PRINCE CHARMING AND HIS DOWNFALL : History Revisited

by dr : Ahmed Salah kamel

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince, he was born to a great King who was admired and loved by all his people, and amidst rejoice and celebration the announcement was made that this throne now has an heir and that the crown prince has come to personify all the glamorous hopes of his people. His people followed him closely, as a baby, a child and a young prince, for the first time they saw pictures and read news about the life of their dear prince, and they loved him dearly day by day. And as the prince grew up, he was sent away in far away land to study, to be prepared for the tasks that await him, but time can play tricks here, for only a year after his departure, the prince gets the heartbreaking news from home; Son, you are now King, the words pierced his existence and made him realize o too early a fact that he is going to survive for the rest of his life, that he has to bear all of this responsibility alone.

As swift as can be the prince sails home, with tears in his eyes and a rush in his mind, he lands in the grand port walks down and sets foot on his homeland once again. By his side were his tutors, his counselors and his faithful servants, they were keeping him companied and comfortable, but at the foot of his ship was a sea of people who have come from everywhere, to have a look at their King, they were cheering and singing, they were truly happy, they loved their King so much, and he did fall in love with them too that it brought tears to his eyes just to experience the height of emotion these simple people expressed to him, all the way to his capital city was lined with his people, chanting and cheering their young loved monarch, telling him that they believe in him and that he stand for their hopes and dreams.

Days and month pass, and the prince reaches majority, and he is sworn in King of the great country, and for the first time in history a monarch addresses his people, he talks to them pledging that he is going to be the first servant of the homeland, people couldn’t help but to love him unconditionally, he represented all what is clean, pure and grand in this beautiful rising Kingdom. And as time went by, people saw their King grow, get married to a fairy tale of a Queen that captured the imagination and love of the whole country for being a commoner who was raised by love to become a beautiful and pure Queen, they celebrated the wedding of his sister to the son of the Emperor of another great and ancient Kingdom nearby, and for a moment in time things seemed like they couldn’t possibly get better than they were.

But as times went by, all the dreams and promises where broken into reality, the beautiful royal marriages were broken one by one, the beautiful queen was queen no more, and she was not to be heard of again, his empress of a sister came home broken and fleeing from the tyranny and wickedness of that alien court. And above all, the Queen mother had an increasingly growing question mark attached to her, she wasn’t a stable person, she was merely a thorn in her son’s back, a thorn that was threatening to break him and his throne into a million pieces by her irresponsibility and carelessness for tradition, religion and indulgence in manners unbecoming of her royal stature.

And the day comes, fifteen years to that cheerful and day at the port, his people lost contact with him, and his army, angered by an unexpected defeat by a new force across the borders, turns up against him and banishes him far away, for fifteen lives he lives in exile, a fat, lonely, ex-King, only to die at the age of 45 away from the home he loves, he is carried home, buried in the dark and banished even from the grave of his fathers and ancestors, it took years for his children to overcome that and to have his remains be moved to the place he wanted.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was the story of the ex-King of Egypt, a part of our history that has been overlooked for so long; it is the story of a man, a human being who has his dreams, hopes and also mistakes.

I have a certain belief, is that history is like a chain, every link is important, if you break one, the whole chain falls and you lose everything. We cannot; in the twenty first century, overlook a whole chapter of our history; we cannot ignore a whole life and condemn a country, a system and a person without any justification. History belongs to the people, not to a regimen or a King or a president, it is the voice of our ancestors telling us what they did right and what they did wrong, if we chose to silence this voice then we chose not to learn anything, and to start from scratch as a country, a nation without civilization. And this is why last February I started a project with a few friends of mine to revisit Egypt’s royal history, to try and unearth the truth that was kept away for so long, we aimed at encouraging everybody to share picture, notes, stories and questions to be put together and make a sort of a database of historical facts that have been written by a thousand authors, not by a single person with a single view. And through this project that was named “Egyptian Royalty” we have managed to get in touch with so many wonderful people from all around the world who were interested, who had pictures, information and stories that have helped us realize so much about the history of our nation and its struggle.

Today we are expanding and growing, after the frenzy created by the popular Ramadan TV series people have begun asking questions and searching for answers, they found us and the work we have installed a valuable source for teaching and revisiting the history of our beautiful Egypt.

www.flickr.com/groups/egyptianroyalty

 

 

This article was published in this January issue of the "Dear Guest" magazine available in "on the run" shops.

من قصيدة (أواخــر الـشـتــا)

للشاعرة/ إليسا أبو ماضى

كنا فى أواخر الشتا قبل اللى فات

زى اليومين دول عشنا مع بعض حكايات

أنا كنت لما أحب أتونس معاه

أنا كنت باخد بعضى واروح له من سكات

أجب عن الأسئلة التالية:
1- علام يدل التعبير بصيغة الماضى؟ ولماذا اختصت الشاعرة الشتا قبل اللى فات؟
2- فى أى فصل من فصول السنة كتبت هذه القصيدة؟ (مستدلا على ما تقول)
3- علام يدل التعبير (أنا كنت باخد بعضى وأروح له من سكات)؟
4- أيهما أفضل (أنا كنت باخد بعضى) أم (أنا كنت باخد تاكسى)؟ ولماذا؟
5- اختر الإجابة الصحيحة مما بين القوسين:
- الجمال فى قولها (عشنا - معاه): (تصريع - جناس - حسن التفات)
- (أروح له من سكات) المقصود بها: (دكاكينى - دحاليبى - ذرابيئى)
- مصدر كلمة (أتونس): (تَوَنًّس - تُونِس - تَنَاسَى)
- (زى اليومين) مجاز مرسل علاقته: (الكلية - المدرسة - الحضانة)

