Yacoub Sanoua Books

Yacoub Sanoua: A prominent Egyptian writer and literary critic. He is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the modern Egyptian theater and satirical press. That was in the second half of the nineteenth century AD. He was known as "Abu Nazara", and Khedive Ismail called him "Moliere of Egypt". Yacoub bin Rafael Sanoua was born in Cairo in 1839 AD. He received his primary education in Cairo, and was able to master many languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, French and Italian. He was sent on a study mission to Italy at the expense of the Egyptian government, and there he studied arts, literature, political economy, and international law during three years from 1853 to 1855, and he was given the opportunity to gain a special knowledge of culture; Where he was acquainted with the works of the most important playwrights, especially "Molière", "Goldoni" and "Sheridan". In the year 1870 AD, he established a theater group to present his plays in Cairo, and his plays were performed at the Azbakeya Hall theatre. He continued to show his plays for two years until he presented a play entitled "Homeland and Freedom", in which he ridiculed the corruption of the palace and the ruling regime. The Khedive became angry with him and ordered the closure of his theater and his exile to France. In addition to his theatrical works, “Yacoub Sanoua” published many satirical political newspapers, the most important of which is “Abu Nazara Zarqa” in 1866 AD, in which he criticized the rule of Khedive Ismail, and when he was exiled to France, he continued to publish our newspaper, or he published it in the name of Egyptian National. He also published "Abu Zamara", "The Islamic World", and "Al-Thartharah Al-Masrya", and established two scholarly literary societies, the first of which he named "Mahfl Al-Taqdum", and the other "Mahfl Mohebi". He wrote many comic and love novels, in addition to his social-critical plays, which were written in a comic style, including: “Abu Rida and Ka’ab Al-Khair”, “The Alexandrian Princess”, “Al-Sadaq” and “Al-Sadaq” , and "Al-Durratin", "Moliere of Egypt and what it suffers", "Women's School", "Scrooge", and many others. He died in Paris in 1912.