Remembering Ihsan Abdel Quddous on his Centennial birthday

CAIRO - 2 January 2019: On the Centennial birthday of veteran late writer Ihsan Abdel Quddous, YOUM7 visited his house, which is now a museum that contains items that are a hundred years old.

During his life, Abdel Quddousenriched the Egyptian literature and cinema with everlasting works.

At the museum's entrance on the right side, stands a statue that was dedicated to Abdel Quddous’ late father Mohamed Abdel Quddous by Lebanese artist George Abyad.

Directly above the statue,a group of magnificent paintings and portrays of Abdel Quddous are located. On the left side of the entrance,there is a living room with a beautiful red carpet hung on the wall.

In the salon, items dating back to 1919 are exhibited. Rare family portrays of Rose al-Youssef with her son, Abdel Quddous, in addition to numerous other family portrays of the late writer and his siblings.

On the far side of the entrance, lays a number of medals,appreciation certificates and awards granted to the veteran writer by former Egyptian presidents.

The family’s reading glasses and personal items are also show cased in a glass display.

Ihsan Abdel Quddous was an Egyptian writer, novelist, and journalist and editor in Egypt's Al-Akhbar (The news) and Al-Ahram newspapers. He is known to have written many novels that have been adapted in films.

Abdel Quddous was born in Cairo, Egypt, to an Egyptian father, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, and Egyptian-Turkish actress Rose al-Youssef. His favorite hobby as a child was reading. At the age of 11, he started writing short stories and classical poems.

His father, Mohamed Abdel Quddous, an Egyptian theatre and film actor, motivated him to pursue a career in law. Ihsan graduated from law school in 1942 and worked as a lawyer. He was, at the beginning of his career, a trainee for the law firm of Edward Qussairi, a famous Egyptian lawyer. He was also an editor in Rose al Youssef, a weekly magazine that his mother Fatima al Youssef (aka Rose al-Youssef) had founded.

In 1944, he started writing film scripts, short stories, and novels. He later left his law career to focus on his literary career. A few years later, he became a distinguished journalist in Al-Akhbar newspaper, where he worked for eight years. He then worked in Al-Ahram newspaper and became its editor-in-chief. He often criticized important personalities, which got him imprisoned three times throughout his journalism career.



Abdel Quddous regarded women as symbols of sacrifice in the Egyptian society which was why women were the central theme of his literary works. His works influentially contributed to bring change in the conventional concepts in Egypt.



On the contrary to his literary works, he was a very conservative person. He was known to have a resisting personality and had been a strict husband and father in his house. He wrote more than 60 novels and collections of short stories.

Of his novels, five were dramatized, nine were used as radio series scripts, ten had television miniseries adaptations, and 49 had film adaptations. His works have been translated to several foreign languages including English, French, German, Ukrainian, and Chinese.

Abdel Quddous also co-founded the Egyptian Story Club.