Ahwal Al-Ma''rifa – Special 

The relationship between written creativity and music is an eternal relationship, starting with singing, and poetic words sung whether at the collective, chorus, and folk chant level or at the individual level, as we find in various ancient human civilizations. Music always permeates writing just like the poetic state, for there is the music of language, the music of words, and the music of poetry. Every poem carries music within it, and this is a prominent feature in every poetry in the world.

Music also has a major presence in various artistic activities from dance to theatre to cinema to drama series.

Hence, the presence of music took on a broad human character. When present among creators, it appears with its symbolism in writing, and its rhythms in various arts of writing. It also accompanies literary evenings and seminars in recent decades clearly.

For this importance and presence, some writers and authors wished to master dealing with music and practicing it. Indeed, some of them mastered playing a musical instrument as a type of identification between their writing orientation and their musical hobby.

Naguib Mahfouz and the Qanun:

The great novelist Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2004) was adept at playing the (Qanun) with skill. In an interview conducted with him by the critic Fouad Dawara, published in his book: "Ten Writers Speak," Naguib Mahfouz explains his attachment to music, saying:

"I decided to take advantage of my free time while I was a student to study music practically, so I joined the Institute of Arab Music, chose the (Qanun) instrument, and attended lessons regularly. I learned the sheet music and memorized several bashrafs including the "Sama''i Darej". Naguib Mahfouz added:

"I remember that the late Muhammad al-Aqqad used to praise my musical aptitude and predict a great future for me. But after about a year of study, I discovered that I had not achieved anything of what I had imagined and that there is absolutely no connection between learning to play the Qanun and philosophy."

He continued: "But I continued playing sometimes as a type of enjoyment, reading music, and playing with great interest."

Writers with the Piano:

The Lebanese writer May Ziadeh (1886-1941), owner of the famous cultural salon, was adept at playing the piano. The Algerian novelist Wasini al-A''raj mentions in his novel about her titled: "May: Nights of Isis Copia" that she was multi-talented. She was a painter and also had a piano that accompanied her throughout her relatively short life. She used to play many of the Western musical classics she was attached to. May learned to play the piano in various convents where her parents placed her, which mostly contained a piano, and young girls or convent women chanted holy hymns to its rhythm. She loved playing the sad symphony: Carmen Silva, composed by Iosif Ivanovici (1845-1902) in 1892.

May also mastered nine languages including English, French, German and Italian. Her works include: Darkness and Rays, Sawanih of a Girl, Researcher of the Desert, and the Purpose of Life.

The Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), author of the famous novel (Doctor Zhiva) and the collection (My Sister, Life) which is considered the most important poetry collection written in Russian during the twentieth century, spent six years dedicated to learning music. He learned to play the piano, as his mother Rosalia Kaufman was a pianist and music teacher, but he left music work and devoted himself to studying philosophy then poetry where he was influenced by the German poet Rilke, and his poetic writings began to appear in 1909.

The famous Italian novelist and critic Umberto Eco (1932-2016), author of the novel: "The Name of the Rose" and the novel "Foucault''s Pendulum", used to play the clarinet, in addition to his critical work that created new concepts about literature and criticism.

The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca was not just a pianist, but also a music composer, in addition to his writing of poetry and plays.

Lorca was born in Fuente Vaqueros in Granada on June 5, 1898. He was a member of what was known as the  Generation of ''27. He was assassinated at the age of thirty-eight in the early stages of the  Spanish Civil War. Some consider him one of the most important writers of the  twentieth century. While staying in  Granada he printed his first  prose  book  Impressions and Landscapes in 1918, which is the result of several trips in Spain. He is one of the most prominent  Spanish theater  writers in the twentieth century, along with his colleagues  Antonio Buero Vallejo and Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. His plays  (Blood Wedding)  and (The House of Bernarda Alba) are among his most famous theatrical works. While  (Poet in New York) is one of his most famous poetic works. He died between  Víznar and Alfacar on August 19, 1936.

Critic. Thinker. Player:

The Palestinian-American critic and thinker Edward Said (1935-2003) is considered one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. The author of "Orientalism," which has been translated into more than thirty languages, had another hobby, which was his love for music, as he was a skillful pianist, as Wikipedia mentions,

 He wrote several topics about music in "The Nation" magazine for several years. . He also authored three books about music, which are "Musical Elaborations", "Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society" with Daniel Barenboim, and the last titled "On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain". Said saw in music a reflection of his ideas in literature and history and found a possibility for real life in its parts and daring achievements. A collection of his articles titled "Music at the Limits" was published by Columbia University after his death (2007). Thus other aspects in the lives of writers and thinkers are renewed, headlined by music and formulated by varied rhythms.