Street names in Egypt always hide inspiring stories and exciting details behind them.
These stories and details are usually strongly connected with the struggles, successes and failures of the people after whom the streets are named.
Some of the street names invoke a deep search into their historical roots and the life of the original people after whom the streets are called.
This was probably in the minds of those who launched the ‘Street Story’ project.
Launched by the National Organisation for Urban Coordination, the project aims to educate the public about the people whose names are given to streets nationwide.
In a way, the project teaches the public about these people. In another, it glorifies the people after whom the streets are called and honours them.
Those implementing the project place banners on the different streets where they mention – apart from the names of the streets – information about the people after whom the streets are named.
However, the information provided about each street name has to not exceed 25 words. This information has to include the birth date of the person after whom the street is called, his/her date of death, and briefly who he/she is. The signposts also have to be written in Arabic and English.
One of the banners placed on one of downtown Cairo’s streets reads as follows: “Ibrahim Abd el-Qader el-Mazni, poet and prose writer (1889-1949)”.
El-Mazni was born in Cairo and worked as a teacher at the beginning of his career life.
He then worked as a journalist for the Nile Valley newspaper, with Mahmoud Abbas el-Akkad, a very famous writer at the time.
El-Mazni’s first column was published in the Arabic language daily Al-Dustour in 1907.
He then moved to Al-Ahkbar newspaper where he worked as an editor from 1919 to 1926. He was then promoted to editor of the weekly edition of Al-Syasay (Politics) newspaper. He also contributed to Al-Ithad newspaper.
El-Mazni was instrumental in the founding of the Syndicate of Journalists, the independent guild of the nation’s pressmen. He also became the syndicate’s first head in 1941.
This is one of the most prominent and innovating figures in Egypt’s literary history. He was distinguished by his satirical writing style.
El-Mazni has a huge number of books to his name, including short story collections. He also penned a two-volume poetry book and one play.
Talaat Harb, Egypt’s most celebrated economist, also has a street and a square named after him in downtown Cairo.
Born in el-Gmaliya district in Cairo in 1867, Harb worked as a translator at the Judicial Department of the royal court. He then quits to work in the management of the businesses of major agricultural landlords and commercial companies.
In September 1909, Harb co-founded a small company that was called the Financial Solidarity Bank.
Eleven years later, he established a joint-stock company, called Banque Misr. This is now one of the nation’s largest state-owned banks.
Harb wanted to liberate the national economy from the control of British occupation forces. The bank set up national business and companies.
The late singing sensation, Umm Kulthoum, also has a street named after her in the Nile island of Zamalek.
Fatma Ibrahim, Umm Kulthum, was born in Daqaliya in 1904.
She started her singing career at the age of 12. However, she started rising to fame only after moving to Cairo, the nation’s art centre at the time.
In 1934, the Egyptian Radio was launched, for the first time. It was a song by Umm Kulthoum that commenced the broadcast of the radio.
Umm Kulthoum also started in a number of very successful films.
She died in February 1975 and had the greatest funeral to be held in Arab history to that date. It was only outmatched in participant turnout by the funeral of revolutionary leader Gamal Abdel Nasser four years earlier.
‘Street Story’ is part of a larger project by the National Organisation for Urban Coordination, called ‘City’s Memory’, according to organisation Head Mohamed Abu Saeeda.
He said the project aims to make the members of the public aware about the history of popular figures.
“Each of these figures has successes that deserve to be told,” he told the Egyptian Mail.
The project has so far provided information about the names of 50 streets in the old part of Cairo, known as Khedive Cairo.
It had also covered important neighbourhoods in the Egyptian capital, such as Zamalek and Heliopolis.
In the northern coastal city of Alexandria, ‘Street Story’ are working on 55 streets.
Abu Saeeda said the signposts provided by the project also contain QR codes that can be scanned by passers by and visitors of the streets for full information about the people after whom the streets are named.
‘Street Story’ also includes the launch of a website that contains information about the names of the streets.
Discussion about this post