Alexander the great, a play by Mustafa Mahmoud

I have just finished reading a short play of four acts titled Alexander the great by the prominent Egyptian writer Mustafa Mahmoud (25 December 1921 – 31 October 2009). Every one in Egypt knows who is Mustafa Mahmoud. According to Wikipedia Mustafa Mahmoud "...wrote 89 books in science, philosophy, religion, politics, and society as well as plays, Tales, and travelogues. His writing style was notable for its simplicity and depth." But I think that few knows about this play. The play was published in 1963 by Dar Al Marefa publishing house. It is an interesting piece of work and worth reading. 

The Classical legacy in Tawfiq al-Hakim's Drama

Tawfiq al-Hakim, the prominent Egyptian novelist and playwright, was not only aware of the Greek and Latin theater, but used it extensively in his plays.

This is very evident from the titles of three of his works; Praxa/The problem of ruling (1939), Pygmalion (1942) and Oedipus the King (1949). Yet Ahemd Etman, in his study about the classical sources of Tawfiq al-Hakim's Drama, reveals to us more about the interest of this novelist with the Greek and Roman Literature. The comparative study was published in 1993 in Cairo by The Egyptian International Publishing Co-Longman (ISBN 977-16-0106-7).  It consists of an introduction, five chapters and a conclusion in 345 pages. Here is the book cover. 

Helen of Troy into Arabic: First from French then from Greek.

Helen of Troy by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1- La belle Hélène into Arabic:

Modern Arabic knew Helen of troy in 1868. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801-1873) translated the french operetta La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen) just after its first performance in Paris on December 17, 1864 with a lap of exactly 4 years. The translation was published on 31.12.1868 by Boulaq Printing Press. 

In 2015 the translation was republished by the GEBO (General Egyptian Book Organization). See below the book cover. 

2- Helen's Euripides in Arabic 1984: 

Helen's Euripides, whose plot is different than the above-mentioned operetta, was translated into Arabic by Amin Salam in 1984, who is best known among Arabic classicists by his translations of "Who is who in Greek and Roman Mythology". 

Using Alpheios Editor (AE) in Perseids, I have aligned the first line of Salam's translation with its Greek original. See it here : http://sosol.perseids.org/alpheios/app/align-editsentence-perseids.xhtml?s=1&numSentences=1&doc=28472

3- Helen's Euripides into Arabic from Greek by Mounira Karawan:

Recently Mounira Karawn has translated Helen's Euripides into Arabic directly from Ancient Greek. The translation is published by the NTC [date?]. Below is the cover page of this translation.

Oedipus at Colonus : An Arabic performance based on the translated original

Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus translated by Taha Hussein and performed by Egyptian actors. The audio track starts with an introduction about the author (Sophocles) and the myth of Oedipus.