified.** Commodore Bass figures into French accounts of the invasion; the French believed that he was actively inspiring pro-British feeling in the Jabal. Her instructions were to refrain from crossing the border illegally; instead, she was to summon her older half-brother Talal when she reached it. One report claims Bass was with her; another doesn’t list him.

- Moving northwards through the Jordanian hills toward Syria, the wind cooled as stars lit up in a violet sky, and they passed but a few dark tents of the Bedouin. At the Syrian border, she had to convince the officials of a real emergency to summon Talal, for it was an arduous journey

from that location to reach the Turshan. After many hours he arrived, and heard her out with surprise but not alarm. It was Hassan who, as governor, had to be convinced that the British would not bring harm to the Druze by charging through their territory. Evidence of obvious complicity might bring immediate repercussions from the Vichy forces at the garrison. According to Fu’ad, Hassan journeyed to meet Asmahan, and she made every possible argument for aiding the Allies.?” But Hassan, trying to deal with this beautiful nemesis who taunted him and asked — him if he really believed in fighting the French (Vichy) or not, would not

agree unless Asmahan made a personal promise. She was to cross the border as well and return to him as his bride! He was faced, Labib tells us, with his pain and his love for this woman who was his “bint ‘amm and 118

Mission of War habibat qalb” (his uncle’s daughter and the love of his life). How ironic,

adds Fu’ad, that it should be Hitler and Mussolini who would enable Hassan’s personal success with Asmahan.* Talal, Hassan, and Fu’ad were | well aware that Hassan’s request—to remarry his ex-wife—was out of the | ordinary; the Druze do not permit remarriage of divorced couples. “In fact,” emphasized Asmahan’s younger half-brother, Munir, “they are not

- even supposed to see each other at all, even by accident.” The matter had to be put to the bearded ‘Abd al-Ghaffar al-Atrash, who held the status as family head and ‘aqil to grant an exception. ‘Abd al-Ghaffar set aside his own doubts about Asmahan and agreed. Both he and Hassan requested that the Allies proceed northwards, moving through

the Hauran, the land just west of the Jabal, for the Jabal had endureda previously disastrous agricultural season, and the farmers did not want | their fields ruined, whether by British or French. Asmahan conveyed the shift in plans, presumably through Commodore Bass, and the stage was

set for invasion. ,

“Of course,” chuckled another al-Atrash uncle, “we couldn’t get the _

him in time.” | |

word out to everyone. There was one of our cousins who fought [the _ Allies] for two days, holding up the advance, since no one had contacted In truth, it took some time for the troops to move northwards in

several rivulets of men and arms. Three columns entered Syria on June _ 8. One from the East was made up mostly of Australian, Indian, and Free French soldiers, some 20,000 in all, under the command of General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson (Jumbo Wilson). Lloyd’s Indians held some territory until the Free French under General LeGentilhomme made their appearance. Catroux issued a famous proclamation soliciting the Syrians and Lebanese to aid the Allies in their quest. For their efforts, the French promised they should win their freedom. (The version broadcast tallies with the official published record in French.) Syriens et Libanais. A l’heure ou les forces de la France Libre _ unies aux forces de l’Empire Britannique, son allié, pénetrent sur votre térritoire, je déclaré que j’assume les pouvoirs, les résponsabilities et les devoirs de répresentent de la France au

Levant. ,

Je le fais au nom de la France Libre, qui s’identifié avec la France. , traditionelle et réele, et au nom de son chef, le général de Gaulle.

119 7

Mission of War En cette capacité, je viens mettre fin au régime du mandat et

vous proclamé libre et indépendants... , | | (Inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon! At the moment when the forces of Free France, united to the forces of the British empire, her ally, are entering your territory, I declare that I assume the powers, responsibilities and duties of the representative of France, which is the traditional and real France, and in the name of her Chief, General de Gaulle. In this capacity I come to put an end to the mandatory regime and to proclaim

you free and independent...) And it concluded:

, Habitants de Syrie et du Liban! Une grande heure de votre histoire a sonné. La France vous déclaré indépendants par la voix de ceux de ses fils qui combattent pour sa vie et pour la

liberté du monde. ,

(Inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon! A great hour in your history

has struck. France declares you independent by the voice of her sons who fight for her life and for the liberty of the world!)*?

Catroux promised that: Your sovereign and independent status will be guaranteed by a treaty which will also define our mutual relations. ...

for...we shall not allow the centuries-old interests of France in _ the Levant to be handed over to the enemy.” Some of the motley crew moving from Egypt, whether first from Dakar or from other points, would have remembered the sites of battles where the British had fought before, in the First World War. They passed through

Nablus, “heart of the Arab resistance,” and the “Jewish settlements with their wire cages and watch towers, like prisoner-of-war camps.”**> With a

young man’s eye, our pharmacist noted that “the girls were certainly bonny and well built. Their uniform was a blue blouse and shorts and the men wore blue shorts.” He also met up with a bright Arab youth in this region, and musing, wrote that “The chances of Arab advancement : ‘under the Jews were about as good as theirs under Hitler, or Negroes in 120

| | Mission of War — South Africa.”** From this point, one flank of the Allied forces went

farther to the northwest, through the orange groves of Sarafon and stopped at Haifa, built on the wooded Mount Carmel. Our soldier remembered that “some of the best Jewish musician refugees could be heard _ playing for a living in these bars for the price of a glass of beer.”® . One invading flank came through the Galilee region. Like the Druze,

_ the Palestinians of Nazareth worried about the troops damaging their | young olive trees. Platt had a minor accident in the prickly-pear cactus _ and noted that the women in the fields did not bother to veil their faces

country.” |

as the foreign soldiers passed through that “pleasant verdant hilly Back in the Jabal, the prodigal Asmahan lingered only briefly. There

was opposition to her remarriage with Hassan, despite the decision and approval of the elders. Whether it was because of this local feeling orfor _ other reasons, she left the Jabal after only a week to stay at the Orient Palace Hotel in Damascus, and then returned to the south. In retrospect, this seems the oddest time for travel, given her knowledge of the imminent invasion. Her brother’s account through Labib does not tally very

well with the dates of the invasion or Asmahan’s remarriage—but, then, , he never gives exact dates. He does tell us that after “two weeks” the ; central command of the secret police [in Syria] knew that his sister was

“a spy.” The British “general” in Palestine knew as well—Labib claims, . calling her the “clean Mata Hari.” Perhaps he was referring to MajorGeneral Jack Evetts, who reportedly fell head over heels in love with

~ Asmahan, after leading the British 6th Division into Syria. | , According to this version, Asmahan received a threatening visitor in Damascus, who let her know that “people” in Beirut were out to get her, — and that they had conveyed their wishes to the authorities.2> Who might _ be so annoyed with the Amira? Pro-French Druze, perhaps, or nationalists who had to flee along with Shukri al-Quwwatli, the popular national- _

ist leader, in the wake of the Allied advance? | | _ Labib recounts that the “Amira Amal” had been issued a death sen- __ tence. She fled on horseback from the officer guarding her Damascus

hotel in the company of Amir Fa’ur, another Druze leader. The Amir . purchased face paint from the sug, and she rode dressed as a man, with her face blackened “like a slave,” meeting up with his men outside the | city. The officer back at the Orient Palace was certain she would return , in order to reclaim her own clothes—but she did not.®” In Fu’ad’s personal tale, his sister is then not merely a courier, or trusted emissary, but = an active participant in the pre-invasion interaction of the French and

121 .

_ their suspected foes. |

Mission of War As they rode along, Fa’ur asked Asmahan whether she didn’t long for the world of “tarab’—meaning in this case the artistic performances . and milieu of Cairo. Taken aback by the question, she answered that she _ longed far more for a safe end to their escapade than for tarab.** Eventually, Fa’ur could go no further toward the Palestinian frontier. If she could ride there on her own, he assured her that the Allies would help her. She had papers on her person issued by General Evetts that would surely be honored if British manned the border crossing, but, otherwise, she faced death. Labib’s account of her lonely ride is melodramatic in the extreme,

detailing her thoughts of her loved ones, of the “nights of Cairo,” “the sands of the Pyramids,” “Ras al-Barr” and her fear, ad nauseum.* In fact, the tale of our Arab Paula Revere, Asmahan’s wild ride on a road of death, is the most intense anecdote in Labib’s biography.

The idea of this story, apocryphal or not, is more compelling than the details Labib provides. His description of Asmahan’s mental and emotional state may or may not have borne any resemblance to her actual feelings and thoughts. “Asfi ‘alayki ya Kamilia, madha tafatlina?” (Oh my poor Kamilia, what are you doing?) she “asks” in her mental farewell

to her daughter.*” Once again, we note some discordant details; Fu’ad/ Labib refers to Asmahan as “Hassan’s wife.” Yet if these events are occurring in June, they had not yet remarried. Of course, to Fu’ad, his sister is in a sense always and never more than Hassan’s wife. Why does she not

send a message to Hassan through Amir Fa’ur to rescue her? Why are the French (or Vichy-loyal Syrians) intent on killing Asmahan, rather _ than Hassan? Is the reader being set up for an explanation of her actual

death, three years later? , As she rode along, according to the Fu’ad/Labib version, sounds of

hoof beats came closer. She was overtaken by riders. One of them, she. recognized as a Druze from his clothing. If he recognized her, he held

, his tongue. She realized that the others were fighting for the French, and when they addressed her in French, she did not answer. As she rode

on, adrenaline pumping, she sang to herself (writes Fu’ad/Labib) the song most emblematic of Druze identity, “Ya Dairati, “ and “she senses

that the song charges her soul mightily.” | Ya dayrati, malik ‘alayna lawm/ La ta‘atibi lawmaka ‘ala min khan Ahna ruwayna suyufna min al-qawm /Mithla al-‘ridha ma narkhasak bi-‘uthman (Asmahan sings “Mithla al ‘adhu instead

of al-ridha). | 122

| Mission of War

sultan

La budd matmadhi layali ash-shawm /Wa ta‘azz ghalma giyadhat

| Wa anna ma akhadina hiqqna al-mahdawm/ Ya dayrati, ma nahna laka sukkan...*’

(Oh my village, there is no shame for you.

| Don’t blame your shame upon those who are treacherous.

We quench our swords’ thirst with the blood of the tribe. | Like the agreement, we do not cheapen you for the [sake of the] Ottomans.

| We must mount the steeds of the night of evil.

_ And strengthen the heat of Sultan’s leadership. ,

I claim our trampled rights for us. | O my village, we are your guiding force...) Finally, she reached a segment of the border controlled by the British, and her papers issued by Evetts were accepted. Then, after being taken _ to Tel Aviv, and a brief recovery, according to Fu’ad, she was informed _ that she would leave on the morrow with the Allies. When they left in the middle of the night northwards on their invasion, she accompanied them, in acar.* This sequencing demonstrates Labib’s (or Fu’ad’s) unfamiliar- __

ity with the chronology of the invasion, which occurred once but certainly not twice.

