Biographies: Zakaria Ahmed - Music Composer

Biographies

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Zakaria was born to an Egyptian father and a Turkish mother. He joined Al-Azhar and studied there for thirteen years. He became a reciter of the Qur’an and learned musical scales, and the Aleppo poems. He met Umm Kulthum as a young girl in 1919, and heard her singing poems, and he greatly admired her. He persuaded her father and brother Sheikh Khaled to emigrate to Cairo. He began composing in 1924, then moved on to composing for the musical theater in 1926. He began composing songs for Umm Kulthum in 1931, to be released as records. He then went on to compose songs for Umm Kulthum's films, before forming a duo with Bayram al-Tunisi, presenting her a set of songs for her concerts. In 1948, a dispute arose between him and Umm Kulthum over the artistic rights of the composer, because it was common for the singer to buy the music and the lyrics, then the song would become their private property, and he filed a lawsuit against her and the radio. The dispute between them lasted 12 years, during which in 1953 he suffered his first angina pectoris. Conciliation was made between Umm Kulthum and Zakaria in early 1960, and they agreed to return to work again, so he composed for her the song Is It True That Passion Is Overpowering, whose lyrics were written by Bayram al-Tunisi. And he died only 40 days after the death of his lifelong friend Bayram Al-Tunisi.

• 5 September 2021
• Dalia Saad