This week marks the arbaeen, the passage of 40 days since the death, of Anwar Abdel-Malek (1924 – 2012). Fady Labib writes a loving memorial of the man who was an intellectual, leftist and philosopher, but above all a patriot.
The intellectual and writer Anwar Abdel-Malek, a distinguished figure in the struggle for national freedom, and a prominent member of the Egyptian leftist and intellectual movements, passed away last month at the age of 88.
Anwar Abdel-Malek was born in Cairo on 23 October 1924 into a family that championed both culture and the national struggle. His father was leader of the ‘Black Hand Organisation’, the secret wing of the nationalist Wafd Party during the 1919 Revolution to gain independence from the British. Anwar’s father tutored his son in history, geography, linguistics and other subjects, and as a student he was distinguished by his early maturity.
Remarkable Marxist
Anwar Abdel-Malek studied philosophy at Ain Shams University in Cairo, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1954. After an introduction to the Egyptian Marxist Shuhdy al-Shafie (who was assassinated in the 1960s during the time when Gamal Abdel-Nasser was president of Egypt) he joined a communist organisation, but was arrested and imprisoned for a year. On his release he fled to France where he studied philosophy and sociology, earning a doctorate in sociology from the Sorbonne University.
When the Arabic version of his thesis Nahdet Misr (Egypt’s Renaissance) was published, it was praised by President Nasser. Right after the Suez War during which Egypt was attacked by France, England and Israel in 1956, Dr Abdel-Malek asked to return to Egypt, but Nasser advised him to remain in France.
Dr Abdel-Malek spent a large part of his life as a leftist and played a vital role in that regard. As such he was detained with other prominent Egyptian leftists, many of whom played a vital role on the Egyptian intellectual field. Among them were Salama Moussa, Mohamed Mandour, Edward al-Kharrat, Mohamed Zaki Abdel-Qader and others. He also struggled to ‘Egyptianise’ the communist leftist movement and separate it from any Zionist elements.
University career
For a time Dr Abdel-Malek worked for the Egyptian National Research Centre, and was also a visiting lecturer at several Arab and foreign universities as well as a member of Arab and international scientific organisations.
Dr Abdel-Malek was a professor of sociology and political science at the Faculty of International Relations at Rizzo University in Japan, and worked as a consultant for Asian Affairs at the National Centre for Middle East Studies in Cairo. He was also honorary head of research at the National Centre for Research in Paris, as well as a member of the International Union for Sociology of which he served as deputy head from 1970 to 1978. From 1976 to 1986 he was head of the UN University project.
Dr Abdel-Malek received the Franco-Arab Friendship Award in 1970, the Gold Medal of the Nasser Military Academy in 1976, and in 1996 the State Incentive Award in Social Sciences, the highest Egyptian award at the time.
His works
Dr Abdel-Malek published several works, some in Arabic and some in French, and these have been translated into various languages. Those close to Dr Abdel-Malek regarded him as a courageous nationalist who bore every noble Egyptian characteristic. Many regard his book Misr Mugtamaa Askari (Egypt is a Military Society), published in French in 1962, as one of the most important academic references on political and social life in Egypt available in French universities at that time. An article entitled Al-Istishraq Fi Azma (Orientalism in Crisis) published in Paris in 1963 was a unique denunciation of Orientalism at that time. In his work, he explored the questions of Orientalism, well before the seminal Orientalism by the great Palestinian intellectual Edward Said was published in the late 1970s.
In an article published in the daily State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram in 2009, Rifaat al-Said wrote: “Anwar Abdel-Malek studied Egypt’s history, contemplated its present and dreamt of its future. He described to us our situation and warned of the dangers of persisting as we are”.
Egyptian to the core
The vice-president of the Committee for Dialogue between Cultures and Religion, Ali al-Samman said of Dr Abdel-Malek: “I first met him in France in the 1950s, where he had fled in the wake of the conflict between him and Nasser. He had written a book on President Nasser and Egypt under his regime, which I had read before I met him. After reading the book I realised that, despite the disagreement between him and Nasser, he was very objective and decent when he criticised Nasser and his regime. Then I met him and discovered that he was a patriotic Egyptian to the core.
“It was a great pleasure for me to see Dr Abdel-Malek as an intellectual, professor and teacher to the French people. Later on, when I met the French defence minister at the time of President François Mitterrand, he spoke of Dr Abdel-Malek as a grateful student speaking of his teacher.
“Anwar Abdel-Malek was generous and sociable; he cared about keeping in touch with his friends and he would frequently pick up the phone to enquire about their news and health.
“He possessed the ability to respect the other, even if he disagreed with him.
“On the personal level, he was an affectionate family member and son, and spoke especially proudly of his mother whom he held in high respect.”
WATANI International
5 August 2012