Columns moved north through Palestine. Our heroine was in the midst of firing on the cars in her convoy, Labib writes, and Asmahan feared again for her life.* Movement was fairly swift. By June 10, the ~ central Allied column had made it through the Hauran, advancing up to within fifteen miles of Damascus. The French garrison at Suwayda was a source of worry, but it was isolated at this point amid a fairly hostile

population. |

British accounts of the move northward claim that it was an “Austra-_ lian show,” on account of the larger representation of troops from “down, under.” The Arab participants are left out of these accounts quite often, as is the participation of other third-world troops in accounts of World

War I and II. We know they were represented in the fighting, as both British and French memoirs state that some Druze forces entered Dam-

ascus in advance of the Allies. , | The Allied troops had been fed a fantasy: that the French could well give in, or turn tail, refusing to fight with their compatriots. Catroux’ dream of French embracing French did not transpire. In fact, the other

| 123

side commenced, “fighting like the devil,” and the central line then tried

Mission of War to create a diversion by going straight into Damascus—through the villages of Quneitra and Katina. The French cavalry had been deployed, and, so, dead horses and men littered the rocky road toward Damascus.“ While Indian troops from Iraq attacked from the East, the Allies followed the enemy moving back toward Damascus. Their path was filled with bodies, mostly black bodies, Senegalese who had died for the French. And finally, they moved into Damascus, Burton’s white pearl or opal, that “white bird nestled by the prairie” that travelers had extolled.*” The Arabic name, “ash-Sham,” creates a metaphor of visual contrast, the dark _ beauty spot on fair skin. Finding it instead filled with smoke, dust, and men in uniforms, the Allies filtered into the narrow streets of the Old City, gazing at the Citadel of Salah al-Din, and the yellow Qasyun mountain with buildings already clambering up its flank. Conti, who was the head of the political department within the French High Commission went to the United States Consul, Van Engert, for assistance in determining terms for a cease-fire.** Henri Dentz refused the Allied ultimatum to surrender the city under its terms of armistice. On June 20, the RAF began bombing the opal of the East. The next day, the

British claimed they had captured that city. |

Fighting continued elsewhere, and in the world perspective of the war, greater attention was paid to the German invasion of Russia on June 22. Fighting also continued in Syria where the Allies besieged the oasis of Tadmur, ancient Palmyra, and tanks moved in and around the alabas_ ter columns and the great amphitheater. By July 3, Tadmur was overrun by the Allies who took the eastern town of Deir al-Zur the same day. The

RAF continued strafing Beirut, and the population rioted. Dentz requested an armistice through the United States Consul General in Beirut,

and then, two days later on July 11, the fighting continued when the Vichy rejected the armistice terms. Finally, on Bastille Day, July 14, the

French recognized British occupation of the country. | Fighting and killing had ceased. The struggle for political leverage , had not ended. Who would control the Jabal? Would the fleeting Druze hopes that the British govern their fate be honored? No, authority over the Jabal would be announced in the name of the Free French, who were increasingly nervous over the price of victory. Asmahan had resumed her identity as the Amira Amal with her re-

, marriage to Hassan. The wedding was reported from Damascus on July 10, although it probably took place on the 3rd of the month. It was the occasion for a huge celebration, attended by a number of Allied VIPs, | including General Catroux, General “Evans” [Evetts], and Edward Louis Spears.*” — (124

| Mission of War Spears wrote: ; | a |

One of my earliest tasks, which continued at intervals during my _ four years as Minister, was dealing with the Amira al-Atrash, a

member of the Atrash family, the “royal family” of the Druze, |

~ herself married to her cousin, the Amir... | , | My first sight of the Amira was at a grand party at which she .. remarried the Amir. This was apparently quite normal. [Though, as we know, remarriage among Druze was quite abnormal.] Wonderful as she was that evening in European clothes, I was to learn .

that she was still more beautiful, much more beautiful in Arab

dress which concealed her rather short legs. But whatever her | | clothes, she was and will always be to me one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Her eyes were immense, green as the colour of the sea you have to cross on the way to paradise.

They were turned up at the ends like the extremities of a gull’s wing. Later I was to learn that she hada glorious voice which was . pure enchantment as she sang Arab ballads. She bowled over _ British officers with the accuracy and speed of a machine gun. Naturally enough she needed money, and spent it as a rain cloud |

scatters water.*® | | |

| After the Allied victory, Hassan and Asmahan apparently rode through | the streets of free Damascus, “escorted,” Faith says, “by a squadron of Druze cavalry with scimitars drawn, a splendidly barbaric spectacle,enormously appreciated by the crowds.” And, he adds, the couple were re_ warded for their participation with seats on the dais just behind General _de Gaulle in his triumphal reception.” They were photographed with de

Gaulle, together and separately. 7 |

_ Had they hoped for further rewards, as some implied? Faith says that _ Asmahan petitioned Evetts, who fell madly in love with her, to rid the Jabal of the pesky Colonel Bouvier, and that she, and Hassan as Gover- nor of the Jabal, expected the British to do more in the way of delivering

the promised independence to Syrians and to the Jabal. But the British | gave in to Free-French pressure regarding authority over the minority — populations, and the French re-established their claim to Syria without

any immediate plans for independence. _ - , | Faith argues that, in revenge, Asmahan decided to “turn” and deal |

with the enemies of the Allies in Istanbul, specifically the German Franz von Papen, the Ambassador to Turkey and mastermind of espionage in

the region.” Since we are jumping ahead again, and the event will be | 125 |

Mission of War described fully below, simply note that Faith is the only writer who attributes her attempts to become a double-agent to patriotic revenge. What truth lies in these unverifiable claims? How does Hassan fit into the picture? Hassan, not his wife, appeared in the British records, due to necessary interactions, and concern about the Turshan’s politics is voiced there. Hassan may have discussed many confidential matters with his wife. Labib/Fu’ad tells us that Asmahan was certainly familiar with Evetts. He had signed all her travel papers. Somewhat later, having designated the Orient Palace in Damascus as her residence, she interceded with Evetts, actually rebuking him for the crass behavior of an | Australian soldier on the loose in conservative Damascus.”' Was Evetts really “in love” with Asmahan, or simply linked by gossip to her? Incidentally, al-Taba‘i’s account mentions a British general in love with Asmahan whose initials were “alif, sin” (A or E, S)—notJ,E, as for Evetts, but E,S; as for Edward Spears, perhaps?) .”

In looking for “official” documentation, we find little concerning Asmahan herself, and somewhat contradictory information about the alAtrash clan as a whole. Général de Verdilhac did indeed contact Colonel Bouvier to notify him that the British were expected on July 24 to relieve the Vichy troops and that Keith Dunn would be in charge in Suwayda.”° The Allies had to decide what to do with the Druze squadrons organized and trained by the French. It was then settled that they were to join the

Druze Legion.” At this point, General Catroux began demanding that the British cease any plans leading to the incorporation of the Jabal into British-governed Transjordan. He sent a telegram to General Wilson reading: I have met in Soueida the qualified representatives of all the Druze families. All of them begged me, firstly that the Djebel Druze should NOT be moved from SYRIA. Secondly, that politically it should be part of the SYRIAN state with its actual privi-

leges of administration and autonomy. Thirdly, intermediaries should only acknowledge FRANCE’s patronage with exception of any other countries. The ATTRACHE family expressed to me the same wishes. I gave assurances that there [sic] wishes

would be satisfied and that there was no question of transfer- | ring them to TRANSJORDANIA as the British Prime Minister | has given formal assurances that the French rights should never

be touched. As the political situation is now re-established, I think that it would be undesirable to let British troops enter the DJEBEL and I beg you earnestly to revoke meanwhile the 126

| Mission of War previous orders. The arrival of your soldiers would have imme-

diate consequences to separate into 2 repeat 2 enemy camps the country that I have just united. In my opinion order could

be preserved with the 5 Druze squadrons I have rallied and | which will remain under command of Captain OLLA (un- ©

| readable). SOUEIDA’S FRENCH garrison which has not rallied will move towards EZRAA. COLONEL BOUVIER has NOT immediately rallied will doubtless do so later & will temporarily

keep his post under the armistice terms and will take care of both the political and administrative power in the name of the ALLIES. He could have with him a British L.O. who would be

| replaced in a short time by Major DeKERSAUSON. These ar- | rangements are capable of maintaining order and preserving the (unclear) [sovereignty] of FRANCE. I beg you to accept

| them. signed CATROUX. 20:35—(priority - Immediate)*® : Given previous and subsequent records, it seems very unlikely that allof _ the Turshan supported Catroux’ move—particularly not Sultan. Several branches of the Turshan and other Druze would have supported an annexation to British-controlled Jordan. Hassan as governor was more likely to have represented more than one view. General Wilson decided after two days that the Druze government would be “semi-autonomous,” which

meant that just one British and one Free French officer would be in command. Lyttleton wrote quickly to the French: “T should like to take this opportunity of assuring you that on the British side we recognize the historic interests of France in the Levant. Great Britain has no interest in

_ Syria or in Lebanon except to win the war.” The British were ordered to back off, but those who had ties with and knowledge of the region (Spears and Glubb, for example) remained

_ targets for French irritation. The French who hoped to bring in their own candidate, Hashim al-Atassi, as president, were at a disadvantage. After the murder of the politician Shahbandar, the top members of the _ Nationalist Bloc had fled, leaving Quwwatli as the most popular and pow-

, erful among the Bloc.” , |

The next confidential mention of Asmahan’s family occurs in Spear’s account of the “dust-settling” phase in the Jabal. Brigadier Dunn, Colonel Olive, Sultan al-Atrash, and the Amir Hassan met in early September.

| 127 |

The last named [Sultan al-Atrash], who is perhaps the most intransigeant [sic] opponent of the French in the Jebel, spoke freely to Col. Olive and it is not thought that this will have done

Mission of War harm .... because the French have “encouraged the anti Atrash

elements” and secondly because the continuing presence of Captain Nouvelle, the Vichy SS officer of Shabha [sic] is upsetting the Druze—thirdly, the [matter of the] Druze legion to be settled.” _

| Paula Revere to Mata Hari? Spears recorded other events in his memoirs. Hassan had been appointed the Syrian Minister of War (Defense), an important position. He was able to reside in Beirut, and apparently commuted back and forth to the Jabal as was necessary. Her husband was appointed Syrian Minister of War by Catroux, which was a good way of propitiating the Druze. Catroux and I contributed to his salary and also shared the cost of the rent of the very large house which was his official residence, guarded

by fierce Druze sentries. He was a plump little man, pleasant , and courteous, and differed greatly from his relatives and friends who looked very typical brigands with the longest of long knives so numerous in their belts it did not seem possible to squeeze in a toothpick.°? Hassan, by this stage in his life, was a mature man, politically savvy, who

had succeeded Nasib al-Bakri as governor of the Jabal prior to his appointment as Minister of War. (Nasib Bey was not a Druze, and though he had ties with them, his appointment was not popular with most Druze). He was a nationalist who would later fight once more against the French after the War, and then withstand a Quwwatli-inspired campaign and anti-

feudalist rebellion (ash-Sha‘biyyun) against the Turshan in 1947.° In 1953-54, Hassan would be involved in the anti-Shishakli movement which resulted in the Syrian army’s occupation of the Jabal, his arrest, and the confiscation of his house and papers. (Colonel al-Shishakli had ruled as

a military dictator for four years.) , Hassan had married another Druze wife, Hind ‘Alam al-Din, after Asmahan had moved back to Egypt. He then left and divorced Hind, when he remarried Asmahan. He was by now well aware of Asmahan’s defects: her attraction to the performing world and her impatience with the behavior of traditional society. Apparently, further discord set in soon

after the marriage, what with Asmahan’s restlessness in the Jabal and 128

| | Mission of War _ spending habits. Spears hints at more, but it is terribly difficult to determine if his account is any more reliable than Labib’s version. The follow-

ing incident concurs with dates Spears recorded spending in Beirut.

