25 - 31 January 2001
Issue No.518
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 25 - 31 January 2001 Issue No.518 |
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Obituary
Something to say
Adel Sabit (1919 -2001)
He lived through a good part of Egypt's rich modern history. Last Friday, he was tragically killed by a hit-and-run driver.
A handsome man with sleek silver hair, crystal eyes and soft features, Adel Sabit was deeply enmeshed in the turmoils of the country, to which he chose to devote his life -- first through politics, then through writing.
"My story is a complicated one," he told me almost a year ago at his Qasr Al-Dubara home. "I have been through much and have many viewpoints. It has been rich."
Sitting in the salon of his childhood home, one could feel the fullness of a lifetime plastered with plans, imprisonments and escapes. The walls of what was once a palace were peeling. "It once was glorious," Sabit offered, gesturing to his surroundings. "The crumbling, I suppose," he said in his upper class British accent, "is evidence of hard times."
Born in 1919 to Mahmoud Sabit Bey, chamberlain to King Fouad, and his wife Fatima, Sabit was the great-grandson of Prime Minister Sherif Pasha, and the second cousin of King Fouad. It was all too easy to label Sabit as a mere aristocrat,but he was determined to steer away from the temptation of falling into the role of "a royal".
His path led him first to the Ministry of Interior, acting as a confidential liaison officer for King Farouk. Upon the divorce of Farouk's sister, the Empress Fawzia, from the Shah of Iran, Sabit was appointed chief of the household. When his appointment was terminated, he took on the post of information officer at the Arab League. But what really defined him were his actions on the night of the revolution.
"I was fishing for prawns with Princess Faiza that night," he recalled, "when the complications began."
I had a choice: either I could leave with the royal family and not have anything to do with the future of my country. Or, I could move on to Nasser's camp. I chose to work with him, because, ultimately, I had to do what was for good for my country."
It is that final line which defines what Sabit was all about. Invited to head the Arab League information office, Sabit turned it down, preferring independence from the bureaucratic system. Instead, with Nasser's blessing, he became publisher and editor of The Egyptian Economic and Political Review.
"It took off fluidly, becoming a forum for debate," he said. "But eight years into it, I became the victim of a paranoid leader."
Accused of plotting against the regime, Sabit was imprisoned for six months. His release sent him fleeing through Libya to Germany, where he spent the next 10 years with his son and Vogue covergirl wife Frances Ramsden.
His return in 1980 led him back to the villa in Garden City. From then on his life turned inwards -- into his sparkling mind.
"I write because I have something to say," he said one quiet afternoon. "It's quite a responsibility. You have to be ready for it, and you must be firm in your belief of the words on the page. "
Sabit was certainly not timid, publishing what was to become a censored book on Nasser, his policies, and eventual demise; and, more recently, A King Betrayed, about the ill-fated reign of King Farouk.
"I've also written a book on the Arab League," he told me, "but I'm still looking for the right publisher."
It was a book laden with enlightened criticism," he explained.
Sabit was a man whose commitment to a cause was undoubtedly founded on the principles of honesty and conviction.
"I feel a moral obligation, to tell the truth," he once told me. The truth, that is, as best he honestly knew it.
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