“I found in the Albanian man humanism, the warm human ties, the honesty of people, values which have been the characteristics of Mohamed Ali. I knew what he had done, his history, how he came to Egypt and his good deeds in my country. I also know his thoughts and vision but I did not know the man, the man inside him. Now I know him, the true Mohamed Ali,” said the Egyptian writer, Mohamed Salmawy without hiding his great pleasure for the ‘mission accomplished’ in his discovery endeavor
By Genc Mlloja
Senior Diplomatic Editor
“After my visit to Albania, I feel that I have already met Mohamed Ali understanding his spirit and human character as well as his inner world something which I could not obtain from a large number of books and other works written on him. This was the goal of my trip and I can confess that I have got acquainted with him through Albania, his country of origin, and particularly during the visit to his birthplace which is the village of Zemblak located in the region of Korca, southeastern part of the country,” the prominent Egyptian writer, Mohamed Salmawy said in the end of his 5-day visit to this Balkan country.
Mr. Mohamed Salmawy, a leading writer, a publicist, a lecturer, a fighter for democracy having been among millions of Egyptians converged on Tahrir Square in many demonstrations, made the best use of his stay in Albania to visit as many places as possible. Its highlight was Zemblak village, Mohamed Ali’s birthplace. He also met and talked with people of all walks of life among whom intellectuals, politicians, diplomats, students, ordinary citizens having just one ambitious target: to discover the human side of Mohamed Ali.
Mr. Salmawy’s writings are widely read in the Arab World and beyond. He was a long time President of the Writers Union of Egypt, Secretary General of both the Arab Writers Union and the African Asian Writers Union. He is the author of more than 30 books ranging from creative writing to political and cultural topics and he is a syndicated columnist in a number of leading newspapers and his literary works have been widely translated. His outstanding novel, “Butterfly Wings”, in which he predicted the 25 January 2011 revolution in Egypt, was translated into Italian, English, French, Romanian and Urdu, while his autobiography, “A Day, or Just About” has been celebrated as one of the best in recent years.
Albanian Daily News had an exclusive interview with Mr. Salmawy on the eve of his visit in which he expressed his enthusiasm on it as his intention was to write the script for a feature film of an international scope on the life of Mohamed Ali, the great Albanian. But at the end of his visit (15-20 September, 2019) he unveiled in Tirana that his plan had changed. “I will write a novel because I am fascinated by the figure of Mohamed Ali, while the script for the movie will be penned by Albanian movie director Ilir Harxhi,” he revealed.
The Arab Balkans Friendship Association (ABFA) is the main producer of the project on the international movie about Mohamed Ali’s life, and as the Chairman and Founder of ABFA, Salah Abou El Magd have a 15-year long friendship with Mr. Salmawy he could convince him to undertake the initiative to write the story. This happened during a visit of ABFA delegation to Egypt last February and afterwards ABFA invited Mr. Salmawy to pay a visit to Albania to write the Albanian culture part of the story.
Mohamed Ali (1769–1849) was a commander in the Ottoman army that was sent to drive Napoleon’s forces out of Egypt, but upon the French withdrawal, seized power himself and forced the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II to recognize him as Wali, or Governor of Egypt in 1805. He traced his ancestry back to Ibrahim Aga, from Korca, Albania, who had moved to Kavala. Demonstrating his grander ambitions, he took the title of Khedive; however, this was not sanctioned by the Sublime Porte. Mohamed Ali transformed Egypt into a regional power which he saw as the natural successor to the decaying Ottoman Empire. He constructed a military state with around four percent of the populace serving the army to raise Egypt to a powerful positioning in the Ottoman Empire. The history of Egypt under the Mohamed Ali dynasty lasted from 1805 to 1953.
‘I met Mohamed Ali in Zemblak’
At the end of the tour in southeast Albania Mr. Salmawy told Albanian Daily News that the visit had helped him ‘meet’ Mohamed Ali. “I have got no new information on him at all as I have plenty of it in Egypt, but I wanted to know the ‘man’. I met in Zemblak people who had never left their village and Ali’s family has been one of them. So I could see Mohamed Ali in each person that I met there,” the Egyptian writer said. “I found in Zemblak what I could not in Cairo- the Albanian spirit of Mohamed Ali who turned Egypt into a strong modern state with an army, an efficient government apparatus, and a new educational system. In the process he was Egyptianised, and so were his children who all spoke Arabic fluently and did not consider themselves Ottoman but Egyptian.”