Spears continues: | | | One night I was dining alone at my end of Beirut when the Arab butler informed me that Amir Atrash wanted to see me urgently _

and could he come along now? The prospect did not please me, all the more in that I knew it would take him half an hour to

nese capital. ) | Half an hour later he appeared without an interpreter, which ,

cover the distance along the long narrow streets of the Leba- |

made his visit useless as he spoke neither French nor English and I had no Arabic, so I asked my butler to ask the Amir to what I owed the honour of this urgent call. He then explained that his wife had told him that I had telephoned asking for his immediate presence at the Embassy. So that was it. She required

- the absence of her husband for an hour for reasons best known ,

good use.” - | to herself, with the consequence that both he and I had been

_ fooled into providing her with time of which she no doubt made

What was Asmahan doing? If there was friction in the marriage, it was -not due to boredom in the Jabal, this time around. She was happily en-sconced in Beirut in the house in Sarsug Square, she could stay at the St. Georges Hotel if she wanted, or at the Orient Palace back in Damascus. In August when it was unbearably hot in Damascus, she escaped to Sawfar,

Lebanon, in the mountains where the air was fresh and clean. 7 | Travel between Lebanon and Syria was a simple matter at that time; there was a train from Damascus, or one could drive, her family reminded

me. In September she would go to visit in Jerusalem, stay at the King David Hotel, and see her dear friend Afaf Nashashibi. She, a Lebanese, was married to the nationalist leader Fakhri Nashashibi, who was mysteriously assassinated in September of 1942 (probably by pro-Axis agents). Asmahan’s brother, Munir, remembered that she had visited Afafin 1942, __

— 1943, and 1944. | |

| Hassan was sufficiently occupied and familiar enough with her ways - not to mind her traveling and entertaining, were it not for the expense. He limited the amounts of money he allowed her, so that she would return from these jaunts without bankrupting them.” Faith and Spears _ 129

Mission of War | seem to hint that she was out for more than spending thrills. But Asmahan had just re-married Hassan. If anything, family observations indicate that

her main intent, even in conspicuous consumption was to promote Hassan’s career in this period. In March of 1942, ‘Abd al-Ghaffar al-Atrash, who had become Minister of Defense in Hassan al-Hakim’s cabinet, died. Asmahan learned that

Sultan al-Atrash had been offered the Ministry of Defense portfolio. Hassan al-Atrash was also a candidate, but it would be a political victory for the French and the nationalists if Sultan, the revolutionary holdout, could be coaxed into government. The al-Atrash family convened at the

Ummayad Hotel in Damascus for a family meeting, and Asmahan arrived as well. She asked Sultan directly if he intended to accept the position. He told her that he would not. She supported his refusal, although

other family members dissented out of respect and support for Sultan. She wanted to see Hassan advance, and he became Defense Minister under Muhsin al-Barazi’s cabinet. (Al-Barazi was a French-trained lawyer of Kurdish background.)™

Her family admitted that she grew disenchanted with the British in

this period, and vacillated for some time, then sought more influence |

with the French. The Turshan and other Druze were also disenchanted with their British friends, as French interests in the region reasserted themselves and the war dragged on. She asked the French for money and they refused. Her uncle put it this way, “She played one side and then the other. If the British wouldn’t pay, perhaps the French would. And she had political influence in this period, through Hassan, and on her own.” Spears corroborates that shortly after the incident in Beirut. “She made a demand on Catroux and myself for more money which,

having consulted one another, we both refused.”°° | She sometimes spent money in grand gestures. Her half-brother re-

called her generosity during Ramadan when she would give sums of money to the poor and to artists and musicians. He also remembered a Bastille Day probably in 1942 or 1943 when she was invited chez Catroux.

She was wearing an Egyptian-style veil that day, you know, that covered her whole head and face. It was so hot, they were drink-

ing lemonade, and she was sweating and kept having to wipe her face under the veil. You know, on that day, she gave one hundred lira to every soldier who saluted her. Imagine! The lira had gold value then, you know. And as she pulled tissue from her handbag to wipe her face, Catroux caught sight of the Browning inside. “Oh my princess,” he told her, “you came to

| 130

| — Mission of War my quarters carrying a gun. I am only afraid of those of your ik! ”°’

PPP LY Ls LY] Ls S__ PS|—'— , _ In these months, Asmahan was accused of “turning” double-agent, or at least of seeking out an opportunity to give information to the Germans. The stories and rumors suggesting her treachery are related to perceptions that the Syrians and Lebanese were once again pawns of the Westerners in their war. Catroux’ promised treaty and assurances of independence for the Syrians and Lebanese had not materialized. The Druze had not been allowed to involve the British any further in their own particular quest for sovereign status and release from the French _ sphere. Many of the Syrian nationalists were pro-Axis and, therefore, in a particularly difficult predicament at this time, and they saw that the war was not going too well for the Allies. What would their future be and how _ could they determine it without investigating the Axis’ intentions for the Middle East? Their orientation differed little from the pro-Axis political.

forces in Egypt during the period, except that Rommel was certainlya

lot closer to battering down front doors in Cairo. | Those who admired little about Asmahan, who thought her arrogant and self-centered, were also those who thought that her initial work for the British was solely motivated by greed. These observers could see the _ same factor now pulling her toward Ambassador von Papen in Istanbul.

She had attempted to pressure the British and the French into giving her more funds, but both sides had refused, and she was now frustrated. Her family denied the “double agent” agent rumors. Nonetheless, they acknowledged her efforts at extracting personal benefit from the - political situation of the times. Abdullah al-Atrash commented: Asmahan reached her zenith when she controlled the strings of the Syrian game. Once the situation in the Levant stabilized for _ the Allies, they began competing amongst themselves. During

that time, it seemed that Asmahan was not able to support ei- | ther side (the British nor the French). She tried to reach an equilibrium, but failed, and lost any power in decision-making, and influence. When she decided to side with the French, being furious with the British, then the political balance was against her. The French appeared to give her the prestige she required, 131

Mission of War | , money. |

but actually they restrained her, denied her influence, and There were German agents in Beirut, including Rudolf Roser whose headquarters were at the Hotel Metropole. Then, there was also Roland Eilender who, born in Lebanon, was related to certain Lebanese families, and had entrée and influence despite the Allied presence. Another

operative, Paula Koch, worked from Aleppo but had connectionsinvari- | ous places including a dentist, Najib Kan‘an of Damascus.” The head of

the Near Eastern division of the German foreign ministry, Otto von

Hentig, had come under suspicion much earlier, in 1941. , Various German agents fled northwards to neutral Turkey after the © invasion of Syria and Lebanon. Turkey hosted a conference of Arab nationalist leaders in 1941, many of whom were viewed as pro-Axis.”” The British had not only to keep an eye on the Abwehr in Istanbul, but also to maintain their own center of activities related to the Balkans there. It is possible that Asmahan or her contacts were reached by an Axis operative. Al-Taba‘i writes instead that an American spy under journalist cover (a Mr. F.) convinced Asmahan to go to Turkey to contact the Nazis. He seems convinced that she was tricked by her American contact into believing she could aid the Druze cause, and that she had no intention of compromising Allied secrets.” Al-‘Aynayn elaborates further and the American journalist is named as Mr. Ford.” She was to be contacted once she was on board a train for “Ankara.” Labib elaborates, claiming that her goal was the “German ambassador in Ankara, von Baben [sic] (Papen).” He writes that she took a taxi to Tripoli and then the train “to Aleppo and Taurus.” Labib or Fu’ad might have read al-Taba‘i’s account first, and confused the Taurus mountains

with the name of the train, the Taurus. Labib continues saying that a British and a French soldier came to her coach announcing that they were returning her to Beirut.” According to her brother Munir, our eyewitness, she actually boarded

a train bound for Istanbul from Aleppo. Either destination would have seemed suspicious to the British. Al-Taba‘i wrote that Asmahan told him that Catroux knew of the plan, but he would not tell Asmahan the object

of her journey. The journalist telegraphed Asmahan about her trip to “Ankara.” She was supposed to have traveled by car to Tripoli, and by train from there to Aleppo. Just as they approached the border, the train stopped, and a British officer forced her to disembark and accompany him back to Beirut via Aleppo. The British would not offer an explanation. She thought it was her husband, Hassan, who had contacted them

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, Mission of War to forbid the trip. Al-Taba‘i adds that when Hassan spotted Catroux later, |

attending a party in Sawfar, he said (of Asmahan), “What a prank she pulled, the little scoundrel!” She then had no doubt that they [the Al-

lies] knew everything.” - |

PPD DY LD LD LS D]' D__ =|'—sO'Y’ , _ Her half-brother told a more innocent version. When they had been in Sawfar (Lebanon) that summer, she had befriended a Turkish minis- | ter and his wife. They invited her to visit Izmir where there was an international exhibition. She was interested in this excursion also because, as the Turkish woman reminded her, she could visit her father’s castle, from

_ which the family had fled so many years before. | 7 In the late summer of 1942 (August or September) Munir accompanied her to Aleppo to wait for the train northwards. “But why did you | go?” I interrupted when interviewing him. “Well,” he replied, “she could __ not go alone. She had to have a male companion. I wasa young man, but _ I was tall for my age, looked adult, and I was very close to her, then.” He —

| recalled the British soldiers taking them away from the station, before | they could even board the train, claiming that they feared for the Amira’s

life. They drove her back to Beirut. “She knew the real reason for this [intervention] and then they restricted her movements and made her —

stay in Beirut.”” | SO

| A more colorful tale was told by others. Nigel Davidson, a captain in the Scots Guards, a New Zealand sergeant, and his “batman” drove to

the Turkish border. Davidson reported that the sergeant uncoupled Asmahan’s car from the train where she rode with “Georgette Khoury and two tough-looking Druze bodyguards.” Davidson told the Amira that

he had a battalion of British troops with him in order to get her off the | _ train and into his car. She told him, “You wait until Jack hears about it [Jack Evetts], you'll be stripped of your rank,” and repeatedly kicked him. They stopped off in Aleppo where Evetts and his aide-de-camp, a_ Captain Harold Morrison, met up with them. They dined together, went

| to an Oriental nightclub where Asmahan threw gold coins to the band for playing her requests. Then, in the morning, the police appeared and _ took Asmahan back to General Spears’ office in Beirut. Nicholson also — claims that Evetts was disciplined for deserting his troops for the evening,

and subsequently sent to Kenya, and later London, by his commander

Jumbo Wilson.” | 133

Mission of War Spears remembered the incident as well: Our special Intelligence police then informed me that the Amira was making for the Turkish frontier. This certainly meant that she intended to tell, or rather sell, to the Turks all she knew, which might include a good deal of some military interest. I told the Security people she should certainly be prevented from crossing into Turkey. I little realized what I was letting myself in for. One afternoon when I was sitting in my office in Beirut the door burst open, a couple of sentries were swept aside, and two representatives of

our police walked in. Between them was the Amira. I thought the Security men terrifying. I did not realize we boasted such men in our forces. They made me think of those formidable slaves who in the amphitheater of ancient Rome held the wild beasts at bay while the miserable victims were being driven in. I

realized there was something of the wild cat in the beautiful Amira, who was terrifying in her rage.” All versions agree that Amira was confined to Beirut where she could do no damage. Her house arrest did not continue for long, for she resumed

| her rounds of traveling and visiting relatively soon after the incident. Her brother related yet another suspicious incident following this event, when she intervened on behalf of a man bringing his ship laden with merchandise into the Beirut harbor (from Haifa). The man was confronted by the British. After she “liberated” the ship, the man offered her gifts and money which she nobly refused.” Asmahan and Hassan traveled separately more often than they did together, and she once again longed for a return to her career, if only for the financial freedom that it might bring her. Many accused her of increasingly wild behavior (including increased drinking) from this point on, as if to validate a return to a wanton artistic existence. In fact, she and Hassan hoped for another child and were disappointed that it seemed physically impossible for her to carry another child to term. This tension

may also have strained their relationship during this period. In 1942, Hassan traveled to Cairo to wrest Kamilia away from Asmahan’s family and bring the child back to the Jabal.” Although Amina al-Barudi was able to travel to Beirut, and Asmahan could journey to Jerusalem to rendezvous with Amina and others, she was supposedly persona non gratain Egypt at this point. One can presume she was considered politically undesirable, or that the visa difficulties ©

, 134

| Mission of War had carried over from the Badr Khan tempest, for if all Syrian passport holders were suspect, then Hassan would not have been able to travel to | retrieve Kamilia.

