PROFILES

 

Youssef El-Sherif
A Gifted Honest and Faithful Storyteller

By Ahmed Toughan & Talaat I. Farag

Rarely does one meet a colourful personality and captivating writer like Youssef El-Sherif. In our youth, we had the pleasure of sharing many memories with one of the Arab World's finest writers, archivists and profile authors. Over many years, El-Sherif has produced some of the most compelling and vivid descriptions of Egyptian and Arab personalities ever written. His signature characters are bohemian artisans, cursed master poets, humble nationalists, rich leftist pranksters, a nuisance journalist who published under the pseudonym "the Naughty Boy", a noble thief and professional impersonator among other fascinating and charismatic personas, their stories composed in a most light-hearted, witty and satirical form. These writings have won El-Sherif wide readership in Egypt and throughout the Arab World. El-Sherif often befriended the characters that inspired his profiles and spent many years sharing his life with a select group of thinkers and artists which he often described as the Sa'aleek--a complex and abstract Egyptian colloquial word that combines characteristics such as free-spirited, iconoclastic, maverick and beatnik. His lively narratives about the thoughts, adventures and travails of the Sa'aleek complimented his extensive and incisive non-fiction writings about politics and culture which offered richly detailed and sharply poignant commentary on people and society. 

His childhood colleague in secondary school, Prof. Mokhtar Gomaa, the former Dean of Al-Azhar Medical College, recalls that Youssef El-Sherif was a gifted storyteller even in those early days. Also the distinguished award-winning Egyptian novelist, Khairy Shalaby, compared Youssef El-Sherif's deep research of people with unique personalities to the work of pearl divers.

Ironically, El-Sherif was raised in a very pious and religious household. He benefited greatly from his father, Sheikh Mohamed Imam El-Sherif, who was a very devout and intellectual cleric who expressed a special fondness of art and music. His uncles also influenced him during his early years, as they were all graduates from Al-Azhar University and used to invite famous artists and writers at their home on a regular basis. As a child and teenager, El-Sherif was surrounded by and witnessed unique gatherings of different minds, each leaving an imprint on his personality and helping shape his future career.

A writer from his early days, El-Sherif graduated from law school in Egypt and joined the prominent Cairo weekly Rose El-Youssef magazine in the 1950s. The magazine's then-editor, Ehsan Abdel-Kodous, discovered El-Sherif's talents immediately and recruited him to write for both Rosa El-Youssef and another newly founded magazine Sabah El-Kheir. He quickly became a famous writer specialized in Arab political issues as well as profiling politicians, writers and artists. He would continue to write for both magazines and other publications throughout the Arab World regularly even after his retirement. Throughout his illustrious career, El-Sherif also published several key books on Egypt, Sudan and Yemen which were notably concise and demonstrated the immense efforts he exerted not only in writing but in data collection and documentation.

The Beautiful World of Youssef El-Sherif

El-Sherif once describes the story of an interesting Japanese professor from Tokyo University, Dr. Notahara, whom he met in Egypt during a scholarship to translate Naguib Mahfouz and Dr. Youssef Adris' books to Japanese. Notahara was interested in meeting many of Egypt's Sa'aleek at Cairo's various cafes and restaurants, and spent many days and nights with El-Sherif frequenting their many gatherings. During this time, Notahara encouraged and convinced El-Sherif to document the lives and experience of the Sa'aleek in a book-length volume that captured all their liveliness and eccentricity. In time, Notahara befriended many of the Sa'aleek including notable writers Mahmoud El-Saadany, Kamel El-Shinawy, and Abbas El-Aswany, and may himself be considered a Japanese member of the Sa'aleek! The book which was published by Dar El-Shorouk in 2005 as the last of El-Sherif's trilogy was entitled Sa'aleek Al-zaman Al-gameel (The Sa'aleek of the Beautiful Era) and came with a forward by the former president of the Egyptian Journalists Union, Kamel Zuhairi.

The book offers portraits of ten of Egypt's most interesting satirical characters of whom Egyptian Minister of Transportation during the rule of King Farouk was one. A professional prankster, the Minister Hifny Pasha Mahmoud's caricature earned a place on the cover of El-Sherif's book. He is joined by his fellow prankster Kamel El-Shinawy who also hailed from an aristocratic background but lived a bohemian lifestyle. The Sa'aleek also included our friend Mohammed Ouda, who passed away recently at the age of 86, as well as writer, Mahmoud El-Saadany (Read The Ambassadors Magazine FEATURES article from July 2005?). Among the group, Abdelhamid El-Deeb is an unlucky poet whom people feared his friendship since he was rumoured to have an unlucky curse worse than that of King Tut! Another personality featured in his book, Hafez Naguib, who was compared to Arsène Lupin and Robin Hood. He had grown up in a respectable Cairene Muslim family but was always on the run from the police. Among his disguises were the fake characters he impersonated including a fictitious Muslim cleric under the name of Abdulla Al-Monoofy. When he was discovered by authorities, Naguib escaped to Upper Egyptian town of Assuit and entered a Coptic Orthodox Christian Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun under the false name of Ghali Girgis. He soon became a monk and under the pseudonym Father Faltaous eventually rising up the ranks in the church. When his cover was blown, Naguib swiftly he escaped from the monastery!
 

