In the Al-Aqqad salon, we had days

In the salon of Al-Aqqad, we had days Author: Anis Mansour Dar Al-Shorouk 665 pages Brief about the book: "In the salon of Al-Aqqad, we had days" by writer Anis Mansour, is not a biography nor an analytical book, but a continuous description of the Al-Aqqad salon where a large number of Egyptian, Arab, and some foreign thinkers and creatives gathered weekly from time to time, and Anis was one of these. To the extent that he said: When I moved from Mansoura to Cairo, I enrolled in two universities at the same time, Cairo University and Al-Aqqad University, and through the salon, Anis depicts wonderful images of Al-Aqqad and those around him in his sessions. Images that take the reader back to those days when culture in all its manifestations reflected in meetings, dialogues, and stances, with all the pleasant or sarcastic exchanges, fleeting or lasting love stories, and analyses of social or political realities. It also presents the problems, torments, anxiety, fear, and opinions of his generation in facing the generation of giants like Taha Hussein, Al-Aqqad, Tewfik Al-Hakim, Salama Moussa, and many other icons of thought and culture in Egypt at that time. The author narrates that Al-Aqqad’s salon was held at his house every Friday morning and ended at two in the afternoon, and among its attendees were Abdulrahman Sadaqi, Salah Taher, Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, Taher Jablawi, and Ali Adham. In that, we find that all minds, tastes, consciences, and battles between principles and values gathered in Al-Aqqad’s salon. Anis says: "And the professor, when he sensed that discussions went far into history, war, or philosophy, would bring the answer down to the level of our small problems." That is why he had this paternal and professorial attitude that made us feel he was always great. One of the most controversial social issues for the visitors of Al-Aqqad’s salon was marriage and offspring. It is known that Al-Aqqad never married, and he had female relationships that did not go beyond literature, thought, and literary visits. Perhaps he was attracted to the great writer Mī’ Ziyāda, and they exchanged many letters, but he did not marry despite all that. Al-Aqqad had his own philosophy on this subject, where he says: "A woman does not love democracy; she loves dictatorship. She does not love the man who gives her freedom and throws the burden on her mind to think and choose. She prefers the one who chooses for her and forces her to do so." When a student asked Al-Aqqad about marriage, he replied: "Marriage is a mistake; marriage that produces children is another mistake, and raising and caring for the child is an atonement for this mistake. Marriage is prison, and raising children is hard labor." Al-Aqqad hated existential philosophy and despised it, while Anis Mansour adopted it and fought for it. Al-Aqqad saw that existential philosophy was sick or a symptom of illness because it exaggerated the concepts of freedom, anxiety, and death in humans, and gave humans more weight than they deserve, and robbed the universe of its rightful weight. Young adherents of this philosophy concealed their feelings towards it and did not want to be influenced by Al-Aqqad’s opinion, secretly nurturing what they felt, caught between the fire of loving their teacher and the fire of their passionate convictions. In this regard, Anis says: "Al-Aqqad also shocked me, for he adhered to a philosophy different from mine. I have a heart, and he has a mind. I am dazzled, and he enlightens. I sing, and he preaches. I don’t know how Al-Aqqad shocked me in what I cherish most (my passionate love for philosophers). He has a great mind, and I have a small heart. I used to hold a candle in my hand, while he holds stars and suns." A book overflowing with knowledge, philosophy, humor, and oddities, from the first page to the last, which ends with Al-Aqqad’s death.