Mohamed el-Fers (born 1950 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

) is a Dutch writer, musician and filmmaker.

Life

El-Fers was musician in Los Compañeros (Latin American), Nass el-Ghorba (Moroccan), Tiq Maya (Moroccan), Medina (pop) and Atlal (folkrock). With this last group he had in 1982 a number 1 hit in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and appeared in '' El Alem Ghani'' the Egyptian television show by Hamdia Hamdi. He published in '' Hitweek'' / ''

Aloha ''Aloha'' ( , ) is the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy, that is commonly used as a simple greeting but has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians, for whom the term is u ...

'', ''

De Groene Amsterdammer ''De Groene Amsterdammer'' is an independent Dutch weekly news magazine published in Amsterdam and distributed throughout the Netherlands. It is conventionally considered to be one of the four major weeklies, alongside ''HP/De Tijd'', ''Vrij Neder ...

'', ''

Nieuwe Revu The ''Nieuwe Revu'' is a weekly general interest magazine from the Netherlands, published on Wednesdays and written in Dutch. History and profile In the 1970s the magazine was explicitly left-winged and focused on sport, sex, sensation and socia ...

'', '' Algemeen Dagblad'', the Turkish newspaper '' Dünya'' and '' De Staatskrant''. Together with René Zwaap, he founded MokumTV, one of the best viewed programmes of Salto TV, a local television station in Amsterdam. For MokumTV he made several documentaries, later released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

. El-Fers produced in 1996 for

Hippo Records The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extant ...

two CDs with

Leo Fuld Lazarus 'Leo' Fuld (Yiddish: לעאָ פֿולד; Rotterdam, October 29, 1912 – Amsterdam, June 10, 1997) was a Dutch singer who specialised in Yiddish songs. Possessing an instantaneously recognizable voice, Fuld recorded throughout Europe and ...

, the 'king of

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

music'. He wrote biographies on e.g.

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (, ; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, l ...

, Mevlana Rumi, Oum Kalsoum and

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

and published travel guides about

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Lourdes and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. He also wrote an "Encyclopedie van Hollandse Heiligen", an encyclopedia on Dutch Saints. Together with Veyis Güngör, El-Fers took the initiative that would become the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Mevlana Year in 2007. See Mevlana800.

Some of his books in Dutch

* ''Bob Marley'' (1991) * ''Jacques Brel'' (1991) * ''Mehmed VI : de laatste sultan'' (1991) * ''Columbus'' (1991) * ''Oum Kalsoum'' (1991) * ''Mevlânâ'' (1992) * ''Istanbul'' (1993) (2007) * ''Jacques Brel'' (1994, 1996 en 1998) /

Some of his books in English

* ''Lourdes beyond clichés: The Complete Guide to Lourdes ''(2007) * ''Kirkpinar, all about Turkish Oilwrestling''(2007) * ''Mevlana Rumi'' (2006)

Filmography

* ''Mevlana'' (Hypnotic Trance Dance, complete ritual) DVD TM 04-1 * ''Oil over Europe-I'' (Turkish Oil Wrestling) DVD TM 04-2 * ''Mehter in Holland'' (Ritual Music by the Janisari) DVD TM 04-3 * ''Maria in de Koran'' (bonus: Mirakel van Amsterdam, Ida Peerdeman interview) DVD TM 04-4

Award

For his Mevlanabiography he received on May 5, 2003 during the 3rd international Mevlanacongress of the Selçukuniversity of

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...

(

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) the Merit of Honour by the Turkish Secretary of State for Religion, Prof. Mehmet Aydin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fers, Mohamed 1950 births Living people Dutch musicians Dutch male writers People from Haarlem