Asmahan — Amal al-Atrash
Syrian-Egyptian singer and actress from the al-Atrash family of Jabal al-Druze
The voice from Jabal al-Druze that rivalled Umm Kulthum — and was lost at thirty-one.
Amal al-Atrash, known by her stage name Asmahan, was born on 25 November 1912 aboard a ship travelling between Turkey and Beirut, into a Druze family of Jabal al-Arab (Jabal al-Druze) in southern Syria; her father Fahd al-Atrash was a local notable, her mother Alia al-Mundhir a Lebanese Druze, and her uncle Sultan Pasha al-Atrash the leader of the Great Syrian Revolt. The family moved to Egypt while she was a child.
The composer Dawud Husni discovered her voice, oversaw her training and coined her stage name. She cut her first records in 1931, was among the first singers on Egyptian radio, and sang compositions by El Qasabgi, Zakariyya Ahmad, Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash. Hers was one of the few voices that rivalled Umm Kulthum in her era.
She starred in two films: "Intisar al-Shabab" (The Triumph of Youth, 1941) with her brother Farid, and "Gharam wa Intiqam" (Love and Revenge, 1944) with Youssef Wahbi. She married her cousin Emir Hasan al-Atrash in an intermittent marriage that ended in divorce, and had a daughter, Kamellia; a later marriage to the director Ahmad Salim was brief. Some accounts — among them Sherifa Zuhur's biography — describe wartime contacts with the British and a mission in Syria; these remain disputed and unproven.
On 14 July 1944 her car plunged into a canal on the road to Ras al-Bar; she drowned with her friend Mary Qalada, aged thirty-one. Officially an accident, her sudden death spawned widespread rumours — none proven. She was buried in Cairo per her will.
