Asmahan: Difference between revisions

Asmahan (Arabic: أسمهان Asmahān; birth name: Amal al-Atrash; born: October 25, 1918 at Mediterranean Sea; died: July 14, 1944 in Nile River, Egypt)^[2] was a Syrian-Egyptian^[3] singer and actor belonging to a princely Druze family of Syrian-Lebanese origin. Having immigrated to Egypt in childhood, she became the apprentice of Egyptian classical music pioneers, Dawood Hussnei, Mohammed al-Qasabji and Zakariyya Ahmad.^[4][5]She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right. Hers was the only voice in Arab music to ever pose a serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum,^[6] considered to be the Arab world's most famous singer of the 20th century.^[7] Her mysterious, untimely death by drowning at the age of twenty-six drew speculations about tribulations in her personal life and an espionage role in World War II.

Early life

Asmahan was born to Fahd al-Atrash, a Syrian Druze from Suwayda, and 'Alia al-Mundhir, a Lebanese Druze from Hasbaya. Her father was married twice and had two children before marrying 'Alia al-Mundhir. ^[8] Her mother was a singer and an oud player who played a big part in her children's musical upbringing. Asmahan's brother, Farid, was a musician, singer and an oud player; he composed several of her songs.^[9] She also had an older brother, Fuad, and a sister and brother, Widad and Anwar who both had died at a very young age.^[10][11]

In October 1918, during World War I, as the Allied Forces were advancing against the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, Asmahan's father feared being attacked by Greek Allied troops, due to his post as the Ottoman-appointed governor of Dimerji. Thus, upon being warned of the arrival of Greek troops, he fled to Izmir with his two sons (Fu'ad, the eldest, and Farid) and his pregnant wife.^[12] From Izmir, they boarded a boat to Beirut. On November 23, while still on the trip, Asmahan was born. Fahd suggested naming her "Bahriyya" (meaning "of the sea" in Arabic), but her mother objected and decided to name her "Amal", meaning "hope".^[13] Fahd was later appointed as a judge in Suwayda.^[8]

Al Atrash clan

The al-Atrash clan was a Syrian Druze family, known for its role in the Syrian Revolution and the resistance against the French mandate of Syria in the 1920s.^[14] Trouble erupted with the colonial power after King Faysals defeat and the Adham Khanjar incident which Sultan al-Atrash and his men had participated in. The fighting with the french continued for almost a year after. 'Alia couldn't endure the hostilities anymore and felt that she must protect her two children. When shelling of the al-Atrash home in Suwayda began she left for Damascus and refused to return. Fahd sent his cousin Salim al-Atrash to bring her back together with his kids. After receiving Fahds message 'Alia told him that the only way her children would return to Suwayda was if he killed her, but that Fahd in return would be cursed for the deaths of their children, who might be killed of the fighting in Suwayda. Salim gave her all the money he had, thinking she would eventually return when the chaos would end in Suwayda.^[15] Later in life when Asmahan spoke about her childhood in Suwayda, she remembered it as a happy and carefree period, although she did not spend much time in the Jabal, it was what she saw as her "home" rather then Lebanon or Turkey.^[16]

Immigration to Egypt

'Alia and her children moved on to Beirut but after being notified that she might be arrested by the french to force a ceasefire in Suwayda, she drove south with her children, Fuad, Farid, and Amal al-Atrash, to Haifa, Palestine, where, on Fuad's advice, she sold the car and they boarded a train toward Egypt.^[17] 'Alia chose to escape to Egypt because Egypt was under British, as opposed to French, mandate and she knew of a written correspondence relationship between Sultan al-Atrash and Egypt's prime minister Saad Zaghloul, each fighting colonial occupation on his respective turf.^[18] At the immigration check-point in Al-Arish, they were confronted by Egyptian immigration officials, for not possessing any passports. 'Alia asked a border official to call Saad Zaghloul and ask him to sponsor her, 'Alia Al-Mundhir Al-Atrash, from the House of Sultan Al-Atrash. Zaghloul came online and agreed to personally sponsor the family into Egypt.^[19]

She and her children hid under a pseudonym, fearing French action against the al-Atrash family in Egypt.^[20] 'Alia started to take laundry, sew, sing at private parties and record songs to support herself and her children. This gave her musical connections which she used to provide Farid and Amal professional musical training.^[8] `Alia's husband threatened to divorce her if she did not return to Syria.^{[citation needed]} 'Alia refused and was therefore divorced.^{[citation needed]} Her husband remarried and later, Asmahan would meet her half-siblings.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Musical debut

