I tried to get close to
Mr. Heikal… I got close to Mr. Mahmoud el-Sa’adani… I was friend to Mr. Kamel
Zoheiri… I dealt closely with Mr. Muhammed Ouda and Mr. Philip Gallab… I became
friends with Bahgat Othman, Sa’ad Hagras and Ra’ouf Ayyiad… I knew Mohi ed-Din
el-Labbad… there were many stories and humors between Alfred Farag, Bakr
esh-Sharqawi, Salah el-Laithi and me… there were also many others I knew in the
field of journalism and writing.
As to the university
life and cultural, though and arts domain, I was a student to many prominent
professors that I was lucky enough and they were kind enough to change my
status from a student to a friend. However, those who did not befriend me due
to the age and standing gap between us, were kind and generous enough to have
deep sincere cordiality towards me.
I still remember my
professor and friend late Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Rahim Mustafa; professor of
contemporary and modern history in Ain Shams University. He earned his PhD from
Britain and was a colleague there to Dr. Hekmat Abu-Zaid. He also introduced me
to his and my professor; Ahmed Ezzat Abdel-Karim; head of Ain Shams University
and founder of post-graduate studies’ seminar in History department; the one
who was feared among his students, even if they were holding degrees of professor,
assistant professors or lecturer. He used to rebuke any of them if they
pronounced a foreign word incorrectly or if they deviated in the research
discipline away from the well-established scientific rules.
And it was my professor
Dr. Sayed Mustafa Salem – may he enjoy a long life – who introduced me to Dr.
Ahmed Abdel-Rahim – may he rest in peace. Dr. Salem got his master’s and PhD theses
in the contemporary and modern history of Yemen. It was not a coincidence to
dedicate himself for the academic life in Yemen. He worked in Sana’a, established
research centres, wrote tens of references and supervised tens of researchers
in master’s and PhD degrees there. He stayed there for more than 40 years and
he is still able to give more.
In the university, I knew
about science, research and interest in public work. I was elected head of the
faculty students’ union, then a representative for the post-graduate students
in the university students’ union. Being in that place, I was one of those who
met President Sadat on Thursday, September 20th, 1973 in Burg
el-Arab rest house in the presence of gentlemen Mamdouh Salem, Kamal
Abul-Magd and Ismail Ghanem. That meeting extended from 9 in the morning to 3
in the afternoon. Mr. Heikal was the one behind organizing this meeting, but this
is another story to tell later. I was working in the university until I was
jailed in January, 1977 and charged of inciting over January, 1977 incidents.
At the university, I went
farer than history department and studentship limits. I got to know many other
professors in other departments, especially those of sociology, psychology,
philosophy, eastern studies; Hebrew, Farsi and Turkish, and geography. Despite it
has been more than 45 years since I was a student there, the connection is
still deep and warm between me and some of them as they honor me with
expressing their usually positive opinions in what I write and I do appreciate
that for them, although we adopt different ideologies and political and social
stances.
I remember when we were
students at the second year in history department. That year was for studying the
history of the middle ages. We used to study the history of Byzantium and
Europe in the middle age. We also studied the history of Islam, especially the
Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. We studied the Fatimid Caliphate and Almohad
and Almoravids Caliphates in Morocco as well. We also studied the Crusades. I remember
that we had very prominent academic professors teaching us like Dr. Muhammed
Abdel-Hadi Shae’ira teaching us the history of Morocco and Andalusia, Dr.
Abdel-Monim Maged teaching us the history of the Fatimids and Dr. Hassan
Shalabi teaching us the Crusades.
As to studying the
history of Byzantium and the Church, we had the knowledgeable giant professor IsaaK
Ebied whom we had no idea if he was Christian or Muslim. He kept teaching us
about Christianity and Islam until he once told us how he was arrested and
charged of belonging to muslim brotherhood in 1959 and that he kept, for three
days, trying to prove to the authorities that his full name is Issak Tawadros
Ebied. Only then we knew he was Christian.
I do not want to
continue narrating the details of that time. However, I cannot forget the
sittings we used to have over the university garden grass near al-Za’afaran
palace and the faculties of arts and law; that grass garden extending under the
trees with the shady leaves. It was the place for the sittings gathering
professors, lecturers and students; male and female. We used to have those
discussions while eating beans and falafel sandwiches we had from Nagaf
restaurant in Abbassiya. We used to discuss national issues and plan for demonstrations,
sit-ins, protests and how to tackle confrontations with the university
administration and security.
We used to have strong
students’ unions whose members were both active in public activity and scholarly
excellent. We had very active committees in those unions in culture, art,
scouting and travelling. We also had a theater, play courts, groups for acting,
playing music and folklore dancing. We had cultural and political clubs where
we used to host big thinkers and artists and stay from evening until dawn
arguing and discussing with them.
It was the place where
interaction between university and society used to take place. Now, I wonder:
how did everything change in the university? How did religious extremism and
groups adopting hard-line religious ideologies spread and take control of the
university? When did it happen that they intimidated the students, professors
then the administration?... when… how… who… what… and why?
We need honest answers
for these questions… however, honesty is always relative because it is a
testimony given by different parties over certain incidents… I cannot deny that
I myself have an answer that is also subject to be disputed and criticized according
to discipline rules, and to be compared with other testimonies.
Another crucial
question: how did the university lose that creative environment where we used
to learn, study and get busy engaging in our country problems? It is the place that
witnessed the stories of our first love, when we used to communicate with our
lovers through eyes, signs, gestures and invitations to drink a soft drink in
the cafeteria or at the shop of Mr. Gamal; that blind man with the sharp tongue
who used to recognize our voices and know the paper and coin currency using his
fingertips. He was also able to know if it was counterfeit or genuine… or not
even money.
If corridors, plants, fountain
and benches – especially in the last rows – in that place could talk, they
would have told much more stories.
This article was
published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on July 28, 2015.
To see the original
article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #university_life_in_Egypt_in_the_seventies
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