Memories of Ali Tantawi - eight parts

The first part of the “Memories” begins with Ali Tantawi’s early childhood; From his elementary school days, but rather from “Al-Kuttab” before it, and there is a mention of the First World War and a description of life in the Levant in those days. And we go through it with Ali al-Tantawi al-Saghir as he moves from school to school, and from era to era; From the Turkish era to the Arab to French colonialism, and we read about his days in “Maktab Amber” (which is the secondary school) and about his elders and teachers. Then we find that his father had passed away, and his affairs were troubled, so he turned to commerce for a short period of time, then returned to his studies.

And he tells us - in separate places in this part - about the origin of his family, his father, his grandfather, his mother, and his mother's family. At the end of this part, we read about the revolution against the French, and we read a lot of the poetry of this revolution. Then a new page of memories begins when the young Ali Tantawi, aged seventeen, publishes his first article in the newspapers, and thus begins the stage of working in the press, so we read about the newspapers he worked for and the journalists he worked with. Then we read about the issuance of the first collection of his books, which is “The Messages of Reform”.

In the second part, we complete the story of the early collections of Ali Al-Tantawi’s publications, which are the “Saif Al-Islam” letters that he issued after the reform letters, then we pass through pictures of the national resistance and the work of the Higher Committee for Syrian Students.

In this part, Ali al-Tantawi tells us in detail about some of his teachers and sheikhs who were influenced by and benefited from. As for the most influential chapters, it is the one in which he tells us about his mother and father, especially when he leads us, stirring our emotions to their goal, in the forty-seventh episode: “The day my mother died.”

Then we move with Ali Al-Tantawi from this atmosphere to the education that he started with early, so we read some of the details of his education biography and move with him from one school to another, from Salamiyah to Saqba in Ghouta and then to Rankos in the mountain. Finally, this part concludes with a talk about the “Literary Academy” in Damascus and the “Al-Risala” magazine in Egypt, which began to be published at that time.

At the beginning of the third part, we move with Ali Al-Tantawi, “the teacher” from Rankous, to the next stop in his teaching career, to Zakia. Then we soon set out with Ali Al-Tantawi, the “traveler” on one of the most amazing trips. The journey to Hijaz to discover the overland pilgrimage route.

However, the narration of the events of this journey is interrupted once to narrate the story of the Hejaz Railway, then it is interrupted again to narrate memories about Ramadan, and it is interrupted for a third time to narrate memories about strength and sports.

In this part we read about the speaker of Syria, Sheikh Badr al-Din al-Hasani, and about the al-Aminiya school in Damascus, then we finish it after we left Syria for Baghdad. Previous transfers in education were from village to village, and now it is a shift from country to country; From the Levant to Iraq! Thus, we find ourselves in Baghdad, where we face the “Tigris Revolution” and read about literature lessons in its schools.

The fourth part is full of decisive events and changes. We proceed with Tantawi's memories of Baghdad and Iraq; On the authority of Ramadan in Baghdad, then on the authority of Ewan Khosrau and the secret of his opinion, and we move with Ali Al-Tantawi from Baghdad to Basra, then we leave all of Iraq to Beirut to go there in the year 1937 in its legal college, but we soon return to Iraq to live for a while in the Western School in Baghdad before we move to Kirkuk. Finally, Ali al-Tantawi returns to Syria and is appointed as a teacher in Dur al-Zour, and he does not stay there except for a short period of time.

And we continue the rest of the part by reading the news of the new phase in the life of “Judge” Ali Al-Tantawi in Duma and then in the Damascus court. This part, as usual, is not devoid of digressions, such as recounting memories of World War II, devoting two episodes to doctors: one to attack them and the second to defend them, and finally a talk about literary life half a century ago, a conversation that breaks off with us here to complete in the next part.

