Arabic television lauds a Jewish Egyptian diva
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - For the first time on Arabic television, a dramatic production
airing this Ramadan, the holy Muslim month, depicts the life of Egyptian Jews
during the 1920s and 1930s, showing them in favorable light as ordinary
citizens, no different from Egyptian Muslims and Christians.
The series is as controversial as the life of its heroine, Egyptian diva Layla
Murad - a Jewish singer and actress who rocketed to fame in the inter-war years
before her life was marred with controversy after the creation of the state of
Israel in 1948.
Currently showing on 14 Arabic channels, Ana Albi Dalili (My Heart is my
Guide), is among the most widely watched works
among 60 productions made by Egyptian and Syrian artists in 2009. Apart from
covering the life of Layla, the work goes to great lengths to promote tolerance
and co-existence, shattering long-held stereotypes against Arab Jews, showing
how integrated and proactive they were within Egyptian society. The film is
directed by Syrian Mohammad Zuhair and stars Syrian actress Safa Sultan.
Layla Murad, with a powerful legacy of 27 black and white classics in Egyptian
cinema and 1,200 songs, was one of the most popular, talented and beautiful
Arab artists of the 20th century. She compared in fame only to the Egyptian Um
Kalthoum and the Syrian diva Asmahan - together, they were the three women who
competed for supremacy on Arab charts in the 1930s.
Born to a Moroccan Jewish father named Ibrahim Zaki Murad in February 1918,
Layla's mother was a Polish Jew named Gamila. Her father was a respected singer
in the 1920s and with her brother, Munir, a composer and celebrity in his own
right, encouraged her to sing at the age of 15. Her first recorded song was in
1932, composed by the veteran Dawoud Hosni, the same year that talkies first
came to Egyptian cinema.
Murad was handpicked by Mohammad Abdul Wahab, the giant of 20th-century Arabic
music, to co-star with him in the 1938 classic, Yahya al-Hobb (Long Live
Love). She received a staggering 250 Egyptian pounds, making her one of
the best-paid artists in Cairo.
In addition to Abdul Wahab, she worked with famous composer Mohammad Fawzi, who
was the romantic lead man in many of her future works, and with other giants
like Mohammad Qassabji, Riyad al-Sunbati and Sheikh Zakariya Ahmad - three
names who graced the songs of Um Kalthoum, placing the two ladies in direct
competition.
The radio and cinema boom of the 1940s aided her career. Matters took an
unpleasant turn in 1948, when Israel was created, prompting many of her
audience to become suspicious of her Jewish origins. Vicious rumors spread
throughout Egypt and the Arab world - probably started by her competitors -
saying that Murad had visited Tel Aviv and donated 50,000 Egyptian pounds to
the newly created Israeli Defense Forces.
The Damascus bureau of the popular Egyptian daily al-Ahram originally reported
that rumor. Murad categorically challenged the rumors, but with little luck.
The damage had already been done. Syrian Radio, previously one of the most
powerful promoters of her works, boycotted her songs and she was banned from
entering Syria in the early 1950s.
Murad converted to Islam after marrying Egyptian director Anwar Wajdi, and
often told reporters, "I am now an Egyptian Muslim!" President Gamal Abdul
Nasser intervened on her behalf when Syria and Egypt merged into the United
Arab Republic in 1958, lifting the ban on Syrian Radio. An official communique
was released by Egyptian authorities clearing her name from all charges,
including that which accused her of having visited Israel in 1948.
Rumors, however, rocked her life in the 10 years after 1948. Some said she died
in a car accident in Paris. Others said she was married in secret to King
Farouk I. Nothing, however, compared with the stories of her connections to
Zionism, resulting in Murad's retirement from music and descent into complete
obscurity until her death at the age of 77 in 1995.
The Zionist connection badly affected her health, both physically and
psychologically, sending her into spells of severe depression. At one point,
she was humiliatingly requested to show all her financial records to the
authorities to prove that she had never made any illegal donations to Israel.