Asmahan's musical talents were discovered by the renowned composer, Dawood Hosni on visiting her brother Farid. He happened to hear Amal singing while she was in her room, so he demanded to see her immediately and asked her to sing again. Amal sang one more time and Hussnei was very impressed and pleased. After Amal finished her singing, he told her she reminded him of a musical student he once had, who possessed a beautiful voice but died at a very young age before knowing the fame she deserved. He proposed that student’s name, Asmahan, as a stage name for Amal, and Amal henceforth became Asmahan.^[21]

Asmahan's rise to fame was very quick; she was not even fourteen years old when she was presented at the prestigious Cairo Opera House, in a concert setting, on the Columbia Records label,^[21][22] and she performed songs composed by her mentors^[23], composers Farid Ghosn, Dawood Hussnei, Mohammed al-Qasabji and Zakariyya Ahmad. At the age of sixteen, Asmahan was solicited by Columbia Records in Egypt to register her first album which featured her first song “Ya Nar Fouadi” by Farid Ghosn. Asmahan chose to drop out of school, but she had already joined one of the most prestigious music academies in Egypt. Her mentors gave her vocal training and music lessons. With their help, she was offered a contract with Columbia Records.^[24]

To help support her mother and family^[25], she featured in the private celebrations of Egyptian elite and at Mary Mansour's night club alongside her brother Farid, though she hated these venues due to the demands of the audience.^[21]

Egypt's influence

Asmahan's older brother, Fuad, and other Druze relatives considered a career in entertainment for a girl to be disgraceful.^[21] It was difficult for Asmahan's relatives to imagine a daughter, niece, or cousin feeling at home in the burgeoning, heterogeneous Egyptian social scene. The clearly-defined divisions, along religious lines, of the Syrian countryside did not operate in Egypt. During two bouts of marriage to her cousin and relocation to Syria, Asmahan's musical career would come to a complete halt, and when she ultimately rejected a return to "respectability" on her relatives’ terms, by returning to Egypt and her singing career, Asmahan was reviled by her relatives and Syrian society. When her first film, “Intisar al-Shabab,” was released in Syria, one young Druze shot at the screen when the character played by Asmahan appeared.^[26]

Culturally, Egypt was a planetary distance from the small villages of the Druze.^[24] Asmahan grew so accustomed to cosmopolitan^[27] life in Cairo that she would long for it, and would make “spending her winters in Cairo” one of her conditions to marrying her Druze cousin.^[28] Asmahan was regarded as "a sophisticated foreigner, a binational, or a trans-national" by her own clan^[29], and when the marriage to her cousin failed, she returned immediately to Egypt, before she had divorce documents in hand.^[26] Asmahan's quest for her own happiness may indeed have been more strongly motivated than her patriotism to her clan.^[25] In her final confrontation with her cousin at Mena House Hotel in Giza, she told him, "I stood with you for independence 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." He would divorce her immediately, and in Egypt, she remained for the rest of her short life.^[30]{{clarify}}

However she always referred to her father and Sultan al Atrash to clarify her lineage. She once said to a friend questioning her about her mission during WW2: "Don't you know who I am? Why I am the daughter of Fahd al Atrash and cousin to the Amir al Atrash and the Druze revolutionary hero Sultan al-Atrash"^[31]

Marriages and Personal Life

In 1937^[32], Asmahan's cousin, Prince Hassan al-Atrash, came to Cairo and asked for her hand in marriage. So she returned with him to Syria ,^[33] at which time she was nineteen. Hassan's only condition was for Asmahan to abandon her musical career. Asmahan agreed to the marriage proposal on three conditions of her own: to live in Damascus as opposed to the Druze mountain (the Jabal); to not be forced to don the veil (hijab); and to spend her winters in Cairo.^[34] Hassan had acquired the title, Amir (or prince), and it was then that Egyptian press dubbed Asmahan as "The Princess of the Mountain". Asmahan lived, initially in Damascus then, foresaking her marriage conditions to support her husband's responsibilities to his people, later in the Jabal. She lived in Suwayda, her family's home town,^[33][35][36] She gave birth to a daughter, Camellia. However, Asmahan didn't take well to the hardships of Druze life in the Jabal, and began to despise married life.^[34] She longed for life in Cairo and her musical career. Asmahan and Hassan divorced three years later.^[32]

In 1939^[37], Asmahan returned to Cairo with her daughter and resumed her singing career. For the following two years, her private life may have been too public. Jounalists wallowed in her racy conduct in Cairo, Jerusalem, and Beirut. There were alleged affairs with a succession of prominent Egyptian men, including journalist Muhammad al-Tabaʿi, banker Talaat Pasha Harb, and royal aide Ahmed Pasha Hassanein. Her brothers, Fuad and Farid, were no longer able to chaperone her.^[9] She was, in many respects, her own worst enemy. Her habits of cigarettes, alcohol, and late nights had a deleterious effect on her voice.^[38]

