Young Men’s Muslim Association : The Beginning

This is what I do when I want to take a break from writing my dissertation : composing photo albums. A part of being relaxing and fun, it’s a very instructive activity, since there’s no a better way to learn history than through real persons with real faces. Here I made a selection of several fine men who were at the origin of Young Men’s Muslim Association in 1927 which started with nine old veterans and twelve young students, as accounted by Muhammad Mahmoud al Shaker. I was intrigued to see what type of education they received and what type of a look they assumed while going to the photo studio to snatch their photo. The results were rather surprising. Though the YMMA were frequently siding itself with al Azhar – namely in times of crisis between al Azhar and Taha Hussein – only two of them were dressed as sheikhs, while others had a proper effendi look, wearing a suit, cravate and tarbush. Only one of them, the famous Mustafa Kamel’s companion Abd al Aziz Gawish opted for a mixed solution, an original costume composed of a suit and a turban. As one of my friends suggested me, maybe Abd al Aziz Gawish was suffering from a tremendous headache that day.

These photos also allow to trace back educational choices of the 20’s intellectuals; the sheikhs in their ranks are progressively being replaced by the graduates in letters and teaching. A great number of them were men of letters and poets. A fact worth of exploring, since nowadays there are mostly scientific faculties that fill up the ranks of religiously oriented associations in Egypt.

Old Fathers