With the tenth anniversary of Mahmoud Darwish's death, Al Ahram Al Arabi celebrates the Palestinian poet by publishing a collection of rare documents and photographs, including his papers in the Al-Ahram newspaper.
The documents and pictures that will be published for the first time in the file number of the magazine issued on Friday, entitled "Mahmoud Darwish .. I am the son of the Nile and this name is enough" and taken from a poem written by the poet about Egypt.
Darwish died on August 9, 2008 at a US hospital at the age of 67 after heart surgery.
"The file includes documents that will be published for the first time on the days of Darwish in Egypt, where he lived from February 1971 until 1973 when he left for Beirut," said journalist and poet Sayed Mahmoud, who prepared the file and made it available to Reuters before the magazine was published.
"Among these documents was the decision to appoint Mahmud Darwish in the Al-Ahram newspaper in October 1971 under the guidance of Mr. Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, who appointed him at a salary of 140 pounds a month."
"The file also includes documents on papers and financial settlements that accompanied Darwish's transition from work as an adviser to Sawt Al-Arab Radio after he was appointed by Information Minister Mohammed Fayek until his appointment at Al-Ahram Center for Studies and then the literary section and the pioneer magazine with writer Lutfi Al-Khouli."
The file contains documentation of some of the poems and articles published by Darwish in Egypt and never collected in any of his prose, and was published in the magazine Al-Mussawar Ayam was headed by Ahmed Baha Eddin.
In addition to the rare documents and poems and the follow-up of his days in Cairo, the file includes an investigation conducted by the companions of the late poet, including the Palestinian politician Marwan Kanafani and his citizen journalist Nabil Darwish former director of Radio Monte Carlo in Cairo and writer Mona Anis editor-general of Dar Al-Shorouk.
Mahmoud, who has previously held three dialogues with the late poet, said he collected his material over years from more than one archive in Cairo and Beirut, the most important being the archive of Dar al-Hilal and the archives of the Al-Ahram employees department.