We begin this fifth part by completing the discussion of literary life fifty years ago, a conversation that draws us into various literary memories. Then we suddenly move to Algerian memories, then to Palestinian memories. These memories take us to the issue of Palestine, so we find that we moved with Ali Tantawi to Jerusalem to attend the “Islamic Jerusalem Conference”, then we soon find ourselves in the middle of the journey without realizing it; We drive from Jerusalem to Baghdad, pass through Mosul and Erbil, and then make a long stop in Karachi. This long pause takes us - effortlessly - to listen to Ali Al-Tantawi telling us the interesting “story of Pakistan”, then he tells us the interesting talk about Dahli, the lost Islamic paradise.

Then we suddenly move from India and Sindh to find that we have arrived in Damascus on the day of the evacuation, and behold, a new series of topics generates one another: the evacuation reminds of colonialism and its methods, and this reminds of the corruption of education and morals in the French way, and this reminds of the battle of religion lessons in the schools of the Levant, and this took place to talk about calling for socialism and tampering with the curricula during the days of unity; We did not finish this part unless we entered the era of unity and read about Abdel Nasser, how Damascus received him and his minister, Kamal al-Din Hussein, how the scholars of the Levant met him, then we conclude it with the sermon that shook Damascus!

We start the sixth part from the center of the fray; From the sermon that shook Damascus, or that Ali al-Tantawi shook Damascus in more correct terms, and the hadeeth continues - in a number of subsequent episodes - to the story of unity and the story of separation, and a pause at the causes of separation, then the story of the slaughter of Ali al-Tantawi, which was promoted by the Nasserite newspapers in full detail.

After that, we return to the wire of memories and resume the journey east that we made in the last part, so we go to Indonesia and move between its islands and cities, and we stop again to hear a historical talk about the story of Indonesia; With Islam and with the Japanese, the Dutch and the British.

But this part also does not escape from digressions, so we live two episodes with the famous prayer for rain during the days of unity in the Levant, and we read about one of Ali Tantawi’s literary battles, and at the end of the part memories about education and schools, then two episodes about judges and lawyers. As for the most influential episode, it began with the lamentation of Shukri Faisal, then moved from him to his martyred daughter, Banan, and then he came up with one of the greatest pieces of lamentation in the history of modern literature.

We have reached the seventh part, and it begins with more memories and pictures of the judiciary, then moves quickly between different topics; From the Armament Week, to news about science and scholars in Damascus half a century ago, then to the Tijaniyya strife in the Levant, then to the Sharia College. After that, we read a scientific seminar on the classification of sciences and another on jurisprudence and personal status, and this topic leads us to the draft personal status law that Ali Al-Tantawi worked with, and we travel with him to Egypt on his trip there for him.

After small pauses and some digressions, we begin to read the details of the trip that Ali al-Tantawi made to Europe in the year 1970, so we travel with him to Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and we read about the Islamic call in these countries, and we live with him for days in detail in Aachen, Brussels, and other cities and regions of those European countries. . Finally, we return - after a long hiatus and digressions that took us to the ends of the earth - to the judiciary and enter with Ali Tantawi to the Court of Cassation.

We start the eighth part by bidding farewell to the Sharia court, and after we encounter fragments of memories, we return to the context, so we move with Ali Tantawi in his last and most important move, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; We spend a year with him first in Riyadh, then we move with him to Makkah Al-Mukarramah. And we go back a little bit on separate topics; Such as an interpretation of some verses, a talk about girls' education, and a pause with Abu al-Hasan al-Nadawi and his memoirs.

Then we end up with Ali al-Tantawi at the end of the book, and he says: “When I started writing these memories, I could not have reached twenty-four episodes, so God grant that they became two hundred and forty. In a strange pattern, it did not follow the well-known path nor did it follow the familiar method. It did not come in order with the years, nor was it divided into the division of events and events, and it was not always straight on the avenue, but rather it goes right and goes north; I start the hadeeth and do not finish it, and proceed to another so I do not complete it, and I do not know how the readers could bear all this from me? And I used to leave you every Thursday on the condition that I meet you on the next Thursday, but today’s separation is without a meeting.”