_ World events loomed large. The Allies began to gain ground here —

and there. In October of 1942, the British beat back German Field Marshall Rommel’s forces in the Western Desert. Fears of an imminent | Axis invasion of Cairo were allayed, though the outcome of the War was surely not a foregone conclusion. Nonetheless, Churchill declared after the fearsome fighting and victory at El Alamein, “It is not the end. It is

- not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”®°

| By the end of November, Russian troops broke through the German lines at Stalingrad. Reports of the atrocities committed against the Jews in concentration camps circulated, and British Jews held a day of mourning on December 13. Meanwhile, Asmahan moved inexorably onwards to the final chapter in her saga, which commenced in Jerusalem.

1. The Times reported: |

His Majesty’s Government could not be expected to tolerate such

, actions which go far beyond anything laid down in the terms of | _ the French Armistice and are in flagrant conflict with the recent declaration of Marshal Petain that honour forbade France

to undertake anything against her former allies. Free French troops have, therefore, with the support of Imperial forces, entered Syria and the Lebanon at an early hour this morning. The Times, 9 June 1941. Also cited by George Kirk, The Middle East in the

War (London: Oxford, 1952) 97. _ 2. Lord Killearn (Sir Miles Lampson), The Killearn Diaries 1934-1946: , The Diplomatic and Personal Record of Lord Killearn (Sir Miles Lampson) High

Commissioner and Ambassador [to] Egypt, ed. and introduction, Trefor FE. |

Evans (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972) 172.

138-139. |

3. Geoffrey Warner, Iraq and Syria 1941 (London: Davis Poynter, 1974)

_ 4, Cable to HF/RAF 20/5/1941 and Angora (Ankara) to HQ/RAF/ ME on 26/5/1941 from War Office 201/845. (Kew: Public Record Office).

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Mission of War

also in WO 201/845. ,

5. Report of 7 June 1941, which sums up the previous weeks of activities

6. Memoirs of J. Platt, “Voyage to Cairo” (Sept. 1939 to Aug. 1945) 15. Platt described his nine-week boat journey from Freetown up into the Suez and his service as a pharmacist in the RAMC in an unpublished manuscript. (Files, Imperial War Museum, London.)

7. Ibid, 19.

8. “Five Years of It” by Major B. R. Thomas, unpublished manuscript, 1989, 88. Thomas trained in Palestine in 1940-41, served in Tobruk in the 70th Division and Syria as an Intelligence officer with the 16th Bri-

gade. (Imperial War Museum, London.) ,

9. Ibid, 91. | | 10. al-[aba‘i, Asmahan. 11. Conversation with Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Cairo, October 24, 1993. 12. Elizabeth McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS (New York:

Dell, 1998). 13. Interviews with Munir al-Atrash and ‘Abdullah al-Attrache, Suwayda, 17 August, 1993. The two admitted, of course, that they were not in Cairo when these arrangements were made, and implied that the British “would have dealt” with Fu’ad who had unmentioned contacts with them. 14. al-Taba‘1, Asmahan, 156.

than “Exporter.” |

15. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 142. Al-Taba‘i calls the Operation “George” rather

1992, 10. , 16. Ibid, 151-153.

17. Faith, “Mad Jack and the Princess,” The Independent on Sunday, 1 June

18. Labib, Qissat Asmahan, 192-194. | 136

Mission of War 19. Ibid, 192. Fu’ad could not have been at this meeting, though the section is written as though he were present and left subsequently with _ _ Hassan and Asmahan for Suwayda. He has no witnesses or corroboration for his presence (Hassan, Asmahan, even Bass, and Talal are now dead), so we are left to believe that either Asmahan or Hassan related the whole

encounter to Fu’ad. , |

90. Faith, “Mad Jack,” 10. | -

and Hassan. |

21. As Fu’ad claimed in Labib’s account, Qissat, 194. Fu’ad may also have

traveled only after the invasion, in time to attend the remarriage of Amal _ 29. Anne Collet, Le Chemin de la Deliverance (Jerusalem: Azraél, 1941) 9. 23. For a simple version of the fighting, see Simon Rigge, War in the Out-

posts (Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life, 1980) 56-57. |

85. Tbid, 1.

24. J. Platt, Memoirs, 1. He had arrived by ship through the Canal with ,

the 8th army, then proceeded to Syria. oe

26. Eddy Bauer, La Derniere Guerre: ou histoire contraversée de la deuxieme guerre mondiale. (The Last War: Or a Controversial History of the Second

World War) vol. 4, (Paris, Grange Bateliere,1973) 287. , 27. Fu’ad’s version implies that Asmahan carried out her negotiations

_ with Hassan “from the hotel” in Jerusalem—notat all the wayhisyounger half-brother, Munir, recalled. Curiously or not, Fu’ad relates events from Hassan’s perspective—there is no embroidering on Asmahan’s thoughts

or feelings. Also, Fu’ad insists that Kamilia accompanied his sister, so that her journey would appear more innocent, Labib, Qissat, 195. Munir

on the other hand, was fairly certain that Kamilia remained with her grandmother until Hassan sent and brought his daughter “by force” to

Beirut in 1942, as ‘Alia would not release her. — a ,

28. Labib, Qissat, 194. oe 137

Mission of War 29. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash and family, Suwayda, Syria, 22 July and 17 August 1993. Munir also told the same basic outline of Asmahan’s mission in an interview with Majalla (‘Amman, Maktab alMajalla) no. 738 (3-9 April 1994) 62-63. The inconsistencies in this ar-

ticle may be the fault of the writer or printer. For example, the title in bold print announces “The Brother of Farid and Asmahan from their

Asmahan. | |

Two Parents (a full brother) Speaks after a Long Silence.” Ibid, 60. Munir

is the son of Mayassa not ‘Alia, and so is a half, not a full, brother of 30. Personal interview with Munir, ‘Abdullah, and Assad al-Attrache, Suwayda, 17 August 1993.

31. The recently unsealed files contained a final version of this broadcast that differs from that published only in that the listeners are addressed as “Syrians and Lebanese” (Syriens et Libanaises) rather than “Inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon.” See No. 28 received 8 June 1941, Lampson to Anthony Eden, FO 406 79, “Further Correspondence Respecting Eastern Affairs,” Part XLVIII Jan.—Dec. 1941 (Confidential), 75-76 (Kew: PRO); and Albert Hourani, Syria and Lebanon: A Political Essay (fourth edition, Beirut: Libraire du Liban, 1968; first edition, Oxford University, 1946) 241-242 and Appendix A, No. 11, 371, the French version pub-

lished in France, 9 June 1941. |

The remainder of the proclamation went as follows:

You will therefore be from henceforward sovereign and inde- | pendent peoples, and you will be able either to form yourselves into separate States or to unite into a single State. In either event, your independent and sovereign status will be guaranteed by a Treaty in which our mutual relations will be defined. This Treaty will be negotiated as soon as possible between your representatives and myself. Pending its conclusion our mutual position will be one of close unity in pursuit of acommon ideal and common

aims. | Inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon, you will see from this dec-

laration that if the Free French and British forces cross your

frontier, it is not to take away your liberty, it is to ensure it. It is to drive out of Syria the forces of Hitler. It is to prevent the Levant

from becoming an enemy base directed against the British and against ourselves. 138

Mission of War

| We who are fighting for the liberty of peoples cannot allow _ the enemy to subjugate your country step by step, obtain control of your persons and your belongings, and turn you into slaves.

We cannot allow the populations which France has promsed to

defend to fall into the hands of the most wanton and pitiless master that history has known. We cannot allow the age-long interests of France in the Levant to be handed over to the enemy.

Inhabitants of Syria and Lebanon! If in answer to our appeal, you rally to us, you should know that the British Government in agreement with Free France has promised to grant you all the

advantages enjoyed by the free countries which are associated with them. Thus the blockade will be lifted and you will enter into immediate relations with the sterling bloc, which will give you enormous advantages from the point of view of your imports and exports. You will be able to buy and sell freely with all the free countries ...

| to conclusion reprinted in text. 32. George Kirk, The Middle East in the War. One may also read the earlier drafts of the proclamation that De Gaulle and Catroux labored over. While they worried about British inclinations after the invasion, Churchill

wondered if the Syrians and Lebanese could take the splinter French group seriously, and eventually modified that “independence” to a French dominance following the armistice.

33. Platt, Memoirs, 2. |

34. Ibid, 7-9. | |

35. Ibid, 3. : 36. Labib, Qissat, 196-198. |

37. Ibid, 200-202. _

38. Ibid, 201. Fu’ad adds that in her “arrogance” she thought that perhaps he wanted her to sing to liven up their journey. She protested that - it would not be safe for her to sing—the enemy might hear' (and would

- surely recognize her as a woman, if not herself). — |

_ 139

Mission of War 39. Ibid, 206-207. 40. Ibid, 207. 41. Ibid, 209. Would she really have sung this song in earshot of the proVichy forces? We also have to wonder if it was part of her repertoire at this point. Farid arranged the mawwal, whose words were attributed to his uncle, the fighter and folk-poet, Zayd al-Atrash, for the film Gharam

wa Intiqam filmed some three years later. She might have known the verse, but had not yet recorded it.

: 42. Labib, Qissat, 212. | 43. Ibid, 213.

44. Platt, Memoirs, 13-14. 45. Helen Cameron Gordon, Syria As It Is (London: Methuen, 1939) 50.

46. Lukasz Hirszowicz, The Third Reich and the Arab East (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966) 190. 47. Al-Muqattam, 10 July 1941, cited by al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 162. Al-Taba‘i

also discovered a news clipping from a London newspaper giving the marriage date as July 3.

48. Spears. Fulfilment of a Mission, 170-171. , 49. Faith, “Mad Jack,” 10.

50. Ibid, 10. | | | 51. Labib, Qussat, 214-216.

52. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 203-204. 53. Note from Général de Verdilhac to Col. Bouvier, 20 July 1941, WO 201 859 (Jebel Druse) (Kew: Public Record Office). This note is further corroborated by a Note de Service from Dentz to the Allied mission regarding the withdrawal of weapons, dated 24 July in the same file.

140

_ Mission of War

54. Telegram SHAM to HQ, 24 July, WO 201 859. | 55. Telegram, Catroux to Wilson, 24 July 1941. Wilson cabled back saying that he must first disarm the Vichy forces as Cairo had so ordered, | and promised to discuss the matter with de Gaulle. WO 201 859 (Kew: PRO). In the same file a letter from Collet appears asking why didn’t he receive a copy of the letter from Catroux before he got to Suwayda where he relieved Col. Bouvier, occupied his house, and flew the British flag— says that now would be difficult to withdraw and take down Union Jack, dated 28 July 1941 to Force HQ, This particular gaffe must have irked |

the Free French no end. |

FO 406, 79. | | |

56. Enclosure 1 in No. 33, Lyttleton (in Cairo) to De Gaulle, 25 July 1941, 57. Spears to Lampson No. 137, telegraphic enclosure in 35 dated 13

Sept. 1941, FO 406 79 (Kew: PRO). ,

58. Spears to Lampson No. 137, referring to meeting of 29 August, FO

406 79, 89 (Kew: PRO). ee

59. Spears, Fulfillment of Mission, 171. oe 60. Seale, The Struggle for Syria, 133-136; also personal interview with Munir

and ‘Abdullah al-Attrache, 17 August, 1994. | | | 61. Spears, Fulfillment of Mission, 171. | |

60. | -

| 62. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993.

63. Personal interview with al-Atrash family members, Suwayda, 22 July —

and 17 August, 1993. , oe |

64. Ibid. Also see Stephen Longrigg, Syria and Lebanon under French Mandate (London: Oxford, 1958) 322n. and 325n; Seale, The Struggle for Syria,

65. Personal interview with Abdullah al-Attrache, Suwayda, 22 July 1993.

66. Spears, Fulfillment of Mission, 171. a | ,

141 ,

Mission of War | | 67. Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 17 August,1993.

