Ikbal El Alaily (died 1984) also known as Iqbal El Alaily, was an Egyptian surrealist writer, and a co-founder of the journal, ''La Part du Sable''. She was associated with the

Art et Liberté Groupe Art et Liberté ( ar, جماعة الفن والحرية; English: Art and Liberty Group, Art and Freedom Group) was an Egyptian artistic and political movement active from 1938 to 1948, about the time of the Second World War. Among th ...

art group.

Life

Ikbal El Alaily, known to friends as Boula, was a granddaughter of the poet Ahmed Shawqi. Her parents were Muslim, though she was already a nonbeliever by her teens. In 1939 she met and fell in love with

Georges Henein Georges Henein (1914–1973) was an Egyptian poet and author. He was a founding member of the Cairo-based, surrealist Art and Liberty Group which brought together artists, writers and various intellectuals of different backgrounds and national o ...

. Despite parental opposition, the pair were inseparable, though they only formally married in 1954. El Alaily's 1945 anthology, ''The Virtue of Germany'', made the case for German romanticism as a precursor of surrealism. After her husband's death in 1973, she prepared his unpublished work for publication. She died in 1984.

Works

* ''Vertu de l'Allemagne'' he Virtue of Germany Cairo: Editions Masses 1945 * 'De l'auteur considéré comme un jeune lapin' ortrait of the Artist as a Young Rabbit ''Le Part du Sable'', No. 2, April 1950, pp. 30–2

References

Year of birth missing 1984 deaths Egyptian surrealist writers Egyptian women writers {{Egypt-writer-stub