Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s

by Raphael Cormack

Overview

A vibrant portrait of the talented and entrepreneurial women who defined an era in Cairo.

One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene flourished, defining what it meant to be a “modern” Egyptian. Women came to dominate the Egyptian entertainment industry—as stars of the stage and screen but also as impresarias, entrepreneurs, owners, and promoters of a new and strikingly modern entertainment industry.

Raphael Cormack unveils the rich histories of independent, enterprising women like vaudeville star Rose al-Youssef (who launched one of Cairo’s most important newspapers); nightclub singer Mounira al-Mahdiyya (the first woman to lead an Egyptian theater company) and her great rival, Oum Kalthoum (still venerated for her soulful lyrics); and other fabulous female stars of the interwar period, a time marked by excess and unheard-of freedom of expression. Buffeted by crosswinds of colonialism and nationalism, conservatism and liberalism, “religious” and “secular” values, patriarchy and feminism, this new generation of celebrities offered a new vision for women in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324021933
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	439,496
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Raphael Cormack is an award-winning editor and translator and has written on Arabic culture for the London Review of Books and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Past is a Set of Old Clothes 1

Act I Setting the Scene

Chapter 1 "Pardon Me, I'm Drunk" 13

Chapter 2 From Queen of Tarab to Prima Donna 47

Chapter 3 "Come on Sisters, Let's Go Hand in Hand to Demand Our Freedom" 78

Chapter 4 Dance of Freedom 99

Act II The Leading Ladies

Chapter 5 "If I Were Not a Woman, I'd Want to be One" 127

Chapter 6 Sarah Bernhardt of the East 156

Chapter 7 The Singer, The Baby, and the Bey 184

Chapter 8 Star of the East 199

Chapter 9 "Come On, Tough Guy, Play the Game" 221

Chapter 10 ISIS Films 243

Chapter 11 Madame Badia's Casino 264

Act III Curtain Call

Chapter 12 The Second Revolution 297

Conclusion How to End a Story 321

Acknowledgments 325

Notes 327

Sources and Further Reading 343

Index 355

Editorial Reviews

"Packed with pizzazz and fizzing with naughtiness, Midnight in Cairo is a thrilling reminder of the richness and wonder of Egyptian culture in the roaring ’20s. Raphael Cormack plunges into the cafés, clubs, and cabarets of Cairo to put the leading ladies of Egyptian nightlife back where they belong: center stage."

Justin Marozzi

"Important, insightful, and fascinating…Cormack highlights an important period in Egypt’s modern history—almost unknown in the West—when its cosmopolitan culture was characterized by a tolerance of all races and religions…This is a must-read."

Alaa Al Aswany

12/07/2020

Egyptian theater scholar Cormack (coeditor, The Book of Khartoum) debuts with a lively history of early-20th-century Cairo focused on the music hall singers, dancers, and actors who became Egypt’s first modern celebrities. Chronicling the rise and fall of the city’s nightlife district, Ezbekiyya, from the late 19th century through its “golden age” in the 1920s and ’30s and decline after the 1952 Egyptian revolution, Cormack profiles seven women who “demand to be heard as they asserted their wishes, claimed their rights, and made space for themselves.” Oum Kalthoum grew up singing religious songs in her father’s band and became, according to Cormack, “the most popular icon in the history of Arabic music.” Her rival, singer-actor Mounira al-Mahdiyya, was the first Egyptian woman to lead a theatrical troupe. Frustrated by gossipy theater journalists, comedic actor Rose al-Youssef founded a magazine (and named it after herself) where performers could go “to give their side of the story.” Cormack portrays the colorful lives of these women within the context of the era’s political and cultural upheavals, including Arab nationalism and the emergence of an Egyptian feminist movement. This sparkling account casts the history of the Egyptian capital in a new light. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"An utterly unique book, teeming with vividly recounted stories, at times hilarious and at times tragic. These were true feminists avant la lettre who defied the societal norms and authorities of their time, both in Egypt and abroad. This inspiring gem of a book gripped me from beginning to end."

Hanan al-Shaykh

"Social changes come about because people begin to reimagine everyday life. Raphael Cormack offers an intimate view of a place and a time when entertainment and politics were part of the same story: a Middle Eastern society’s wrestling with the possibility of reinvention."

Charles King

"A book full of surprises. A lively story of women shaping gender, class, money, and national liberation."

Ahdaf Soueif

"Beguiling and original—an unexpected story of powerful women and their no less powerful voices—on stage and behind the scenes."

Marina Warner

"Evoking large music halls and intimate cabarets, the air scented by Turkish hashish, throats lined with whisky and late nights fueled by cocaine, Midnight in Cairo is also the story of the struggles in Egypt for women’s rights and against colonialism, for independence, suffrage and a New Egypt. Cairo’s theatrical demimonde resisted and rebelled as enthusiastically as they entertained."

Paul French

01/01/2021

In this debut, Cormack, an award-winning editor and translator who specializes in Arabic culture, offers a highly readable account of an era that is "often mythologized" in Egypt, but virtually unknown to Western readers: a story of glamour when Cairo was a cosmopolitan city and Egypt seemed to be on the verge of political, social, and religious change. Inspired by the revolt against British colonial rule, a new generation debated the country's future. Cormack effectively explains the emergence of feminism on the stages of nightclubs, theaters, and cabarets, where women with little formal education were defining their own places in the new country and new century. Utilizing archives in Egypt and the United Kingdom, among others, Cormack's thoroughly researched work focuses on seven exceptional women who sometimes operated on the margins of decency and inspired opposition from various quarters. The story of interwar Egypt is told through the eyes of these women—actresses, dancers, and singers—who enjoyed opportunities but also faced prejudice and exploitation as they called on each other to fight for equality. VERDICT An engaging social history that touches on issues of freedom and liberation, issues that continue to resonate today.—Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Library Journal

2020-12-08
A vibrant history of Cairo’s women-dominated cultural landscape between the wars.

As Cormack shows in this singular work of scholarship, Cairo in the 1920s and ’30s was a unique milieu in which women could excel as proudly feminist artists and entrepreneurs. Moving chronologically, the author, who holds a doctorate in Egyptian theater and has written extensively about Arabic culture, drills down on the neighborhood of Ezbekiyya, especially along Emad al-Din Street, where bars, restaurants, theaters, and other entertainment establishments flourished from roughly the turn of the 20th century to the 1950s. This is where Europeans—many of whom descended from 19th-century colonizers—mingled with the locals. During the 1919 revolution, “an example of unprecedented national unity,” women played prominent roles. While women artists and performers endured numerous unfair stereotypes, the author ably shows their significance to the cultural scene. Via a dozen or so minibiographies of these fascinating, talented women, many of whom rose from humble beginnings—as well as scores of contextualizing photos—Cormack makes the convincing case that “at its core, this was a group of women demanding to be heard as they asserted their wishes, claimed their rights, and made space for themselves.” Shining examples abound: Munira al-Mahdiya, thriving in the new genre called “taqtuqa” (a light, popular song), was “the first women in Egypt to lead a theatrical troupe.” Rose al-Youssef, “one of the most famous actresses in Egypt,” started a magazine that served as an important source of information on Cairo’s nightlife. Fatima Rushdi became known as the “Sarah Bernhardt of the East.” Oum Kalthoum “is the singer now remembered worldwide as the most popular icon in the history of Arabic music.” Cormack also examines Aziza Amir’s Layla (1927), which was considered “the first Egyptian film.”

A lively and original story of modern Egypt told through the lives of its first generation of women celebrities.

Kirkus Reviews