In addition to Sa'aleek Al-zaman Al-gameel, El-Sherif's trilogy includes a book on distinguished writer and poet Kamel El-Shinnawy and another book about long-time friend Abdelrahman El-Khameesy. El-Khameesy was talented on many levels and was known for conducting the first interview with the first man in space, Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin. El-Khameesy was credited by El-Sherif for being the discoverer of many celebrities, including renowned Egyptian actress Soa'ad Hosni, writer Dr. Youssef Adris, and singer Muharram Fouad. However, due to differences with President Sadat, El-Khameesy left Egypt in 1972 and only returned to his homeland in 1987 to be buried along with all his poetry in his hometown of Mansoura. El-Sherif writes that El-Khameesy wished to be buried under a special tree in his hometown, convinced that every morning, his spirit will return as a bird to recite his poetry to those who loved him.

Remember an Old Friend

One of El-Sherif's featured personalities is the late Egyptian writer Mohammed Ouda whom he had been strongly affected by. Three of Egypt's greatest writers, Mohammed Hasanein Heikal, Kamel Al-Zuhairi and Mahmoud El-Saadany, described Ouda as the "honest philosopher."  In his eventful life, the lawyer Ouda was an active member of the Non-Alignment Movement and a fighter for peace, freedom and equality. He spent much of his life advocating for the disadvantaged and became a symbol of diligent and principled stands in favour of the downtrodden. El-Sherif who remains very faithful to friends was moved greatly by Ouda, whom he admitted was one of his primary mentors. He dedicated 60-pages of his book, Sa'aleek Al-zaman Al-gameel, (20% of the book) to his guru. As a prolific writer for numerous publications including Dar El-Hilal, Rose El-Youssef, Al-Gomhorriya, El-Misa with Khaled Mohi El-Din, and Al-Sha'ab with the "Dancing Major" Salah Salem, the great writer Ouda lived through the eras of King Fouad, King Farouk, General Mohammed Naguib, President Nasser, President Sadat and President Mubarak, and died in October of 2006 at the age of 86. El-Sherif described him as a voice for the voiceless in the Third World and an adamant advocate for non-violence. As a major supporter of resistance, he wrote books about Nehru, Mao Zedong, and Ahmed Orabi and reacted adversely to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Throughout his long life, Ouda authored 50 books and was imprisoned with El-Saadany and El-Khameesy for their political views. As a tribute to this honourable Egyptian personality and to mourn the loss of this gifted writer, we feature photos taken in 2005 in a meeting with Mr. Mohammed Ouda.  

El-Sherif's current works are include a forthcoming book due from Dar El-Shorouk publishers entitled, Yemen wa Ahl el-Yemen (Yemen and Yemeni People: Forty Visits and 1001 Stories) the gifted writer demonstrated his loyalty to truth and loyalty to his friends, by defending the reputation of the former Yemeni President Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, who was assassinated with his brother in 1977, from the rumours that spread about Al-Hamdi's adulterous relations with foreign women. The book will be reviewed in The Ambassadors Magazine coming issue (Vol.10, Issue 2 - July 2007).

In August of 2006, we had the honour of meeting our old friend and lifetime companion, Youssef El-Sherif, downtown Cairo's Cafe Riche Restaurant, a known location visited by many thinkers, writers, and intellectuals including the late Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz and his contemporaries of young and aspiring writers. We were also joined by our mutual friend, HE Mohsen Alaini, the former prime minister of Yemen, we celebrated the birth of the English translation of Alaini's latest book and the birth of Youssef El-Sherif's new book entitled, Yemen and Yemeni People: Forty Visits and 1001 Stories (Arabic), published by Dar El-Shorouk.

Admittedly, the task of profiling a profilist like Youssef El-Sherif is a peculiar one. A gifted and honest storyteller like El-Sherif evades description. Instead we dutifully thank him for his immensely enjoyable literary works and his spectacular documentation of a beautiful age in the life of the contemporary Arab World. We are proud of his friendship and brotherhood.

Mr. Ahmed S. Toughan, the international politico-social cartoonist is a co-founders of Al-Gomhorriya daily newspaper (1953), Cairo, Egypt and of The Ambassadors Online Magazine (1998). Email: toughan@access.com.eg