68. Abdullah al-Attrache, Suwayda, 22 July, 1993. 69. Kirk, The Middle East in the War, 87. Other agents he mentioned included a journalist, Rashad Barbir of the Deutsches Nachrichtenburo. 70. Barry Rubin, Istanbul Intrigues (New York: Pharos Books, 1991) 60. Rubin gives a great deal of information about van Papen. 71. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 201-202, 209-211.

72. al-‘Aynayn, Asmahan, 138-139. 73. Labib, Qissat, 229-230.

74, al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 209-210. Asmahan supposedly related the tale directly to the journalist, when they saw each other in Jerusalem. 75. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July, 1993.

76. Faith, “Mad Jack,” 10. There are so many other incorrect details included in Faith’s account of Asmahan’s life as given by Hastings that we can only relate his version and contemplate.

77. Spears, Fulfillment of Mission, 171-172. | 78. Labib, Qissat, 234.

79. al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 212-213, and corroborated in interview with Munir al-Atrash, 17 August, 1993.

80. Winston Churchill, Commons speech cited in Richard Hease, 1942, _ A Year to Remember (London: Mistral, 1991) 150. —

| 142

| Chapter 5 Passion and Revenge: From Jerusalem to the Road of Death erusalem. A golden glow infused the stone walkways and walls of the

Jou City. Olive branches brushed hillside vistas, and murmuring citi-

ens walked under the magnificent sky. Asmahan’s Jerusalem continued outside the walls of the Old City into streets with substantial stone buildings. Asmahan’s favorite hotel, the King David, a nucleus for foreign officers, political agents, and locally important figures, was blown up in 1946 by one of the Jewish underground militias. Periodic redecorating has erased some of the atmosphere of the war years, but certain bows to

tradition remain. Across the street, the central tower of the Art Deco : YMCA rises like an obelisque flanked by two oriental domes. One can imagine Asmahan walking around the hotel, past the the cave, and descending the hillside park just behind the hotel, under a sunset-lit sky into the Yemin Moshe area built by Moses Montefiore in the 1860s. Did she spend her time indoors instead of in the reading lounge or the bar, or did she walk atop the walls of the Old City, and around the elaborate Dome of the Rock, and drink from Qaitbay’s fountains? Did the air carry , the fresh scent of Jordan and the Jabal beyond it, as it still does today? I collected stories involving Asmahan in Jerusalem, impressions, and gossip. The name of the King David Hotel cropped up frequently. I interviewed Atiyya Sharrara, aged violin and ‘ud master who had played and

toured with Farid from the early forties on: “Oh, I remember her,” he said, “but the stories told about her were simply awful. Go back, look again—she was at the King David Hotel, you know, the one that blew up! _ And mark my words, she had something to do with it.” I did not want to ruin our interview by reminding him that the bombing of the King David took place long after her death in 1944. What mattered was his association of Asmahan with violence, vice, and luxury. She visited Jerusalem alone, and also with family members. Her dear

friend there, Afaf Nashashibi, lost her husband, a leader of one of the two leading families of Jerusalem, the Nashashibis and the Hussaynis, 143

Passion and Revenge when he was assassinated. Asmahan had other possibilities to pursue in Jerusalem. Having failed to secure funding or interest from the British or the French in Syria, she required a means to escape Hassan, and the best prospect was a return to her film career in Egypt. On this particular visit to Jerusalem, Asmahan insisted on occupying the finest rooms in the King David, the Royal Suite.? Events in the popular narrative about the Asmahan saga were rooted in her insistence that the hotel management hold the Royal Suite for her. Queen Nazli, mother of King Farugq, and the princesses were due for a visit, and the management found itself in a quandary with Princess “Amal’s” occupation of the needed quarters. During her stay, she ran up exorbitant tabs in the lively bar and the restaurant. Hassan had cut her off financially. But could she stand losing face before her old nemesis, Nazli, who had once teased Hassanayn Pa-

sha over his dalliance with the singer? ,

“But why had Amir Hassan cut her off?” I asked during my interviews. “Well, she was spending too much money. How else could he get her to come home to Suwayda, and stay there for a while?” answered Munir. There was more to it than that. The timing of Nazli’s visit may actually have been months prior to Asmahan’s new-old dilemma with funds.

The story was told in different and conflicting versions, as with every episode of Asmahan’s life. In one account, hotel management requested , that Asmahan pay her bills and vacate the suite after receiving a telegram concerning Nazli’s arrival. Asmahan refused, saying that she would remain in the royal suite, for “Queen Nazli has no power here,” [outside of

Egypt].° In another version, the hotel management demanded that she settle her bill or pack up in four days, for Nazli was due to arrive. Asmahan told them, “She may be a Queen, but Iam the Princess of the Jabal Druze.

, I always pay my bills and I refuse to leave.”* She sent Munir to Hassan for money, but Hassan refused to send the needed funds. At this propitious moment, Asmahan received a film offer from Studio Misr. With an ad-

vance on her contract, she paid her hotel bill. In the meantime King Farug had sent for Nazli and the two princesses to return to Egypt.® This version of the story allowed her family to perceive her return to the stage

as economically motivated, rather than a deliberate preference for the world of fann (art). Another version included the revelation that, prior to the film offer, Asmahan had undergone a period of real depression while in Jerusalem. Hassan had traveled to pick up Kamilia, and the girl returned with him

, 144

to the Jabal. Asmahan was drinking and partying with her friends, but all the while considering the prison that was her marriage. She began to see suicide as the only way out. Fu’ad/Labib remind us that she had tried it

| | | Passion and Revenge “twice” before—twice, if we count the attempt in Damascus in the Orient. Palace. There was also a concealed attempt in Cairo, when al-Taba‘i man-

aged to get her into a hospital under an assumed name, Amal Hussayn.° | On this occasion, her chamber maid in the King David discovered her inert body and screamed for help. A doctor revived her. Hassan was notified as was Fu’ad who arrived from Cairo, furious at his sister and her continuing melodrama. Fu’ad claims that at this point Hassan burst into Asmahan’s room and faced her with his oath of divorce, the second time

he was to divorce the love of his life.’

| “Some link is missing here,” I mused to myself, as the wind whipped the trees beyond my desk. “Why did the family tell me that Hassan never really divorced her the second time? Why was he so angry after her sui- _ cide attempt?”

, His anger was probably connected to other, racier stories, stories cir-

culated later, if not at that time, by the British. According to these ac- , counts, Asmahan’s parties at the King David were legendary events, with

alcohol flowing and real orgies in session. Amina al-Barudi, her boon companion at all wild parties in Cairo, was apparently visiting in Jerusa-

lem. Spears claims that Asmahan reportedly danced in the nude with | selected British officers, so outraging the Druze that they made known

their intent to murder the lady. Spears wrote: |

So the Druze wrote to me saying they had heard of goings-on | | _ which were a disgrace not only to the Atrash family but to the _ Druze in general; would I please inform the High Commissioner __

that their honor was sullied and they were going to send to Jerusalem and have her killed. This missive I sent on to Sir Harold MacMichael, and in due course I forwarded his short answer to the Atrash. “Palestine is governed under British Law,” |

it ran. “Anyone committing murder is, if convicted, hanged. | | Please inform your correspondent of this, and that the law is

strictly enforced.” | |

Journalist Faith hints that the British exaggerated Asmahan’s activities— that she was wild, but was not herself involved in the purported sexual display. This, he explains, was because she was more introverted, or voyeuristic, being “a private person,” who “probably derived more enjoyment from acting as a sort of promoter of sexual activities at her parties.” __

145 |

| Faith seems a little disappointed that Asmahan’s own involvement could

not be substantiated. He writes that she threw an Egyptian starlet in Davidson’s lap. So, based on this one incident, Davidson says that she

Passion and Revenge | enjoyed “bringing girls and boys together,” although “she told Amina

that she never really cared about anyone.” ” |

Her uncle responded to my queries with a tired anger. “Can you believe that she would conduct herself in that way? Her brothers were very conservative—I mean not only Fu’ad, but also Farid. If she had a

possible?” |

private life, and I say, if, don’t you think she would keep it as private as Much may have been constructed for shock value, though little snip-

exclaimed: |

pets of truth remain. Such remarks are commonly used in comments about all beautiful and arrogant artists. A pretty young woman in Indi-

ana, whose father had owned a cafe and taxis in Jerusalem in those years,

Oh, Asmahan! ... You know, my father always told a certain story about her. She rode in his cab while she was visiting in the city. I don’t know where she was going, and then later on in the day,

she realized that she had lost a ring, a diamond ring. She went to the authorities because she wanted them to locate the cab and search the back seat. They found my father and the cab, but not the ring, so they beat him. Then, as it turned out, she located the ring somewhere else after all that.” Like Fu’ad, Muhammad al-Taba‘i remembered her drinking heavily in this period, although to him it was an accepted facet of a “racy” artistic image. “It’s too early to drink, Amal,” he protested. She laughed at his

attempt to restrain her and told him to draw the curtains, turn on the lights, and pretend that night had fallen if that made him comfortable. She spent tremendous sums of money according to the various sources; it seemed, as the adage runs, to burn holes in her pocket. At some point, she bought her friend Amina al-Barudi’s car and posed in front of it. She bought designer clothing, including a couture-made original. When the chamber maid admired the dress, she gave it to her. Generosity, that reputed Eastern what-is-mine-is-yours variety, was another quality Asmhan was known for. What about men? Most of those whose names were clearly linked to Asmahan were suspiciously relevant to her desire to return to Egypt. One author claims that she was very briefly married, for ten days, in this pe- | riod to Fayid Muhammad Fayid in an effort to obtain a visa to Egypt.”

a 146

Such an arrangement, or rumors of it, would have enraged the Druze just as much as her previous union with Badr Khan, or the party stories

| Passion and Revenge about British officers. But if this story was true, then a subsequent and verifiable marriage with Ahmad Salim need never have taken place. Both al-Taba‘i and Labib mentioned Hussayn Sa‘id, uncle of King Farida as Asmahan’s conduit back to her career in Egypt. Apparently, Iskandar al-Wahhabi visited Jerusalem and was enchanted by Asmahan _ and put in a word for her with Hussayn Sa'‘id, a director of Studio Misr, which had held her earlier (abrogated) contract. Hussayn Sa‘id then visited Asmahan in Jerusalem and proposed a new contract.” _ Asmahan asked for a very high fee—a price “unheard of in Egypt at that time” writes Labib, “of seventeen thousand pounds!”"* Al-Taba‘i re-

ports that the “first” film of the multiple-part contract was to earn her _ “thirteen thousand pounds.” Either fee put her in a special category — for entertainers, a star status which had never before existed in the history of Arab entertainment. She shared this elevated status with afew _

other individuals, including Umm Kulthum. |

Her brother remembered a multiple contract as well, contracted with | a “Husni Najib” for forty thousand pounds (for two films)! In his version, Asmahan said, “I accept your offer. However, I am worth three times the value of Umm Kulthum. In addition to the fee, I want a villa provided, a - servant and a driver, and one-half the fee in advance.”!® By rights, the studio, given its official connections, should have been

able to arrange a visa for her to return to Egypt. There seems to have been a snag on that end, due perhaps to the laws governing aliens during the war, as Asmahan had not become an Egyptian citizen. Syria’s transfer from the Vichy to the Free French would not have affected her status, but rumors of Asmahan’s efforts to reach the Germans in Turkey may have caused problems, or her wild reputation (as suggested by jour- —

nalists) might have caught the attention of some part of the Egyptian government. The studio’s representative returned to Egypt to arrange matters while Asmahan waited in Jerusalem. This aspect of her story may also have been exaggerated by her family to explain away her subsequent,

and final, marriage to an Egyptian. ,

Her brother Munir left with Kamilia to bring the little girl back to her father. You may recall that it was previously stated that Hassan went to Egypt in order to bring Kamilia back to the Jabal. Munir was not clear about this sequence, but Kamilia may have been taken down to visit her

mother, and Munir then returned her to her father. Munir could also remember that Asmahan’s brother Farid came to Jerusalem for several evenings of concerts. Tahia Carioca, possibly the most talented dancer

| 147

of her era, accompanied Farid, as she was to perform with him, and then

go on to a party in Aleppo. | |

Passion and Revenge | Tahia Carioca, an actress later in her career, first performed as a dancer in Badi‘a Masabni’s salah (theater/music hall). She also entertained at private parties and began performing in films in the 1940s, playing the role of a lower-class woman with a heart of gold, and eventu- | ally built a career as a bona fide actress.” At this point Tahia’s reputation | was still based on her dancing career. She had her husband Ahmad Salim, a somewhat dubious character, in tow in Jerusalem.

