SNAP SHOTS

By Mohamed El-Hebeishy

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I DO NOT recall how many times I passed by it, not knowing to whom it belongs. Right in front of Dar Al-Iftaa, on Salah Salem Street, lies the mausoleum of a desert explorer, a pioneer and role model. Mohamed El-Hebeishy sheds light on the Egyptian legend Ahmed Hassanein Bey.

Ahmed Mohamed Hassanein was born in Cairo in 1889 to Sheikh Mohamed Hassanein El-Bulaqi, a revered scholar in Al-Azhar, and grandson to Ahmed Mazhar Hassanein Pasha, the last admiral of the Egyptian navy before the 1882 British occupation. When Admiral Hassanein was ordered to hand over his fleet to the British in Malta, he sailed all over the Mediterranean, and when asked he gave his infamous reply, mafish Malta, "Malta is not there".

After finishing one year of education in Cairo's Khedival School of Law, Ahmed Hassanein was sent by his father to study in Oxford University, attending the Balliol College. Upon his return he joined the Ministry of the Interior and later the Egyptian Foreign Office, from which he asked for a leave of absence as he was planning his breakthrough journey across the Sahara. In 1923 he started off on an eight-month camel journey that led to the discovery of the lost oases of Arkenu and Uweinat. He took off from Sallum on the Mediterranean coast, all the way to the elusive Kufra Oasis in Libya and further to the unknown realms of the desert. Finally, the 3,500-kilometre camel trek ended in Al-Obeid in Sudan. His discovery of the lost oases and the invaluable rock drawing in Uweinat began a discovery fever in the area resulting in great explorers following his footsteps.

But that was not all for this phenomenal persona. Ahmed Hassanein Bey fenced for Egypt in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. A decade later he was the first person to attempt flying solo from Europe to Egypt -- the attempt failed as the plane took him only as far as Italy.

Similarly on the political scene, he was a pioneer. He served as first chamberlain to King Fouad and upon the king's death, he was appointed governor of the Royal Household, by which he was responsible for the upbringing of Egypt's last monarch, King Farouk. At the early stages of WWII, Ahmed Hassanein Bey was appointed chief of the Royal Cabinet.

The Royal Geographical Society in London awarded Ahmed Hassanein the Founders Medal, the British government honoured him with Knight Commander of the Victorian Order in 1927, and he was elevated from Bey to Pasha in 1936.

Sir Ahmed Hassanein Pasha died in a motor accident in February 1946. He was laid to rest in the Mameluke Northern Cemetery in a mausoleum built by his brother-in-law, the renowned architect Hassan Fathi. He left a legacy of unprecedented achievements, an incredible account of his journey in The Lost Oases and is an inspiration for generations to come.