*****

والناس فى عز البرد يجرو ويستخبو

وأنا كنت باجرى وأخبى نفسى قوام فى قلبه

ولحد لما الليل يليل بابقى جنبه

وأفضل فى عز البرد وياه بالساعات

أجب عن الأسئلة التالية:
1- هات من الأبيات مضاد (النهار), وكلمة تؤدى معنى (معاه)
2- يرى بعض النقاد أن تكرار (فى عز البرد) أضعف المعنى. وضح ذلك مبينًا رأيك.
3- إلى أى مدرسة شعرية تنتمى الشاعرة؟ وما أهم سماتها؟ (بدون غلط)
4- هل ترى أن هناك علاقة بين (عز البرد) و (عز الدخيلة)؟ أم أنها تشابه أسماء؟!
5- أيهما أفضل (ولحد) أم (ولغاية)؟ ولماذا؟

*****

على سهوة ليه الدنيا بعد ماعشمتنا

وعيشتنا شوية رجعت موتتنا

والدنيا من يوميها ياقلبى عودتنا

لما بتدى حاجات قوام تاخد حاجات

أجب عن الأسئلة التالية:
1- اختر الإجابة الصحيحة مما بين الأقواس:
- (على سهوة) تفيد: (السرعة - العجلة - الموتوسيكل 'البجاج الهندى أبو 7')
- (عيشتنا - موتتنا) تفيد: (التضاد - التأكيد - الحيرة فى اتخاذ القرار فى السقعة)
- كلمة تؤدى معنى (شوية): (بعضشى - حفان - قيمة مقطف)
- المقصود بـ (يوميها) فى الأبيات: (يوم العاركة - يوم الخناقة - يوم الكرامة)
2- اشرح الأبيات شرحًا مفصلا باختصار.
3- أيهما أفضل (ياقلبى) أم (يانضرى)؟ ولماذا؟
4- يتضح فى الأبيات أن (الدنيا ملهاش أمان .. خالص). وضح ذلك مستدلا على ما تقول.
5- استخرج من الأبيات مايدل على:
- عشمنى بالمحبة وشعلقنى بالهوا، حايلته حبة حبة زودها واتلوى.
- زألطنى الحب زألوط، نمت فى بنها صحيت فى أسيوط.

*****

وسط الشوارع ناس كتيرة مروحين

والناس ياقلبى هما هما وهو فين

وأنا ماشية باتلفت وباسأل كل يوم

بيعمل إيه دلوقتى وبيحلم بمين

أجب عن الأسئلة التالية:
1- يتضح فى الأبيات الشوق اللهفة وتطلع الشاعرة لرؤية (اسم النبى حارسه). اشرح
2- يؤخذ على الشاعرة (وأنا ماشية باتلفت). وضح ذلك مبينًا مدى التعارض مع قواعد المرور.
3- فى الأبيات لوحة فنية رائعة للناس اللى مروحين والمطرة اللى خلصت وبعد ما الخناقة انفضت قام شريف الظالم
أفكار يا أفكار فين راحت أفكار؟! رد ابنه عليه ومنين ارتاحت أفكار ما انت السبب السبب يابا فرقت بين حبيبين
آه يابا آه يابا على قلبك فرقت بين حبيبين أفكار كانت راحة ابنك وابنك كانت راحة أفكار. نسيت كنت عايز أسأل فى إيه.
4- لماذا غضبت أفكار وتركت البيت؟ ولمَ كثر عتاب الابن لأبيه؟
5- ((حُذف من قِبَل الرقابة))

Dear Diary,

I write today about my December, I really don't know what to write down for it has been one busy month indeed... First I went to elGouna for three day, well as usual as they say, then I went back to Cairo only to pack my stuff and head to Dammam in Saudi Arabia via AbuDhabi flying Etihad Airlines, I went there and spent a whole week visiting my parents and then took a Saudi Airways Flight to alTaef and then a Bus to Mekkah where I started performing the ancient rituals of the Pilgrimage or Haj!!! I spent approximately a week there between Mekkah, mena, Arafat, Mozdalifa and then finally elTaef again where we took another airoplane to Dammam, I spent another week shopping between Dammam, Khobar and Dhahran then I flew to Abudhaby where I transited for nine hours shopping too before I took my flight to Cairo, I arrived last sunday at 11:30 am where I went home, unpacked my stuff and then instantly repacked and went back to the airport at 7:00 pm where I took and EgyptAir Express Flight to Hurghada and was collected by a hospital car and driven to elGouna where I spent the New year's eve and the week to follow working in elGouna hospital and socialising with my wonderful friends Mohamed Zeidanne, Alia, Amr Ismail, Walaa, Hany Gammal, Diaa Fahmy and others!!!

Out of all this, to all of you out there, wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy New year, forgive me for being late but it was one month to remember indeed.