Salmawy’s original way of discovering the paths through which that great man had passed was by meeting Albanians of all walks of life, talking with them, particularly with the inhabitants of Zemblak, the place of origin of Mohamed Ali’s family. “I found in the Albanian man humanism, the warm human ties, the honesty of people, values which have been the characteristics of Mohamed Ali. I knew what he had done, his history, how he came to Egypt and his good deeds in my country. I also know his thoughts and vision but I did not know the man, the man inside him. Now I know him, the true Mohamed Ali,” said the writer without hiding his great pleasure for the ‘mission accomplished’.
Mr. Salmawy confessed that now he sees differently the letters that Mohamed Ali, the ruler, wrote to his sons who were military leaders in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. He advised his sons in his letters to be kind with the people of the occupied countries and to not humiliate them. Instead, according to his advice, they should respect their culture and traditions. “Now that I have met his compatriots in Zemblak, where I have learned about their character, I realize that Mohamed Ali has been just like them.”
There was one film produced long time ago in which Mohamed Ali appears but, according to Mr. Salmawy, that movie was not done very much on the leader. Moreover he is shown against an untrue historical backdrop. “It was West’s way of seeing things in the Arab world. When I saw that film I was very young and my friends and I were all laughing when watching it. It was very nice because it was in color and there were many women and harems. But we were laughing all the time because it was not true. So in a sense the project I am involved will produce the first true historical film about Mohamed Ali and also about the relations between the two countries because for two hundred years our royal family was Albanian, they were the descendants of Mohamed Ali from 1805 until 1952.”
Mr. Salmawy also noted that the first and the last King of Albania, Zog came to Egypt when he left Albania in 1939. King Farouk felt that it was his duty to host him because he was Albanian. The former late King Zog stayed for about 10 years in Egypt.
Lecture turns into friendly talk in Tirana
In a lecture at the European University of Tirana on September 17, which turned into a vivid exchange of views with the audience among whom professors, students, diplomats, and journalists, Mr. Salmawy touched upon many issues besides his plan on the novel on Mohamed Ali. He elaborated among others on his literature career, his experience when he received the Nobel Prize on behalf of the writer, Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian-Albanian ties, the situation in Egypt, the developments in the Middle East.
“The project on the movie is also a way to explore and know in a more detailed way the strong relations between Egypt and Albania which date back to old times in history,” he told the participants in the event.
It was colorful the description of what he experienced and felt at the ceremony of receiving the Nobel Prize on behalf of the outstanding writer, Mahfouz 31 years ago. “It was a great event for the Arab literature in general, as well as a feast for the entire Arab world. I think that Mahfouz was aware of this because when he trusted in me to read his speech, which I had translated into English, he told me that I should first read it in Arabic. He wanted the people present in the ceremony to listen to the Arab language, to hear its music,” Mr. Salmawy said. “I did so. At first I read it in Arabic and then in English. To my surprise after the conclusion of the ceremony many people of the audience came to thank me for what I had done because it was their first time for them to listen to such a thing. It was an important event for me, but the more so for the Arab literature and Egypt at that time.” Mr. Salmawy had the opportunity to meet the Swedish King on that occasion.
‘Albania’s Kadare deserves Nobel Prize’
“Does Albanian writer Ismail Kadare deserve the Nobel Prize?” was the question put by the audience to the Egyptian writer whose answer was as following: “Ismail Kadare deserves, undoubtedly, the Nobel Prize for literature. The writers who merit this prize are many but those who do not receive it are also many, more than those who get it,” he noted quoting Alfred Nobel who said in his will that the prize should go to a writer who has had a wide influence and has upheld the principles of peace and justice in his works.
“It is difficult to be a writer if you do not upheld these ideals and that is why the prize is granted to true writers, and Ismail Kadare is, for sure, a man who has influenced not only on Albanian readers but on readers throughout the world. His works are also translated into Arabic, and we know him very well. But as I have said in an interview with Albanian Daily News we know each other through the western ‘eye’, through the western media. Maybe if Ismail Kadare had not been known in Europe, we in the Arab world would have not known him. This is most unfortunate situation as I think that we have many things in common and I believe that an effort ought to be made by both sides to know one another directly rather than through a third party which might see either of us in a different way from the one that we see in each other.”
