The life of Tawfiq al-Hakim

Tawfiq al-Hakim is considered the father of theater in the Arab world and Egypt. He is a writer, thinker, and founder of the art of the novel, the story, and the play in modern Arabic literature. Critics have described him as a pioneer of intellectual theater. Tawfiq al-Hakim was born in Alexandria on the ninth of October of the year 1898 AD. He is from a wealthy Egyptian father who worked in the judiciary, while his mother is Turkish from an aristocratic family, bearing in mind that Tawfiq al-Hakim joined a public school when he was seven years old, completed his elementary school there, then moved on; To continue his secondary education in Cairo, at Muhammad Ali High School.

In 1919 AD, Tawfiq al-Hakim was arrested. For his interaction with the revolution, but his father was able to get him out of prison, and in 1921 AD, Tawfiq al-Hakim obtained a baccalaureate degree, joined the Faculty of Law, and graduated from it in 1925 AD. Tawfiq al-Hakim was interested in playwriting; His first attempts to write plays appeared, such as The New Woman and The Heavy Guest. Because he was in contact with the artistic class, his parents preferred to send him to France. To pursue his postgraduate studies, and with regard to his death, he died in Cairo, on the twenty-sixth of July of the year 1987 AD, when he was 89 years old.

Tawfiq al-Hakim's patriotism appeared clearly despite his lack of affiliation with any political party before the revolution. He was intellectually and artistically independent, as he adopted many national and social issues, and emphasized them in his writings. He also cared about the national character and building it, and he also cared about developing the national sense, in addition to his interest in freedom, equality, and social justice.

Women in the life of Tawfiq al-Hakim

Tawfiq al-Hakim was known as the enemy of women, although women had the largest share in al-Hakim's books and writings, and he spoke about her with respect and reverence approaching sanctification, and women were distinguished in the literature of Tawfiq al-Hakim by interaction and positivity, and this was clearly demonstrated in his plays (The Play of Hands). , and the play Scheherazade, and the play Isis), and despite the title that Al-Hakim was famous for, he married in 1946 AD to a divorced woman who had two daughters, and this marriage, which Al-Hakim did not announce at the beginning, resulted in two children: Ismail and Zainab.

Tawfiq al-Hakim's duties and responsibilities

The following are the most important jobs and responsibilities that Tawfiq al-Hakim assumed:

He held the position of deputy attorney general in the mixed courts, and later the civil courts in Alexandria.
He held the position of director of investigations at the Ministry of Education in 1934 AD.
He was a director at the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Social Guidance Department.
He worked in Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper, in which many of his plays were published.
He became director of the Egyptian Book House in 1951 AD.
He was appointed as a full-time member of the Supreme Council for the Care of Literature and the Arts.
He was appointed as the representative of Egypt in UNESCO.

Tawfiq al-Hakim and literature

Tawfiq al-Hakim's interest in literature and his attraction to it appeared since high school. As he frequented the theater of Georges Abyad, and was able to familiarize himself with international literature in general, and Greek and French in particular, while he was in France, and because of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s influence on theatrical literature and his attraction to it, his first play (People of the Cave) was published in 1933 AD, which he considered Critics, the beginning of the emergence of mental theater; It is a mental event that is difficult to represent in a theatrical manner, as Taha Hussein mentioned that this play is comparable to the works of the great writers in the West.

It is worth noting that the path of Tawfiq al-Hakim’s writings and literature passed through three stages, and these stages are:

The first stage, which some critics described as turbulent, is the one in which he composed the play People of the Cave, in addition to the story of the return of the soul, and a bird from the east.
The second stage, in which Tawfiq al-Hakim became proficient in the linguistic tool, and in this stage al-Hakim wrote many books, such as: Al-Zamar, Scheherazade, Bullet in the Heart, and Exit from Paradise.
The third stage, which is characterized by the development of the artistic writing of Tawfiq al-Hakim, in which al-Hakim demonstrated his ability to formulate meanings and ideas, as he wrote several plays during this stage, such as the play The Sultan of Darkness, The Secret of the Suicide, as well as the play The River of Madness.

Works by Tawfiq al-Hakim

Tawfiq al-Hakim's writings varied from stories, plays, and literary books, and the following is a mention of some of his writings:

Diaries of a deputy in the countryside.
Show me God.
return of the soul.
wise donkey.
The fate of a cockroach.
sacred bond.
The confused Sultan.
Soft hands.
My donkey told me.
King Oedipus.

Critics' opinion: Tawfiq Al-Hakim

Many critics and writers talked about Tawfiq al-Hakim and his writings, and the following is a mention of the most prominent things said about him:

The sayings of Tawfiq al-Hakim

The following are the highlights of what Tawfiq al-Hakim said through his books and writings:

Many people live long in the past, and the past is a platform for jumping on, not a sofa for relaxing.
If you want to survive life, do not take it as a tragedy.
If the mind of a woman withers and dies, the mind of the entire nation withers and dies.
Personal interest is always the rock against which the strongest principles are shattered.
It is difficult for me to conceive of beauty not associated with virtue, true beauty, and true virtue is one thing.