In 1941, Asmahan's first film, Intissar al-Shabab (Triumph of the Youth), was released, and in the process of making this film, she fell in love with and married the film director, Egyptian Ahmed Badrakhan. The marriage was to last only forty days due to Asmahan's family objections because Badrakhan was not Druze. Asmahan's family claimed that she had not been legally divorced from Hassan; she had not remained in Syria long enough to obtain divorce documents before returning to Egypt, although she insisted that Hassan had divorced her.^[39] Intissar al-Shabab and Asmahan's appearance on screen were not well received by her relatives and the Druze community in Syria. However, in the same year, Asmahan returned to Jabal-al-Druze and remarried her cousin, Hassan, arguably as a cover to espionage activity on behalf of the Allies, which did little to enhance her popularity.^[38] This marriage, too, was short-lived, perhaps because Asmahan wanted financial freedom. On her way back to Egypt by land, Asmahan met Egyptian film director Ahmed Salem in Jerusalem and they were married and together they returned to Egypt. By remarrying Hassan, Asmahan had regained Syrian citizenship, and it was alleged that on these grounds, the Egyptian government wished to strip her of her Egyptian citizenship^[40][41], but the real reason could have been Asmahan’s earlier failed attempts to contact the Nazis or jealousy by Egyptian Queen Nazli for her lover, Ahmed Pasha Hassanein.^[42] It was also alleged that Asmahan entered into the marriage with Salim to maintain her Egyptian citizenship.^[43] This marriage, too, was turbulent. Two weeks before her death, a shooting incident occurred during a domestic dispute and Salim was hospitalized with a gun wound to the lung.^[9]

In 1944, Asmahan featured in her second and last film, Gharam wa Intiqam (Love and Revenge), with Egyptian actor and director Youssef Wahbi.

Role in World War II

In 1941, during World War II, Asmahan was asked by the Allies to return to Syria on a secret mission to convince her people in Jabal al-Druze to allow the British and Free French forces to enter Syria through their territory without a fight. Syria was under the rule of Vichy France at that time. The instructions were for her to not enter Syria illegally. So, at the border, she summoned her half-brother Talal, and when he heard her, he told her to wait for Hassan to come down the arduous journey to the border to hear her in person. Hassan did not allow her across the border until she made a personal promise to remarry him, and she accepted. It was alleged that Asmahan had been paid a handsome sum (£40,000) for her services to the Allies.^[34] The British and Free French also promised the independence of Syria in return, and the Druze agreed.^[44]

The Allies managed to expel the Vichy forces from Syria, however, Asmahan received death threats from pro-Vichy Druze. She escaped by night on horseback, disguised as a male horseman and rode from Damascus all the way to the Palestinian border. After the Allies secured Syria during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, she returned to Damascus where she paraded through the streets with her husband Hassan. General Charles de Gaulle visited Suwayda where he met Asmahan, and congratulated her on a successful mission.^[34]

The Allies reneged on their promises for Syrian independence and Asmahan, disgruntled, shifted allegiance to the Nazis. Asmahan boarded a train to Ankara, where she wanted to meet Hitler's ambassador to Turkey and master of Nazi espionage in the Middle East. British officials at the Turkish border refused to let her pass, and she was deported to Beirut.^[34]

Death

On 14 July 1944, a car carrying Asmahan and a female friend of hers crashed into the River Nile after the driver lost control. Without a door on their side both ladies got stuck and drowned. Nevertheless, the driver managed to escape.

These suspicious circumstances gave rise to many rumors and much controversy. Tabloids were rife with conspiracy theories. Among those accused were British intelligence – after many reports claiming she was working with them – of getting rid of her after she handed over some military information to the Germans. The German Gestapo was also accused of killing her for helping the British.

Legacy

Her house in Syria is located in the French Quarter of Swuayda. Years after her death, that house was seized by the Syrian government, and became – like much of the French Quarter – a property of the Syrian Army. It took the government sixty-two years to give in to the demands to turn the house into a museum for Asmahan and Farid.

The Ministry of Tourism acquired the house in September 2006, but work on it has yet to start.^{[citation needed]}

A television series in Arabic debuted in 2008 depicting her life and was shown during the month of Ramadan. Asmahan was played by Syrian actress Sulaf Fawakherji.^[45]

References

Sources

• Zuhur, Sherifa (1998), Images of enchantment: visual and performing arts of the Middle East, American University in Cairo Press, ISBN 9774244672
• Zuhur, Sherifa (2000), Asmahan's Secrets: Woman, War, and Song, University of Texas Press, ISBN 9780292798076{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Zuhur, Sherifa (2001). Colors of enchantment: theater, dance, music and the visual arts of the Middle East. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 9774246071.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asmahan.

• Asmahan at IMDb
• Asmahan Fan site
• Introduction to Asmahan's Secrets, a biography (ISBN 978-0-292-79807-6)

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