Title: Asmahan's secrets :
Authors: Zuhur, Sherifa.
Date: 2000
Publisher: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin,
Physical description: x, 247 p., [10] p. of plates : ill., ports. ; 22 cm.
Language: English
LC classification: M
Abstract: "The great Arab singer Asmahan was the toast of Cairo song and cinema in the 1930s, as World War II approached. A Druze princess actually named Amal al-Atrash, she came from an important clan in the mountains of Syria, but broke free from her traditional family background, left her husband, and became a public performer, a role frowned upon for women of the time. She was also rumored to be an agent for the allied Forces during World War II. Through the story of Asmahan and her musical career, the reader glimpses not only aspects of the cultural and political history of Egypt and Syria between the two world wars, but also the change in attitude in the Arab world toward women as public performers on stage."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Disentangling the diva -- A child of Ma'ruf -- To quiet the nightingale -- The triumph of youth -- Mission of war -- Passion and revenge from Jerusalem to the road of death -- Asmahan's musical legacy -- Culture, politics, and gender.
Subject headings (LCSH): Arabs--Music.; Asmahān, 1912-1944.; Egypt--History--British occupation, 1882-1936.; Popular music--Egypt.; Singers--Biography; Singers--Egypt--Biography.; Singers--Syria--Biography.; Women singers--Egypt--Biography.; Women singers--Syria--Biography.