Asmahan had managed to spend an incredible amount of her fee already and was worried about the delay with her travel papers. Naturally enough, Asmahan met and chatted with her brother and also with Ahmad Salim, who had been previously married to her good friend, Amina al_ Barudi. Ahmad Salim suggested that she marry an Egyptian in order to obtain her visa, but (according to Munir) Asmahan was unwilling to dive

into the pit of marriage again, after all her turmoil with Hassan. (This would have been the precise time at which she married Fayid Muhammad Fayid, if this event ever occurred.’* ) According to one version, Asmahan

asked Ahmad Salim if he could not marry her, just as a favor, for five thousand pounds. Ahmad Salim promptly divorced Tahia, sent for a _ shaykh, and Asmahan married him then and there in Jerusalem. Salim traveled to Egypt to arrange Asmahan’s visa, and she was finally able to leave Jerusalem. Salim was apparently not consistently esteemed by some of his con-

temporaries; whether this is due to professional rivalries or not is not clear. Al-Taba‘i writes about him in quite a different tone than his relatively respectful assessment of Badr Khan. The Turshan were especially disgusted and upset by Asmahan’s marriage to Salim, but their animosity may have arisen mostly from Salim’s association with the stage, and the fact that he was not a Druze. Salim later became a film director and an important executive at Studio Misr. He was married five times in all, to Khayria al-Bakri, Amina al-Barudi, Tahia Carioca, Asmahan, and after her death, to Madiha Yusri. Reportedly, Salim was a womanizer, a heavy

drinker (according to al-Taba‘i), and in Munir’s version appears as a despicable character—after all, what real man sells his affections for a mere five thousand pounds? Of course, this story in turn bolsters the explanation that Asmahan married (someone other than Hassan) only for her visa. The very same argument was utilized earlier when Asmahan

and Badr Khan tried to marry. Was it true? |

Fu’ad and Farid, through various sources, gave a slightly different version of events. Asmahan apparently took a trip to Beirut while waiting for her visa. In her hotel room she had a close call. Shots rang out, narrowly missing her as she moved to answer the telephone. There was no 148

| Passion and Revenge , one there to be seen. The French and English were still after their spy _ with her potentially dangerous tongue. Too nervous to stay in Beirut, she thought about traveling to Damascus, then rejected the idea and returned to Jerusalem. There, she received word from Hussayn Sa‘id that the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior had refused to grant her an

entry visa.” . |

~ In a vulnerable and anxious state she welcomed her brother Farid on tour, and remet Ahmad Salim, whom she had come to know during _ the shooting of Intisar wa Shabab. Labib writes of a real romance, at least

on Salim’s part. Asmahan did not coldly proposition him for her visa, but on the other hand, she was shell-shocked by love—unsure of her real _ feelings, but ready to consider the opportunity. “Na‘am, aina al-hubb, aina?” Labib interjects (Yes, where is love, where?).*” Holding the diva’s

hands in his, Salim proposed romantically, and after much thought, , Asmahan accepted. According to Labib, Farid was very happy for his

sister and there was a huge wedding party. | | Oo

_ Nonetheless, difficulties continued in obtaining a visa despite the best combined efforts of Sa‘id, Fu’ad, and Asmahan’s friends. The Interior Ministry officials argued that Asmahan’s divorce from Hassan wasn’t officially recorded (just as we heard in the story of the Badr Khan mar-riage)—and Fu’ad argues that “We are Druze and don’t have (or need) | _a divorce paper.” “The law is the law,” was the response. The real problem was “that Asmahan was a spy.”?! It took extended wrangling, wasta, and mediation through the British to finally produce the coveted entry

visa to Egypt. | | _ |

Asmahan boarded the train to return to Cairo. Once she arrived, work would begin on her new film. But first, she had to confront the

| reality of her marriage with Ahmad Salim. And she held no certainty concerning her own feelings, or his. She moved out to his place in Giza toward the Pyramids. No matter what her true purpose was in marrying

Salim, it cannot be denied that she lived with him as his wife. | Both Ahmad Salim and Asmahan drank and socialized with vigor. The pair were equally stubborn and had explosive tempers. In the popu-.

| lar psychology of the Middle East, just as in the West, such a match isa recipe for disaster. When one partner is introverted and the other extro- verted, or one is excitable and anxious while the other is slower to react

| or more passive, differences of opinion may not prove to be incendiary. | One evening, Asmahan wanted to go out partying, and Ahmad Salim _ forbade her. She dressed for the evening just as she had planned, and a commotion began. Her friend, Mary Qilada, who acted as her secretary _

| 149

and had once pleaded with Fu’ad for money to pay Asmahan’s gambling _

Passion and Revenge and drinking debts, slipped out of the house while the two were scream-

ing at each other and went to call the police. | ,

In al-Taba‘i’s version of the story, the grand fight was precipitated by _ Asmahan who paid a visit to an astonished Tahia Carioca. Tahia had been abandoned by Ahmad Salim upon her return to Jerusalem from Aleppo, and must certainly have been surprised by Asmahan’s request that Tahia telephone Ahmad Salim. Salim and Tahia spoke so long on the telephone _ that Asmahan had time to return home and confront Salim, saying she

: would not live with him anymore: that she wanted a divorce. We should assume that she planned this confrontation, as she needed an excuse to part with Salim. They fought, and Ahmad Salim threatened suicide.” A tragi-comic shootout ensued. Salim was wounded. When the police arrived, Asmahan blurted out that theirs was not a real marriage, he had no real conjugal claim or rights—after all, she had paid, and simply for the visa! The police asked her if she realized she was admitting to a serious crime—they would have to inform the Ministry, and she couldbe _ deported.” Yes, she understood. And she was certain that Studio Misr

would help her stay in the country, at least long enough to finish the film. How else to escape from Ahmad anyway? Escape, escape. Whether

from the Jabal, or from Hassan, or from Fu’ad, or from the boredom and captivity of having to live under men’s protection.

Now, when her brother Fu’ad retold the story of the “stubborn woman” and the “crazy” husband to Labib, Salim had tied Asmahan up, and intended to kill her. He managed to turn the police away at the door and let Asmahan know that he would kill her and her dear friend Mary for betraying him! Then, an officer managed to enter the house, inter-

| fered with Salim’s aim, and then took him to the hospital, for he was wounded.” However the incident was truly enacted, one can surmise that it did nothing to bolster the ego of Ahmad Salim. He may have hoped to revenge himself on Asmahan at a later date, but he was still in the hospital when she died. Asmahan had her film to think about as well...

A Final Appearance: Gharam wa Intiqam (Passion and Revenge) Asmahan’s final cinematic appearance succeeded in meshing a tragic, _ manipulative, enchanting screen persona with her own life story. She died before the film could be completed. The writers and director rewrote the ending so that the star’s anticlimactic demise in a car accident 150

| Passion and Revenge would confirm the audience’s identification with their heroine. ‘The decision was practical, for without the star, a musical finale was impossible, and the tragedy of love and revenge was realized instead by her costar,

who, driven mad by the outcome, could only play his violin to her— within the walls of an asylum. His melodramatic madness created a frame for the main story, a predictable frame encompassing the necessary trag-

edy destined for female protagonists who dared to avenge and love in

_ those years of cinematic romance. | |

Gharam wa Intigam relates the ill-fated relationship of Suhayr Sultan (Asmahan), a singing star, and a talented composer and musician, Gamal Hamdy (Yusuf Wahbi). The first scene is an extended flashback, which

takes place in an insane asylum where a doctor tells three visiting journalists how Gamal came to be an inmate. The second scene is shot from Gamal’s perspective in an opera box watching Suhayr’s performance in © a tableau set to Farid’s “Layali al-Uns fi Fienna” (Nights in Vienna, see notation end of Chapter Six) complete with waltzing couples, followed by a fabulous vocal solo. A guitar played with a bottleneck leads into the

mawwal. | oe |

Admirers mill around backstage, and Suhayr’s newlywed husband Wahid comes in to greet her. He is briefly confronted by a distraught girlfriend outside the stage. Suhayr tells him that she “is singing for one man only—only you.” After her return to her home, the household is disturbed by the police and medics who carry in an unconscious, fatally wounded Wahid. He soon expires despite their interventions. Suhayr vows to find his killer and then, alone, wandering through her flat, sings “Ayyuha na‘imu salama” (Greetings to the one who has gone beyond). The police and the Mamur Zabt (a special political investigations officer) begin their inquest which leads them to Gamal’s flat where the

murder weapon is discovered. The little black servant boy, Sugar Candy, remembers a message which the butler discovers in Wahid’s suit proposing that Gamal meet him. When Gamal is confronted with this evidence, _ he admits quarreling with Wahid but denies the murder. He claims Wahid

_ was a playboy and had been involved in a fight at the Kit Kat nightclub over a girl. In fact, he had promised to marry the girl hanging out at the | stage door. The girl had killed herself shortly afterwards. Suhayr, certain that Gamal is responsible for Wahid’s death, vows to extract her revenge— using “a woman’s weapon,” passion (hence “gharam” in the film title).

| One of Suhayr’s visitors complains that she has mourned long

, , 151 | |

enough. She invites her to a musical event and when she learns that Gamal will attend, she accepts. Gamal, dressed in black cape and mask,

plays a sort of gypsy rhapsody 4 l’arabe on the violin to wild applause.

Passion and Revenge | Then it is Suhayr/Asmahan’s turn, dressed in full “assiut” (a particular black net material decorated with silver-threaded patterns) veil and traditional jewelry. She sings, “Ahwa, Ahwa” (a composition by Farid; see notation at end of Chapter 6) and invites the guests to drink Arabic coffee. The lyrics play on the pun of the two words ahwa “I love,” and [q/

coffee... |

ahwa “coffee” with a silent “qg”in an Egyptian accent.

I love/coffee, I love/coffee. You who are in love, come drink my You will find your happiness in it.

Dismiss your sorrows, they only bring tears. , The world is worthless and complaints are useless.

You who are in love, come drink my coffee. | She serves Gamal from her tray, just like a prospective bride, and stares into his eyes. Then she requests that he visit her for a “professional consultation” concerning her musical career. | Gamal meets Suhayr, who apologizes for her angry words about Wahid and asks Gamal to compose the music and tableau for the grand party of Princess So-and-So. He agrees on the condition that the subject be altered from Pharaonic Egypt to “Arab Egypt.” The commissioned compo-

sition is performed in a a grand outdoor tableau as a a tribute to Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha and his line, on up to King Faruq. Suhayr repre-

sents the spirit of Egypt giving tribute to its modern rulers. | Soon after, Suhayr arrives unexpectedly at Gamal’s place at night, begging him to save her from a marriage to her cousin Safwat (to be contracted in order to preserve her honor, as her widowed status is socially suspicious) by accompanying her on a journey to the East—to Syria

and Lebanon. He agrees, they travel, and then check into a hotel (meant perhaps to be in Sawfar). She stumbles in the garden, cries out, and pretends to sprain her leg to secure his attentions. Searching for a doctor, Gamal

encounters the comic physician and amateur poet Bishara (Bishara Wakim) puzzling over a metaphor. The doctor finds nothing wrong with Suhayr, but prescribes massage, and he bonds with Gamal. The next scene is the wedding party for an Arab “shaykh” with dancers and musicians. Suhayr entertains, beginning with layali after the doctor recites his patriotic poetry, and then Suhayr sings “Imta hata‘raf imta?”

