Author: Mohamed Awad
Novelist and short story writer Abdel Hamid Al-Basyouni sits on the balcony of his house overlooking a small garden, the edges of which have been turned into parking spaces, waiting for a meeting that was supposed to take place at a nearby café where he usually sits in the evening. However, he preferred to be on his balcony, enjoying the breeze that cooled the summer night.
The residents of the Suez neighborhood woke up to the sound of excavators demolishing “Petros Kassab’s house,” which overlooks the city’s old harbor, bringing down with it more than 200 years of history. Less than a week ago, the local administration in the Suez neighborhood removed an encroachment on the wall of the Masagiri house (less than a kilometer from Kassab’s house). A white brick barrier had been erected on an old wooden fence, hiding the garden that was part of the house, which was the headquarters for receiving mail between the Red Sea ports and Egypt via the Suez…
The Suez District Presidency removed what it described as cultural distortion in the wall of the Masagiri House building by demolishing a white brick wall built to fill a gap in the wall resulting from the collapse of the wood that made up the original wall. For those who don’t know, the Masagiri House is one of the oldest houses in Suez, built in 1862 as the headquarters of a French company called “Masagiri Maritime,” meaning “express mail.” It was a center for receiving letters and goods between the ports of the Red Sea and Suez. What happened at the…
On an open stage in a public park, the Ismailia and Sharqia folk art troupes performed songs that blended tradition and modernity, as many did at the recent Mango Festival, where they sang about the fruit and enumerated its virtues as if it were a beloved admiring its beauty to the strains of the simsimiyya and rababa. The song “Azima Ya Manga” is famous, sung by many singers, starting with Al-Reis Metqal with a Saidi mawal on the rababa, and Abdu Al-Othmani in the role of Damma Simsimiyya in Ismailia, to Muhammad Rushdi when he flirts with his beloved with…
Amateur photographer Ahmed Dabea is awaiting a new challenge in photographing the migration of birds to Port Said, which begins during the autumn season next month, as Lake Manzala, the Ashtoum Jamil Reserve, and the salt lakes in Port Fouad prepare to welcome flocks of birds that have become an active tourist destination for the city during the winter.
While Dr. Nahla Imam, advisor to the Minister of Culture for Intangible Heritage, called at the third Simsimiyya Festival in Ismailia for folk musicians, including simsimiyya players, to join the Musicians’ Union because they need social security, pensions, and union support, Mohamed Mida, the last simsim player in the city, sat alone in an outdoor lobby in front of the theater, demanding support and exemption from paying royalties. Mohamed Mida, the last simsimiyya maker in the city, sat alone in an outdoor lobby in front of the theater, demanding support and exemption from paying fees for using his workshop in…
There are no beaches here, no air-conditioned museums, no temples, and no historical monuments. Just trees to shelter us from the summer heat and a rural atmosphere that opens the door to family outings with different rituals, starting with picking your favorite fruit from the source. Some may even be tempted to taste the fruit before washing it, out of their eagerness to pick the first fruit at the mango tourism festivals. The city of Ismailia experiences a tourist boom during the summer. Visitors can enjoy a delicious fish meal from Lake Timsah and buy the city’s famous mangoes. Now,…
The most famous moment in which the argoul appears may be the scene in which the character Masoud, played by the late actor Samir Ghanem in the play Al-Mutzawwigin (The Married Couple), makes his entrance playing a long wind instrument at the wedding of his friend Hanafi (George Sidhom), and it later becomes clear that the groom is Masoud himself. However, the fame of the arghul goes deeper than this theatrical scene, as it was the primary wind instrument in the performances of the popular singer Mohamed Taha (1922-1996), and was also associated with rural singing in the fields among…
The “Impact on Stamps” exhibition, hosted by the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, has dedicated a special wing to display an artistic model documenting the first set of commemorative postage stamps issued on the occasion of the Second Arab Scout Camp hosted by Egypt in 1956.
Just before sunset, as the blue sea water is tinged with the red of the setting sun, a small boat moors on the shore of Crocodile Lake, offering um al-khalul for sale or cooked as a light meal to enjoy while sitting by the lake. In the cities of the Suez Canal, fishing for “Um Al-Khaloul” is linked to popular heritage, with songs dedicated to it on the samsimia instrument, telling of the fishing and the sweet taste of this marine creature, which has many names in different cities, as well as how it is cooked or salted. The emergence…