Aḥmad Shawqī

Biography

Ahmad Shawqi was a Cairo poet and playwright. Al-Himsi describes his studies with Husayn al-Marsafi and his training in law and French.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s reading list describes study in France in 1887 and Spanish exile. Accounts differ on return and exile years; repeated dates do not settle those disagreements.

His work includes al-Shawqiyyat, verse plays such as Cleopatra’s Death and Majnun Layla, and the prose play Amirat al-Andalus.

Sahhab credits Shawqi’s Nahj al-Burda and Wulida al-Huda to Umm Kulthum’s singing and Riyad al-Sunbati’s music. He also describes Shawqi’s literary influence on Abd al-Wahhab.

Al-Sharif credits Shawqi with the colloquial monologue Bulbul Hayran, sung by Abd al-Wahhab, and dates it to 1930.

Fadil’s review describes four Majnun Layla passages sung and composed by Abd al-Wahhab, rather than the complete play.

Sources disagree on birth dates and death days.