(When will you know that I love you?). |

152 ,

| oe Passion and Revenge Imta hata‘raf imta /inni bahabbak imta? (repeat)

Imta hata‘raf, inni bahabbak/Imta, imta, imta?/Imta hata‘raf , imta, imta hata‘raf?

(When will you know, when, that I love you? | a When will you know that I love you, when, when, when?) Banaji tifak wa-atmanna, ashufak

| La yawm ‘atafta ‘alayya / Wa la inta sa’ilfiyya , (I speak to your shadow, and I long to see you. _. Notasingle day passes in which you do not sorely test this sentiment; nor a single day when you are not asking this question.)

Wa-la-imta? Hatahayarni [qJalbi (dah in the transcription) wa

_ tzawwid hammt-i-1 | | |

| anguish grow?) | |

(How long will my heart remain distracted? How long will my

Yalli gharamak fi khayyali [repeat] | | | |

Wa bi ruhi wa dammi | | , a

my soul and my blood) OO (Oh hasten, bring your passion into my imagination and into |

Refrain: Imta hat‘araf, etc. , , 7

‘Verse: — | | | (When will you know that I love you? etc.) 7 |

_ Fadhilt akhabi hubbak/Hubbak fi qalbi, hubbak |

, Wa asabbaru wa’awasih/ Win-nar bitr‘a fi-ih | _ (I choose to capture love in my heart | 7 | I force it to be patient, I console it although fire consumes it) —

| Wa khuft a[q]ulak ‘an (transcription reads ‘ala) hali : oe , wa asharahlak, asharahlak, ruhi (Asmahan’s version) | La yakun fu’adak mish khali / wa ta‘adhab, ta‘adhab, [qlalbi ==>

153

Passion and Revenge (I was afraid to tell you of my condition... (Oh [what a | pity, if your heart has no place for me You who I love with all my love)

Repeat: Ya li gharamak fi khayali etc. | Refrain Note that the movie itself contains a rough translation of the song. Above I have indicated how Asmahan’s singing differed from a Moroccan singer’s

transciption of the song as included in Chapter Six. She took liberties with the lyrics, and the later copyists were frequently less than accurate. Gamal doesn’t seem to comprehend that the song is directed to him, but the doctor elbows him and makes certain that he understands. That evening Suhayr hears Gamal practicing an insistent beautiful melody on the violin. She inquires, “What is the name of that song?” He replies that it is called “Bila Amal” (“Without Hope “[a pun on Asmahan’s

real name]). She gasps. She is quite overcome by her guilt for deceiving such a sincere man, and tells him that she must return to Egypt. He gives _her a little necklace of his mother’s, a tiny gold Qur’an, and they agree not to bring up the past until they return. When she arrives home in Egypt, she confides to Safwat her uncertainty that a man as noble as Gamal could be a murderer, but he reminds her of her vow of vengeance. At their next meeting Gamal bursts forth with the the true story. Wahid had deceived Gamal’s sister, Munira, an innocent country girl. He dallied with her, all the while he was planning

to marry Suhayr. Gamal discovered the lovers, and Munira confronted | Wahid with the situation. He told her he was busy and she tried to jump out of the window. Then Gamal entered, and the two men fought. Wahid

solo:

pulled his gun, and, in the struggle, was shot.

As Suhayr bursts into tears at Gamal’s story, Safwat and the police

barge out of the rear of the house, where they have heard the whole confession, and arrest Gamal. Suhayr screams at Safwat for betraying Gamal. Then, Suhayr appears on the balcony and sings a melancholy I have what I deserve I sold my treasure cheap

_ Tfonly [had been good to him He saw my cruelty

I loved him, and after our hearts were united ... | , 154

Passion and Revenge

Crying for him and pitying, | | | I have what I deserve Suhayr visits Gamal’s sister and his family, and hires lawyers for his defense. The trial is filmed as a sort of collage of newspaper clippings and

court snaps. The film was supposed to end happily in a grand musical finale. The Studio informed Asmahan that it would take them several weeks to construct the platforms for the finale. She was free until July 25, and she decided to take a short vacation out at Ras al-Barr. And on her jour-

ney to Ras al-Barr, she died in a fatal car accident. |

The studio heads decided to finish Gharam wa Intiqam without its star, Asmahan. Thus, at the triumphant verdict aquitting Gamal, all — present in the courtroom rise and applaud. An abrupt cut to the next _ scene shows a medic’s car arriving and men carrying a wrapped body in through the gate. Gamal stares unbelievingly. “It was a car accident,” the men tell him. Suhayr is dead. Then the audience and the visiting journalists observe Gamal again, _. older, bespectacled, in the asylum repeatedly playing a wild melody on his violin. “And what is the name of that beautiful piece?” they ask, kindly.

_ “Suhayr,” he answers.

Asmahan as Suhayr achieved the status of a true protagonist in this , film. Unlike the younger, victimized Nadia in Intisar al-Shabab, this woman / diva resolves to enact revenge herself. The audience is allowed to see that love is a trap, a doubly deceptive mirror. As a loyal wife, she cannot acknowledge her husband’s true character. And so, even though noble and passionate, clever and successful in her efforts to win Gamal’s love, she is too vulnerable, honest, and compassionate to condemn him. That is she is too much of a woman to carry out her plot of revenge—her

cousin involves the police without her consent. — Oo She controls the mood, the musical pieces are set for the stage, but _ real acting is required as well. In those romantic 1940s, the tragic ending _ was even more effective and believable than reconciliation or marriage to Gamal would have been. The heroine was still contained by her society, still a widow, and a woman who should not begin an affair without

consequences. |

1B |

The melding and shifting of Egyptian mores and values is apparent in the various scenes. Her opening theater performance combines chorus,

Passion and Revenge

soloist, and dancers. European musical elements weave into the anticipated Arabic dramatic solo performance. The next grand musical scene—an ode to the entire line of Muhammad ‘Ali—is ostentatious and yet nationalist at the same time. Of course, the diva and the artist have their patrons. Naturally, the most important patron influences studios as well as individual performances. And, in the midst of wartime, the ode is" not to any European ally—but to her own king and his predecessors,

who are identified as makers of “modern Arab history” against the background of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza. Asmahan’s on-screen abilities involve a studied naturalism—an unaffected speaking voice and manner. She neither freezes in the serious stance of the singer forced to speak, nor simpers and twists about like other actresses (who were compelled to sing). Her romantic message and the impact of this film have even become a part of popular parlance in today’s Egypt, where one lover may say of another, “Ey da? Gharam wa intiqam, walla ey? (What is this [behavior]? Passion and revenge, or what?)

What would she have done next, if she had not died during this cinematic endeavor? No doubt, another musical film, and probably one displaying even more refined vocal and dramatic capabilities. But that was not to be.

The Road of Death |

“Lara killed departed!” | “Lara herself!” : Said the doorman and her neighbor |

Who broke into hot tears. Another neighbor said: “No one knows,

Not even the devil.” |

(‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayyati, “I Am Born and Burn in My Love III’”’ )

Asmahan’s male biographers both allude to “the road of death.” Al-Taba‘i wrote of her premonition of death on that self-same road to Ras al-Barr

where she died. Labib uses the phrase to describe her fabulous and unbelievable journey in blackface through southern Syria to the Palestin-

ian border.

Al-Taba‘i tries to link Asmahan’s high-strung nature with popular notions about early and predestined death. Perhaps, he suggests, she tried to live to the fullest because she subconsciously knew that her years on earth were numbered. She “never achieved love,” an emotion that he 156

, Passion and Revenge recognized only within the boundaries of conventional relationships. That

explained her flirtations and her determination to live for the moment. She confided in him her belief that she would die young. She also told Mary Qilada that she would die soon, in her despair after the break with _ Ahmad, and Fu’ad and Farid’s refusal to let her stay with them. She was brave enough to know what she did not want—but also aware that she could not maintain herself emotionally outside the standard rules of the - game. There were those painful suicide attempts as well—her efforts to erase her pain, instead of blaming her world and its unrelenting values. —

One day, al-Taba‘i tells us, that Asmahan, himself, and their friend Jamal Jabr were driving from Cairo out to Ras al-Barr. (We may presume _

this took place in 1940). The road ran through an isolated landscape, with an irrigation ditch along the side. Asmahan was driving, and practicing a new qasida, set by Zakariyya Ahmad to the lofty medieval poetry _

of Abu al-‘Ala al-Ma‘arri. Her beautiful middle tones rang out: |

Ghayra majdin fi millati wa i‘tiqadi |

, ~ Nuhu bakin wa la tarnimu shadi, | | (Nothing but glory in my sect, or beliefs _ , | [Neither] wailing, crying, nor reciting my praises) | ,

_ She reached another verse, and began: | | - Sahi ... hadhihi quburna tumla‘an al-rihab ~ BS

Fa ‘ayna al-qubur min ‘ahdi ‘Ad? , a (My friend, these are our graves which fill up the cemetery | . _ So where is the grave from the era of ‘Ad?[a pre-Islamic Arabian |

— society |) a OS

Suddenly, the lyrics fell from her hand, and she slumped at the wheel. : Her companions grabbed control of the car. Her face was sallow as she emerged from her near-faint. She told her companions that she had the — most unusual sensation—she had suddenly heard the distinctive music of a Druze funeral procession, just as it would have sounded in Suwayda, |

mixing with the sounds of the old mill the processions wended by.* Al _ Taba‘i noted their location; the incident took place in the same section |

_ of the road where her car would crash four years later?”

157 |

“No, [ never heard that story,” mused Munir. “But you know, there _

was another accident on that road,” said a relative who had lived in

Passion and Revenge Egypt, leaning excitedly forward. “Tt was at the same spot, a dancer—oh what was her name, and four others? A tragedy!” Was it the road? Was it Asmahan’s long-held belief in inevitable death simply enacting itself, or was her death deliberately planned?

| Death by Water

Version I |

| Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, censored in collections of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else, made difficult-to-come-by, what-

ever is buried in the memory by the collapse of meaning under an inadequate or lying language—this will become, not merely

unspoken, but unspeakable.

(Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence)

Asmahan’s early death contributed an essential aspect of her popular mystique. Whether an ordinary or a contrived disaster, the popular discourse on entertainment and entertainers constructed her death in as controversial a manner as her life. Any ascertainable truth became, not _ only unspeakable as Rich suggests, but also irretrievable and less significant than the spoken “herstory.” Let us consider the first of four different scenarios that have been rumored by the various sources. One common response to my questions about Asmahan’s death re-

_ ferred to a fortune teller’s prediction to the three siblings before they left Cairo to visit the Jabal. Farid would endure a long illness, she fore- | told; eventually he would succumb to it. Fu’ad would lose his true love (a

Jewish girl whom he then intended to marry, but never did, thanks to family pressure against her). Asmhan would die by water. Numerous people said to me concerning Asmahan, “They said she would die by

water.” |

Asmahan had planned to take the train that day. She arrived at the station with Mary Qilada and boarded, but discovered her car had not been reserved. They settled into their compartment seats, but, after just a few seconds, two men pushed their way into the compartment and sat down. “You don’t mind of course, Hanim ...?” one stated as afterthought. But she did mind. Mary and she would be annoyed with tiresome queries and unable to speak confidentially. She called for the conductor, only to learn there were no other empty compartments. So, Mary helped her 158

| Passion and Revenge

~ train took off. | |

gather their bags and they stepped down onto the platform before the

- “Let’s just go back home,” said Asmahan, “and we’ll ride with the

driver, if he hasn’t left already.” They returned to her house by hired cab, and the driver was sitting, drinking his tea. Asmahan asked him to prepare the car immediately to drive out to Ras al-Barr, and they left shortly— she and Mary were seated in the rear seat of the heavy two-door German-

made sedan. -

It took at least an hour to drive back through town and out onto the road traveling north/northeast. She and Mary talked lightly about next week’s plans, and more seriously about the crisis with Ahmad and the imminent wrap of the film. Asmahan knew the road and noticed nothing unusual. They say there is always a moment, a long moment, before disaster,

_ before your body pitches forward, or backwards, before pain and the tearing of metal through flesh, when you hear only swift and inexpli-

cable sounds. There is not enough pause for the errors and regrets to flash before your eyes, nor for farewells. Asmahan heard nothing of that funereal music, had no foreboding thoughts that day—troubled yes, by _the blow-out with Ahmad, but anxious only to rest and relax at the chalet. Wearing a yellow silk dress, she was reading a French novel by Collette,

and urged the driver to drive faster.** Still, there was suddenly an extended moment when she, then Mary, noticed the driver slowing. There was no time to wonder. No time to remember the long-ago prediction of death by water ... the most unlikely of all endings. And then his door opening and his blurred form leaping out, the car still pitching forward, but moving now to the right toward the canal. Mary was behind the driver’s

seat, and Asmahan tried to reach forward to grab the wheel. Too soon came an impact, and then the car slid into the canal. The pain came from the bridge of her nose—shattered then. _ | Did they scream? Did they try too slowly to fold forward the heavy seats and push open the doors? Was the driver’s door still open? Then why didn’t they swim out? Had the driver slammed it shut when leaping from the car? Could he not have made some effort to save them? How | far away were the fellahin who heard his cries for help? Or were they both unconscious after impact, slowly drowning, the two friends in death as in lifer

159 |

Passion and Revenge

Death by Jealousy —

Version II

She hated her—none of her other rivals were equally gifted or trained

vocally and could learn so swiftly. And she had not made it to the pinnacle of her profession without learning a thing or two—nor without establishing her own aura of respectability. She did not find it too difficult to utilize her allies at Studio Misr to hire a driver for Asmahan that she had selected. He was given some leeway—after all, conditions for a perfect accident don’t come along everyday. And on this occasion, he hadn’t known she would rush home so suddenly and order him to drive to Ras al-Barr. But he had waited for

several weeks now, and other opportunities had slipped by. They were distracted, talking to each other in the rear of the car. Asmahan urged him to drive faster, but he slowed down noticeably as he

approached the portion of the road where the irrigation ditch had the steepest grade. And then, he pushed his door open—and leaped out, with all his strength, falling, rolling, and it hurt! The two women screamed,

and then, there was a silence after the heavy car pitched into the canal. He waited, not knowing what to do. If they weren’t too badly injured, they would climb out soon. And then, they would surely ask why he had jumped from the car. Well, he would say that the steering or the brakes had frozen—he had simply reacted instinctively, like an animal. And he was stunned, so he hadn’t been able to come to their rescue. But after a few minutes he knew they wouldn’t swim out. He called feebly, then louder. There were peasants working at a water wheel down the road, not close enough, nor in the right location to have seen the accident. He had hurt his leg, badly he thought, but shock must be postponing the pain. In the years to come, he would have terrifying nightmares about her—with her large green eyes, her screams, and the slow bubbles rising up near the sides of the car.

Death by Politics Version If No, Umm Kulthum was innocent.” She had no animosity strong

| 160

enough, no hatred great enough, though God knows, circumstances had tested her—she couldn’t have done it. But, someone was indeed responsible, and at two ends of the incident. They arranged for a pay-off for the

Passion and Revenge driver. But, they had to make certain that she wouldn’t be revived after

all. So the transfer to the hospital took time. |

; One officer reported that she was still alive and underwent emer-

gency surgery at the hospital. But, orders came through that the surgery should not be successful. And these orders were rumored to have come from Anwar Sadat himself—a member of the Ring of Iron!” What do you say? The coroner pronounced her dead by drowning?

And that was at Talkha? Yes, well, who do you think pays the coroner? >

_ Why was the police report sealed? | |

_ Why would they bother with her, you ask? Just remember she was

still connected to the British, not only through her Levantine adven- _ tures, but before that with Hassanayn Pasha, who needed to be eliminated as well—carefully, of course, it was a lorry accident. Yes, it’s true that she wasn’t intimately connected with Hassanayn just then—but the British had too much clout—it was demonstrated back in the Abdin inci-

dent of 1942, when tanks surrounded the Palace, and Hassanayn persuaded the King to sign Lampson’s document so as not to be deposed. _

- Those who were still pro-Axis did not know how much Asmahan

nothing. | a | | the stage. |

knew, or who she might tell it to. Perhaps she had already revealed everything when caught on the train, but then again, perhaps she had said

It was convenient, for many would assume that the British had more ~ reason to do away with her, with her loose tongue, more reason than we

had—or her jealous husband, perhaps he tampered with the car’s

brakes—or her fiery Druze relatives, who had not forgiven her return to

Her uncle said, “There were secrets, and due to the struggle of the Great Powers, she was seen as an enemy by each of them—they had an interest in terminating her. The family was also very angry. We were living in a conservative era, and the whole sequence of events with Ahmad | Salim was unacceptable, totally unacceptable. Try to understand—she was not just any Druze woman, but a special person. ‘To us, she was not , merely the star of two films, but a princess—really a princess. Her enemies amongst the royal [Egyptian] family had to be considered as well. ... AS far as we were concerned—if she had not died when she did, it would have been necessary to eliminate her very soon. ...”*!

161 -

Passion and Revenge

Death for “Honor” Version IV I knew that it must come soon—an end to her endless melodrama. I hoped that it might prevent that second film, that seal of dishonor, that cap on all her escapades, her rages, her tears, and her long lost nobility. And even if that film was released, I knew that the authorities would be too confused to pursue the case—so many held a motive, it was simply opportunity and evidence that would be problematic. As I told Mary when she came twice, begging me to let Asmahan return to the family, carrying Asmahan’s false promises—“There’s no use asking me, I’ve heard all these entreaties and resolutions before.” I was determined to force Asmahan out of Egypt, away, where she could do no harm to our reputation ... to Farid’s growing career. I was rude and forceful. I told Mary that the only way out for Asmahan was death, or

leaving Egypt. When she protested, I insulted her.” | I would pay him, for Hassan who had been wronged, and for myself—for my family, for my honor. And I would look out over the river later on, and muse over how stupidly I had assumed I could forget her. I had to rewrite her very honor for her—after all those lies. And I never stopped loving her, her image, in every photograph, in every note.

— Aftermath , Munir said,

When we heard the news, we were just cutting the cake for Kamilia’s birthday. It was July 14, 1944. Hassan was here, and Farid, Najat ‘Ali, and the family. Another cousin arrived, Ha‘il, who immediately asked, “Why are you celebrating? Haven’t you heard the news of Asmahan’s death on the radio?” But we had not turned the radio on. Hassan went to his own room and he began crying. Truly, he did. Then, after the second day, he went

to Egypt. I went as well to attend the funeral there and there were SO Many mourners—it seemed like three or four hundred people. She was buried in Egypt, in a tomb she had arranged before leaving for Syria. “... I cried for her, believe me, she was still young and I loved her too.”* 162

| | Passion and Revenge The music of a Druze funeral was unique, the procession wending its way through the streets of small towns or villages. Asmahan had heard

her own funeral song—yet it could not be played in Egypt, so far from the cool Jabal breezes. The fragrance of jasmine in the warm night air and the special calls of the street pervade the land of her burial. Perhaps -asegment of her soul lingered on in all the restless women who followed

her on stage or on to the silver screen. |

1. Personal interview with “Atiyya Sharrara, Cairo Conservatoire, Giza,

| Egypt, 20 October 1993. | 2. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, 22 July 1993 and 17 August _ 1993; “Interview with Munir al-Atrash,” al-Majaila, no. 738 (April 3-9,

1994) 63. | | 3. Labib, Qisat, 226.

4. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 17 August 1993

and also repeated in al-Mayalla, 63. | | 5. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 17 August 1993. Al-Taba‘i hinted at a feud when describing how Asmahan’s telephone call to Hassanayn was received by Nazli. It would be more logical for Asmahan to be angry with Hassanayn, but male writers felt readers would identify with the jealousy among women. Al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 254.

6. Labib, Qissat, 236, and see al-[aba‘i, Asmahan, 110-113.

7. Labib, Qissat, 237.

8. Spears, Fulfillment of Mission, 172. Spears heard little about Asmahan from this period until her death. He relays a garbled version, assuming that she died on her way back to Cairo accompanied by “a Hungarian

countess.” | , ,

9. Faith, “Mad Jack,” 10. Hence, the Independent highlights the sensational lines, “She wanted admiration, not sex. What she really enjoyed |

163 | |

was bringing girls and boys together.” |

Passion and Revenge 10. ‘Abdullah al-Attrache, Suwayda, 22 July 1993. 11. Personal communication by Mrs. Zahir of Houston, Texas, in Terre

Haute, Indiana, October 1992. a 12. Fiktur Sahhab, al-Sab‘a al-Kibar: al-Musiga al-‘Arabiyya al-Mu ‘asira. (Beirut: Dar al-‘Alam lil-Milayyin, 1987) 2'74—275.

13. Al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 257-258. Labib, Qissat, 237-238.

14. Labib, Qissat, 238. 15. Al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 258.

16. Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993. | 17. Edward Said, “Homage to a Belly-Dancer,” Arabesque, 8 (May/June 1994); also see Marjorie Franken, “Farida Fahmy and the Dancer’s Image in Egyptian Film,” In /mages of Enchantment, ed. Zuhur 18. Al-Sahhab, al-Sab‘a al-Kibar, 274-275. Sahhab supposedly gleaned this

information from Fayid himself, before his death. 19. Labib, Qissat, 238-240.

20. Ibid, 243. | 21. Ibid, 245. | 22. Al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 260-262. The Atrash family version does not cor-

respond here—but al-Taba‘i could have checked with Tahia, whom he certainly knew.

23. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 17 August 1993. Munir’s version of the story basically follows Fu’ad/Labib’s except with fewer details, and an implication that Asmahan and Salim were not really married, hence Asmahan’s resistance to Salim’s pretended marital

authority. | 24. Labib, Qissat, 249-252. | 164

| Passion and Revenge 25. ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayyati, Love, Death & Exile, trans, Bassam Frangieh,

(Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University, 1990) 199. | 96. For discussion of this unique music, see Jihad Racy, “Funeral Songs _ of the Druzes of Lebanon.” Master’s thesis, University of Illinois, 1971; or “Lebanese Laments: Grief, Music, and Cultural Values.” World of Music, 28, No. 2 (1986).

27. Al-Taba‘i, Asmahan, 106-107. 7

16 July 1944) 5. |

28. “Asmahan Wished to Be Buried in Egypt,” Egyptian Gazette (Sunday,

July 1992). ,

29. Samir Farid, “Umm Kulthum Ghayra Mas’uliya ‘an Masru‘ Asmahan: Fi al-Dhikri al-Thamanin li-Mawlidha,” al-Quds al-‘Arabi, Vol. 4: 989 (17

30. ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Halim, “Hal Qutila Anwar al-Sadat Asmahan al-Atrashe”

Al-Hayat (27 July 1992). |

17 August 1993. , |

31. Personal interviews with ‘Abdullah al-Attrache, Suwayda, 22 July and |

39. Labib, Qissat, 158-159. 33. Personal interview with Munir al-Atrash, Suwayda, 22 July 1993.

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