ʻAbbās Maḥmūd al-ʻAqqād (1889-1964): self-portrait of his childhood and youth

Abstract

This paper analyzes the childhood and adolescence (1892-1907) of the renowned Egyptian polymath and great renovator of contemporary Arab poetry ‘Abbās Maḥmūd al-‘Aqqād. The documentary sources used include the first volume of his posthumous autobiography, Anā (1964), the biographies about him published by the literary critics ‘Abd al-Fatāḥ al-Dīdī, Jābir Qumayḥa, Shawqī Ḍayf and Ḥamdī al-Sakkūt, the memoirs of his close friend Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Jabalāwī and those of Fāṭima al-Yūsuf and, finally, the information provided by Ṭāhir al-Ṭanāḥī, the editor of al-‘Aqqād´s autobiography. This study seeks to delimit the possible causes of his intransigent character by applying the study method that al-‘Aqqād used in the composition of the biographies he wrote about history's great figures. This method, called Falsafa al-sujṭ (philosophy of discontent,) consists of attempting to demonstrate that every man who shows exceptional abilities and great talent is in fact compensating for a physical weakness. The paper concludes that in the case of al-‘Aqqād the premise of the compensation of physical weakness with the endowment of exceptional abilities and talent can be confirmed.