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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Under the grapevine
By Amina ElbendaryThe little girl's father noticed she had an amazingly strong memory -- one, he reckoned, that would easily allow her to memorise the Holy Qur'an.
And so it was that Ni'mat Ahmed Fouad, growing up in Minya, Upper Egypt, started at age eight to learn the Qur'an, at the hands of the most famous sheikh in the town, Sheikh Hassan. From then on she would develop a life-long love of the holy book -- its music, its language. And her love of the Qur'an would only serve as a model for her love of books, Arabic and learning. At the age of eleven she had memorised the entire Qur'an. One verse in particular struck her deeply: "Nžn, By the pen and that which they write" (Al-Qalam 68:1).
Growing up in Upper Egypt, the young Ni'mat was surrounded by overwhelming Pharaonic monuments, buildings covered with writings she could not make out. Yet these buildings, powerful and awe-inspiring, connected her with her ancestors and the ancient literary tradition that began with them. Reading and writing became her life's work -- her life. She will draw your attention to the fact that the Pharaoh Haremhab, when he returned victorious from his wars and successfully established an empire, ordered the sculptors to fashion his statue in the form of the Egyptian scribe, not the victorious emperor.
Ni'mat Fouad spent her life with books, acquiring, reading and writing them. When the little girl from Minya received the highest grades nation-wide in Thanawiya Amma, she insisted on joining the Faculty of Arts, earning her doctorate in 1959. When her young husband -- an avid reader and book-lover himself -- wanted to give her a special present on one of their early anniversaries, he gave her a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Fouad herself wanted to give her country a present, one that could be deemed worthy of such great a nation. And what could be dearer to her heart than her own books?
For the past 15 years she has been working hard trying to establish the Dar Ni'mat Ahmed Fouad lil Aadab wa Al-Funun wa Al-Turath (The Ni'mat Ahmed Fouad House for Literature, Art and Heritage) -- a library, or rather meeting place, that would make the tens of thousands of books in her possession available to scholars and researchers. For that purpose, Fouad had a special building constructed on the family estate in Mansuriya to accommodate the volumes and -- eventually -- the scholars who are to study them. It was all on personal initiative, Fouad's diligence, and her savings, providing all the support she needed. It was her passion for Egypt -- ignited during her Upper Egyptian childhood, consistently nourished by reading -- that supplied the foremost incentive, however.
Last week, she officially inaugurated the Dar in the presence of such leading dignitaries as the Governor of Giza, Mahmoud Abul Leil, physician and former Minister of Health Ibrahim Badran, as well as poet Farouk Goweida. In a simple reception held in a gazebo covered with vines and grapes in Mansuriya just outside the Dar, Fouad explained that it has long been her dream to establish such a library.
Walking in between rows of the tens of thousands of books, one cannot help but envy their owner for having read all this. Titles include books on diverse subjects, including Qur'anic studies, Hadith, Tafsir, Arabic literature, English literature, French literature, literary criticism, poetry, history, political science, economics, geography, music, theology, comparative religion. While the overwhelming majority of the titles are in Arabic, many are in English and some are in French.
The collection also includes rare and special books such as early editions of works published by the French Expedition as well as writings of 18th- and 19th-century European travellers. They include German, French and English translations of One Thousand and One Nights. It is easy to see that Fouad is an expert on all periods of Egyptian history; the collection includes books on Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic, Islamic, Ottoman and Modern Egypt. Having written her PhD dissertation on "The Nile in Egyptian Literature", it is not surprising that the collection should include many titles on the river, including two copies of Amin Pasha Sami's monumental work, Taqwim Al-Nil (The Nile Chronicle).
Ni'mat Fouad's dar (house) -- as she prefers to call it, opting against maktaba or library -- comes out of the tradition of the private or home library. Private libraries were very common in Egypt particularly in the Ottoman period, and especially within the households of sheikhs, senior military men and wealthy merchants. Even though this period of Egyptian history is commonly described as one of decline for official cultural institutions, surviving documents attest that private libraries were thriving, a sign that learning and culture were available to a wider audience than normally thought, and that informal culture perseveres even in times of great upheaval. Dar Ni'mat Ahmed Fouad is a welcome continuation in the modern period, offering an alternative outlet for scholars and intellectuals. And it is for dedicated post-graduate and post-doctorate scholars, in the end, that the purpose of the Dar is intended.
Ni'mat Fouad is a pioneer among contemporary intellectuals, since no one else has established anything comparable. The personal collections of intellectuals are more often than not sold piecemeal to book vendors in Ezbekiya. Only a few leading figures, such as Ahmed Taymur Pasha, have donated their collections of books and manuscripts to Dar Al-Kutub.
Dar Ni'mat Fouad nonetheless remains a very homey affair. This is not a state-of-the-art library or cultural centre. There are no catalogues for the books; computerised or otherwise. The books are not properly classified but rather arranged by subject: history, geography, Arabic literature etc. And you take it from there. There are no desks for writing, no photocopiers, no microfilm machines, no computer terminals.
Instead, there is a beautiful fountain with water quietly rippling in the background. The building itself is in neo-Islamic style, designed by architect Ahmed Ahmed Fikri, with an exquisite wooden door designed by Abdel-Salam El-Sherif and lanterns designed by Samir El-Guindi. The main hall leads to a small reception area supplied with simple Arabic furniture, more like a living room. Indeed you can almost expect a kindly grandmother to come up quietly behind you offering a glass of mint tea or homemade lemonade. Or maybe you can take your precious book and sit under the grapevine reading quietly, in the shadow of the pyramids -- in the shadow of history.