She did not give a single press interview after leaving show business, refusing
to comment on any of the upheavals in the Arab-Israeli conflict, ranging from
the war of 1967, when Egypt's Sinai Peninsula was occupied by Israel, to the
October War of 1973, and finally, the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement of 1978.
Her own explanation for seclusion was that she was aging and wanted her fans to
remember her only as they saw her on the silver screen - young, bold and
beautiful.
The one-time "Lady of Egyptian Cinema" - out of business and fame for more than
40 years - faced a severe financial crisis towards the end of her life before
dying in complete bankruptcy. Her last appearance on screen was in the 1953
movie, Sayidet al-Kitar (Lady of the Train).
The new series, which carries the name of one of her most memorable songs Ana
Albi Dalili, has raised more than a stir in Arab media since it began
airing in late August. One scene shows Layla's father Zaki Murad (played by the
Egyptian star Izzat Abu al-Ouf) at a cafe with friends who clearly, from their
names, are all Muslims.
Collectively they decide, both Muslims and Jew, to take part in an anti-British
demonstration, in 1919. Majdi Saber, the scriptwriter, clearly tries to
demonstrate that Egyptian Jews suffered no discrimination in the Arab world
prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. Another scene shows a Jew raising
funds for Jewish immigrants fleeing from Europe during World War II and
lobbying with Egyptian Jews to emigrate to Palestine to increase its Jewish
population.
Layla's father Zaki naturally refuses, patriotically holding on to his Arab
origins. The Jew then tries convincing him to "purchase" a different
nationality, in case tension arises between Egyptian Jews and Muslims. Once
again, Zaki refuses. Zaki's home in the film is free from any Jewish symbols or
Hebrew script.
The film also revives a colorful assortment of Jewish figures whose names were
deliberately tarnished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952 because of their
Jewish background. Justice is done, for example, to Yusuf Qattawi Pasha (played
by Abdul Rahman Abu Zahra), head of the Sephardi Jewish community in Egypt in
1924-1942. After studying engineering in France, he returned to Egypt to work
for the Ministry of Public Works, then became director of the Egyptian Sugar
Company, which cultivated and developed sugar on 40,000 acres of desert land in
the Aswan province. He is shown as a fine Egyptian patriot who helps build the
Egyptian economy.
Layla's 1945 conversion to Islam is set to appear in the 17th episode of the
series. The series shows that she converted out of conviction, after marrying
Anwar Wejdi, and not out of political intimidation due to rising tension
between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. We are yet to see how her life is
portrayed once it is scarred by rumors after 1948.
Works like these are important in the Arab world because they shed light on the
life of leading figures who, for political reasons, were grossly maltreated
during the second half of the 20th century and have been forgotten by a young
generation of Arab audiences. Those young people are, however, avid TV watchers
during the annual feast of special programs every Ramadan.
Earlier, a similar work had been made about King Farouk of Egypt, who for 40
years after the revolution of 1952 was depicted as a British agent, a drunk and
sex-driven reckless man who cared only for his personal indulgences rather than
the welfare of Egypt. The series showed a very different image of the man; a
true patriot, a shy youth who did not drink, and who was obsessed in wanting to
rid his country of the British.
Another work aired last year about the diva Asmahan, who died early in 1944
amid rumors that she had been a double agent - a spy for both the Nazis and
British during World War II. Her record was also cleared when the series showed
that she had collaborated with the British - without receiving any money from
them - with the sole purpose of ridding her country of the French.
For years, touching on these sensitive topics was taboo, frowned on by censors
and the families of those characters involved. Now that the die has been cast
with Farouk, Asmahan and Layla Murad, other works are in the making covering
the life of equally powerful figures such as the Syrian crooner Farid
al-Atrash, ex-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former Syrian president
Shukri al-Quwatli.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
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