Munira al-Mahdiyya - منيره المهديه

Munira al-Mahdiyya

(1885 – March 11, 1965) was known by the title (The Sultana, the Sultana of Music), a famous Egyptian singer and actress, and the first woman to perform on stage in Egypt.
Biography
Zakia Hassan Mansour was born in 1885 in the village of al-Mahdiyya in the Sharqia Governorate of Egypt. Her father died when she was young, and her sister took care of her. Munira al-Mahdiyya began her artistic career as a singer performing at parties and events in the city of Zagazig. One day, she was seen by the owner of a small café in Cairo, who was impressed by the beauty of her voice and managed to convince her to travel to Cairo. This was in 1905. In Cairo, her fame spread, and she was nicknamed the Sultana of Music. She quickly opened her own nightclub, which she called “Nuzhat al-Nufus,” which became a meeting place for intellectuals, politicians, and journalists, thanks to her strong and charismatic personality. In the summer of 1915, Munira al-Mahdiyya performed on stage with the Aziz Eid troupe, playing the role of “Hassan” in a play by Sheikh Salama Hijazi, thus becoming the first Egyptian woman to perform on stage. This increased the popularity of the plays, and the Aziz Eid troupe began to compete with Salama Hijazi’s troupe. She sang for more than thirty years, and Munira participated in the women’s liberation movement, and also led a national movement through her theater and authentic singing art. She established a café in the Azbakeya district called “Nuzhat al-Nufus,” where prominent politicians and writers from Egypt, the Levant, and Sudan would gather, as well as in her home. When the Sultana asked for a prisoner to be released or a condemned man to be pardoned, her requests were granted. The press dubbed Munira al-Mahdiyya’s theater “The Theater of Freedom.” “Lower the curtain that brings us joy… lest our neighbors hurt us,” “After dinner… joking and merriment are sweet,” “My father forbade me from going to the cinema,” and “Dark-skinned, the king of my soul” are some of the songs of the “Sultana of Song,” Munira al-Mahdiyya, considered one of the pioneers of musical theater in Egypt in the 1920s, before the rise of Umm Kulthum. Munira al-Mahdiyya would have “The Leading Actress” printed on her posters, even though she sometimes played male roles. She later separated from Aziz Eid’s troupe and formed her own, performing the most famous works of Sheikh Salama Hijazi. She also worked with the most renowned poets and composers of her generation and is credited with discovering the composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab. Munira al-Mahdiyya starred in the film “Al-Ghandoura” in 1935, her only film, directed by the Italian director Volpi. In 1948, she decided to return to the stage after a twenty-year hiatus from the arts, but she did not receive the reception she had hoped for. This period witnessed a fierce rivalry between her and Umm Kulthum, the rising star who imposed new conditions on the artistic scene that Munira al-Mahdiyya could not keep up with. Consequently, she retired from the arts and dedicated herself to her hobby of raising pets.
Her Death
She died on March 11, 1965, at the age of eighty, after a rich artistic life that spanned more than thirty years. She had led a national movement through her theater and her singing. Some of her most famous works include:
Asmar, My Soul’s King. Sweet Dove. Lower the Curtain. And on these, oh how much on these! After dinner, joking and merriment become sweeter. To whom shall I complain of love? I fell in love. I adored. May God’s peace be upon him.
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