9 - 15 August 2001
Issue No.546
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546 |
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The truth has many faces
Asmahan's Secrets: Woman, War, and Song, Sherifa Zuhur, Austin, Texas: The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 2000. pp247
More than any other personality in the world of Middle Eastern entertainment, Asmahan has fascinated those who have crossed her path in one way or another. Her life and the mystery surrounding her tragic death have nourished many a tale, and it has become practically impossible to tell where the legend begins and the truth ends. Other artistic celebrities whose lives and deaths have also been shrouded in mystery come to mind, Marilyn Monroe in particular and now maybe Soad Hosni.
Strangely enough, in the case of Asmahan, many foreigners have fallen prey to this intense curiosity for a transient Oriental performer who occupied centre stage in Egypt for only a few years. They are mesmerised by her strange beauty, bewitched by the special qualities of her voice or terminally attracted by the inscrutability surrounding her "political career" and her untimely demise. One is tempted to ascribe this fascination to Asmahan's position as a bridge between East and West, but there is obviously more than her role as mediator at stake.
In 1994, I wrote an article commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the diva's death. Soon after, I was approached by a Danish gentleman who claimed that he had fallen madly in love with Asmahan after reading Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi, in which the author mentions Asmahan at length. In the course of our conversations, I realised that his was more than a passing fancy. He had become dangerously possessed by his subject, proposing to travel to Suwayda to meet her daughter Kamilia and the other surviving members of her family. He knew no Arabic, but had duly acquainted himself with the history of the Druze. "She may have been an singer and an actress here, but I can't discount the fact that she was a Druze princess," he told me eagerly. "This is where all the answers must lie." I mentioned then that a professor at the American University in Cairo, Sherifa Zuhur, was in the process of writing a book on Asmahan and had in fact just come back from Jabal Al-Druze. She might give him more useful information. I heard nothing more, and often wondered if Zuhur had discouraged Asmahan's latest lover from following her trail, or if, with his lack of knowledge of the language and customs of the Jabal, he had disappeared without a trace in the mountains.
It is therefore with great trepidation that I welcomed the long-awaited publication of Asmahan's Secrets, and rejoiced to find out that it was first and foremost a serious work of scholarship.
In the introduction, Zuhur confesses outright to an "obsession with [the] elusive historical figure," and stresses that Asmahan's life was extremely controversial. Even more so were the stories told about her: her "noble" status, the rocky road on which she launched herself, and which took her away from her people's traditions, her emotional instability: all these and more were exploited by those who knew her, or thought they knew her, according to their different agendas. Zuhur, however, approaches the material with the honesty of a thorough researcher and scholar, including every aspect of Asmahan the artist and Asmahan the woman, whether gathered from written sources or transmitted orally. She points out contradictions and inconsistencies, but refrains from offering definitive conclusions.
After setting out to find out the "truth" about the diva, she explains, in the course of her research she came to the sobering understanding that the truth has many faces. "What is evident is that Asmahan was a great singer, but to her Arab community, the claim that she was a princess, a spy, a traitor, a national heroine or an emotional failure could coexist without dilemma. When details could not be recalled with certitude, they were invented, embellished and repeated." In her quest for the truth, Zuhur tried to "disentangle" her heroine from the legends attached to her name. Delve as she might, however, in the end, Asmahan, her life, career and death remain as shrouded in mystery as ever. That Zuhur admits it readily is the mark of a sincere researcher and lends added value to her work.
Any Arabic-speaking fan of Asmahan can find enough material to satisfy his or her interest in Qissat Asmahan (The Story of Asmahan), as told to the journalist Fumil Labib by her brother Fouad El-Atrash, and in Mohamed El-Tab'i's Asmahan Tarwi Qissataha (Asmahan Tells Her Story). These unofficial biographies, however, have never been translated and in this respect, Zuhur's book is a welcome initiative as far as foreign readers are concerned. Zuhur herself relies heavily on the narratives of the two journalists while remaining aware of their limitations. Fouad, the big brother, who had no musical talent and therefore remained all his life in the shadow of his artistically gifted siblings, may have wanted to emphasise his role in his sister's adventures, thus leaving to posterity an account showcasing him at least as a supporting actor in the drama. El-Tab'i, a would-be lover turned friend, may have had his own reasons for adding or withholding information. Aware of these restrictions, Zuhur traveled to Syria and to Suwayda for extensive interviews with the family of Princess Amal (as she was known among the Druze). The wealth of information she gathered did not yield the solution to the puzzle, but makes for interesting reading. In the end, Zuhur solicits the complicity of the reader, who is free to believe any of three versions of Asmahan's mysterious death.
If Asmahan's Secrets does not really provide a momentous outcome, it has the merit of having explored the diva's times, placing her on the fringe of the tragic events that shook the Middle East during World War II. Her role as a protagonist in the Druze fight for independence, her lack of concern for her own safety, coupled with her attempts to extract payment for her services, set her up as the Mata Hari of the Arab world. More important, however, is the historical setting, which Zuhur manages to bring to life in a brilliant performance. This is where her trip to the Druze Mountain, Damascus and Beirut takes on all its significance, lending a journalistic quality to her account.
A musician herself, Zuhur reserves an entire chapter to the examination of Asmahan's songs, transcribing the lyrics as well as the musical score in several instances. It is unfortunate that her transliteration of Arabic words appears at best approximate, while her translations are downright fanciful. Foreign readers may not be disturbed by the discrepancies but those who know and cherish Asmahan's songs are bound to notice. Furthermore, a couple of awkward sentences stand out of the otherwise well written text. For example, Zuhur writes on page 56: "Asmahan who idolized Umm Kulthoum and had listened to her recordings avidly, persuaded her to sit with Asmahan on the carpet Oriental style..." On page 67, the reader with a knowledge of French may raise an amused eyebrow at "the Parti Populaire Syrienne." Finally, confusing Queen Farida, Farouk's wife, with his sister Fawziya, who married the Shah of Iran, is an unfortunate mistake.
Zuhur's talent is versatile, though. She is president of the Association for Middle East Women's Studies, and as such could not have concluded Asmahan's saga without situating her in the gender realities of her times. She cites from Dreams of Trespass: "She thought that a woman could have both love and a career and insisted on living a full conjugal life while at the same time exploring and exhibiting her talent." And: "Asmahan entranced both men and women with the idea that failure or success did not matter in the adventurous life, and such a life was much more enjoyable than a life spent sleeping behind protective doors."
The narration of the singer's life, writes Zuhur, "focused heavily on her challenge to gender mores..." She adds: "In fact, those who narrated her life in written form were men, and they filtered their interpretations of her actions through their own social prejudices and conceptions of Asmahan -- as entertainer, sister or 'spy'. These prejudices are most evident in the written material, but also appeared in oral discussions -- reconstituted memories -- of those who knew her well or slightly. Rigid notions of gendered behavior surfaced particularly within the debate over female careers versus family honor, and of Asmahan's likes, dislikes and character foibles. Ultimately, both Arabic biographies portrayed her as a victim of circumstances (Labib/Fu'ad) or of her artistic impatient nature (al-Taba'i), whereas a more distant observer like Mernissi depicts her as an active participant in her fate."
The search for Asmahan could not be completed without an analysis of her musical talents, the composers who were associated with her, the important role of her brother Farid and the rivalry between her and Umm Kulthoum, which must have been quite real insofar as she is often cited (with no concrete proof) as having played a role in Asmahan's death.
Reviewed by Fayza Hassan
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