Answering a question on the road towards democracy Mr. Salmawy thought that the first task of countries like Egypt, Albania and others is for them to build their countries, to be able to make up for the years that they have lost. “We have lost dozens of years without making progress in Egypt. We need to make progress and a lot of reforms. We also need to reform our economic situation, the education system, the health care system. Then you can talk to me about democracy. But you cannot have democracy overnight. Democracy is not a decision; it is a result of so many things. You have to go through all that process in order to reach democracy. So you have to prepare the country for democracy. When 30 percent of the people are illiterate, how we can talk about democracy. First you have to educate these people. And on the other hand you have to care about their health, the health of their children.”
Mr. Salmawy thought that countries like Egypt and Albania were on the right track but when they are judged it should be done in totality, not only in one aspect.
In the meantime he was of the opinion that the whole world is going through fundamentalism, rightist feelings and politics and there is fanaticism of all kinds. On the other hand, according to him, there are extremists in all religions: Islam, Christianity, Judaism etc. “Even in politics such a phenomenon is present. But I think it will pass.”
‘Arab Spring’, Egypt, Israel…
The Egyptian writer dwelt on the so called Arab Spring and its impact noting that the situation continues to be unstable in many countries of the Arab World. But, according to him, the situation in Egypt is stable. “Although Egypt was the first to undergo the revolution, it is the country which has suffered the least from its consequences. I think that if Egypt maintains its stability for some few years, this would be perhaps the beginning of stability in the Middle East,” he told the audience.
When asked about the relations between Egypt and Israel and if they are the pillars of stability in the region, Mr. Salmawy said that stability would come when Israel realizes the rights of the Palestinian people and fulfills what the whole world has accepted and that is the two states solution of having Israeli and Palestinian states because both people have the same rights. According to him, the EU still believes in the two states solution and unless the rights of the Palestinian people are fulfilled and territories which have been occupied illegally by Israel are returned to the Palestinians, there will always be a problem in the Middle East.
With regard to the Egyptian – Israeli relations he was of the opinion that they have improved on the official level because there is a treaty between the two countries. “The constant complain of all Israeli ambassadors in Egypt is that people do not mix with them, they do not accept them. The people feel that they are aggressors. So, on the level of public opinion the relations have not improved and cannot be improved unless the policy of Israel is changed.”
In a comment on Islamic democracy he thought that was nonsense. “You cannot have a religious democracy because religion does not accept compromise,” he said. Mr. Salmawy expressed his opinion on the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke of the demonstrations against them in which he took part. “You cannot speak to the Egyptian people about Islamic democracy, but the people are still religious.”
When asked about the situation in Syria he said that Al Assad is not a man of peace but a man that wants to keep the country together. “Like all politicians, he is bloody, but in my view he is trying to keep the country in one piece,” he said, adding that the situation is very complicated with Islamists posing a real threat. “Because it is a very complicated situation it is not resolved although much is invested there in money, weaponry, military presence – American, Western, Russian, Turkish and even Iranian,” he said.
‘You become a friend with any Albanian you talk’
There was a question on the opinion of Mr. Salmawy with regard to latest developments in Albania, especially in the field of judiciary and its ongoing reform. His answer was: “I think all countries that have been under autocratic rule whether communist or otherwise cannot reach democracy overnight. It takes time and many years. And the first reaction against autocratic rule is total corruption. But, I think, such a situation changes with the passing of time. It is a very long process and the Constitution should reflect the will of the people. Anyway you cannot change the political system by writing letters, which is still important as it creates awareness among the public opinion. Public opinion has to react whether through voting when the elections time comes or parliament. Although I cannot give a recipe I can say that it takes all kinds of means. I should admit that I do not know the situation in Albania so well to answer properly this question.”
In his closing remarks Mr. Salmawy praised highly the strong traditional links between Egypt and Albania and their people. “This is why I am here, and I am leaving with the feeling that you become a friend with any Albanian you talk.” /ADN
