Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt

by Hanan Hammad

A biography of the "Cinderella" of Egyptian cinema—the veneration and rumors that surrounded an unparalleled career, and the gendered questions that unsettled Egyptian society. Layla Murad (1918-1995) was once the highest-paid star in Egypt, and her movies were among the top-grossing in the box office. She starred in 28 films, nearly all now classics in Arab musical cinema. In 1955 she was forced to stop acting—and struggled for decades for a comeback. Today, even decades after her death, public interest in her life continues, and new generations of Egyptians still love her work. Unknown Past recounts Murad's extraordinary life—and the rapid political and sociocultural changes she witnessed. Hanan Hammad writes a story centered on Layla Murad's persona and legacy, and broadly framed around a gendered history of twentieth-century Egypt. Murad was a Jew who converted to Islam in the shadow of the first Arab-Israeli war. Her career blossomed under the Egyptian monarchy and later gave a singing voice to the Free Officers and the 1952 Revolution. The definitive end of her cinematic career came under Nasser on the eve of the 1956 Suez War. Egyptians have long told their national story through interpretations of Murad's life, intertwining the individual and Egyptian state and society to better understand Egyptian identity. As Unknown Past recounts, there's no life better than Murad's to reflect the tumultuous changes experienced over the dramatic decades of the mid-twentieth century.

Genres: Middle East, Egypt, Biography

328 pages, Hardcover

Published May 10, 2022

About the author

Hanan Hammad was a Visiting Fellow at the Woolf
Institute from May to July 2015. Hanan is an assistant
professor of history of the Middle East at Texas Christian
University.
Her primary research focuses on the socio-economic and cultural development of the
modern Middle East with special emphasis on gender, sexuality and popular culture
in modern Egypt. She is currently writing a book on the late Egyptian starlet Layla
Murad (1918-1995).
Murad, who has been one of the most remembered celebrities in 20th century Arab
musical cinema, was born Jewish and announced her conversion to Islam in 1948.
She prematurely retired in the mid-1950s, against the backdrop of the Arab-Israeli
conflict and the consolidation of power of the Nasser regime shortly thereafter.
Dr Hammad co-organised the Minorities and Popular Culture in Modern Middle East
workshop (12-13 June 2015) with Dr Shana Cohen. The Workshop was-hosted by the
Woolf Institute in conjunction with the Centre for Cultural Literary and Postcolonial
Studies, SOAS, University of London.

Reviews

[Mohamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A balanced assessment of the life of one of the most beloved Egyptian singers. Somehow, she became a symbol of an era and therefore her life, strengths, and weaknesses were taken over by various political groups within Egypt in their attempts to interpret Egyptian history according to their vision while disregarding the actual history of the country.

The author had good insights into many issues especially gender and the condition of minorities within Egypt.