Mohammed Abd al-Wahhab

Mohammed Abd-al-Wahab ( March 13, 1907 , Cairo - May 3, 1991 ) - Egyptian singer, composer and actor, performer on the folk instrument oud , known as the author of the national anthems of several Arab states.

Mohammed Abd al-Wahhab
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Born and in the period of youth he lived in a suburb of Cairo in a large family. At the end of the 1910s, he studied the game of oud in the school of oriental music under the direction of Mohammed al-Qasabji, from 1921 he gave concerts in the country. In 1924, after performances in one of the clubs of Alexandria, he was noticed by the poet Ahmed Shauki, who offered the young man to become his student. In 1934, al-Wahab married and together with his wife released his film “The White Rose”, but in 1943 the marriage broke up. A year later, he entered into a second marriage with Iqbal, in which he had five children, but this marriage also ended in divorce in 1957. He had no children with his third wife Nakhla al-Qudsi, but he lived with her until his death. He died of heart failure in his home.

He wrote the music for the first Egyptian silent films, the hymns of the Kingdom of Libya (existed in 1951–1969) and the United Arab Emirates, versions of the national anthem for Tunisia (approved in 1987) and Egypt, as well as a number of songs, including songs written for the singer Umm Kulthum . His songs, written in Arabic traditions, use the rhythms of Western music, in particular, waltz and rock-and-roll, and are sometimes called the first Arabic composer, who used Western musical traditions to write musical works in Arabic. Mohammed Abd-al-Wahab also played roles in a number of Egyptian films.

At the birthplace of the composer, in the suburb of Cairo on Bab El-Sharia Square, he was erected a monument. He had several awards and became the first Egyptian musician to receive a state funeral.