Asrar Sabri al-Sharif, the third partner of the “Rahbani Brothers,” who remained in the shadows
Those who knew Sabri al-Sharif (1922-1999) confirm that his role is pivotal, and his merit cannot be denied in the rise of the “Rahbani Brothers” star, then their artistic development, and their overall creative path. The man who directed most of their works, their partner in production, and managed their artistic works for them until 1973. His name remained in the shadows.
“Cooperation began closely in 1949. But from 1959 until 1973, all of the (Rahbani Brothers’) works, including plays, songs, and radio works, became Malak Mansour, Assi Al-Rahbani, and Sabri Al-Sharif. They established together (the Lebanese folk band), and each of them had a share of a third, even the advertisements that Sabri was doing, and he used to share their income with them. As for the rest of the artists in the band, Munjid Sabry Al-Sharif continues: “They were paid their fees for each work, and they were not partners, including Fayrouz.” Munjid confirms that his father was the one who signed all the checks and contracts, and the Rahbani brothers did not sign, except when he was asking them to do so. Munjid speaks in a family capacity and as a witness. He worked with his father on the Rahbani Theater, since he was 14 years old, in adjusting sound and lighting, and today he has become a professional cinema and theater director.
What is his actual role
“The Rahbani Brothers” write and compose the work, and Sabri Al-Sharif takes care of all the rest. They called him: “The Leader”. Because he is the one who paints how the actors move? How are the lighting and sound? How should you play the music? He personally does all the music recordings. He comes with up to thirty musicians sometimes, from among the musicians of the cabarets of the Zaytuna region, which were thriving in those days, and among them are very talented. He forms the orchestra, asks to play the one piece twenty times sometimes, records it, and keeps asking for a replay, to choose one from among them. Manages the business budget, secures financing, and organizes expenses. A meticulous man fascinated by perfection, a voracious reader, with an exceptional sensitivity in listening to music and a great love for folklore. He authored and wrote two series for the Jordanian Radio, one of which was “Shajarat Al Durr”.
When we ask Monajed about his father’s role in managing actors, especially Fayrouz, he says: “Sabri al-Sharif is the one who drew Fayrouz her character on the stage. He wanted her not to move much, to appear unfamiliar, and this is about a study. He (character) distinguished her from the rest of the singers, and still is. I like it to be different from the others in the way it presents it. He made her move more in the play (Watcher of the Keys), but in general he chose this special presence for her. Sabri Al-Sharif himself says in an interview: “Assi did not interfere on the stage, he considered that the stage belonged to me. I am the director and responsible for every move.”
Fayrouz carried in her heart all gratitude to the man who harnessed her great potential, and spared no effort in managing her Christian religious songs. Mansour admits in a television interview, “The training and capabilities that Fayrouz harnessed did not provide any singer in her time.” So I asked Saeed Akl to return the favor to him, by writing a poem that would sing his religion. Saeed Akl answered her, I will say directly: “I sang Mecca.” Two months later, he had prepared his famous poem, in honor of this great Muslim, as he said about him. And Akl did not love a Palestinian like Sabri al-Sharif, starting his day by visiting him at nine in the morning and sitting with him until noon, in what resembles the daily work.
However, Sabri Al-Sharif decided, after completing his work in the play “Natourat Al-Maftah” in 1973, to separate from the Rahbani brothers, and he continued to work as a founder and director of Jordanian television, and his relationship with Al-Rahbani was not interrupted, but rather he continued to assign them to television programs where he worked.
Painful separation from the two brothers
Munjed says: “When my uncle Asi was injured in a brain explosion, the Rahbani brothers were writing a play (The Station). After the incident, Mansour completed the writing and Elias Rahbani participated in the melodies. They came to our office in Badaro, and we all sat down, and they read the play while we listened. Then Mansour said to my father: When do you take it out and bring it? He replied: I do not see myself without Asi, I apologize. Mansour did not try to dissuade him from his position, but rather asked him who would suggest instead of him? He replied that he did not see anyone, but they could use the help of Fazelian Tower, with whom he was working as an assistant director. It is unfortunate that Fazelian then claimed that he had directed all the plays that preceded it.
Sabri Al-Sharif may be responsible for his name being hidden, although he was a partner and driver of the Rahbani business. He was rarely taciturn. He does not like to appear and refuses press interviews. He thought one word was enough to say all he wanted. He was not the type to ask for his name to be added, or for his role to be highlighted. He directed the Rahban theatrical works, with exceptional calmness, without shouting or anger, directing his remarks in a whisper. His prestige was imposed by his sobriety, seriousness, and frowning. Those who knew him agree on a solid personality and an incomparable talent: “He is the only one who understood the science of musical instruments and human voices in the region at the time. He is the only one who has the audacity to say to any composer, no matter how high his position is: Go, adjust your arrangement, and come again,” explains the sound engineer who worked with Farid Abu Al-Khair. “Yes,” Munjid al-Sharif says, “he used to say this to Mansour, and he said it to Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab.”
When he separated from the Rahbani brothers, Monajed asked him: How can you leave all this fatigue so easily? He replied, “When the ego awakened, I was lost.”
Ibn Jaffa, the owner of the credit for the Lebanese art
But who is Sabry Al-Sharif? And how did he play this role with the Rahbani brothers and many Lebanese singing stars. Nidal Al-Ashqar, who worked with him, says, “His touch is present on Lebanese music and on every Lebanese musical theatre.”
Sabri Al-Sharif was born in Jaffa in 1922, which was the cultural capital of Palestine and Arab artists. He specialized in theatrical and radio art in London, and held the position of head of the music department at the Near East Radio, in Cairo, affiliated to the British Foreign Office. He had a high artistic culture.
In 1948, they told Sabri al-Sharif on the radio that there were those who called the Rahbani brothers, and they appeared on Radio Damascus. He asked Rashad al-Bibi, the director of Near East Radio in Beirut, to set him an appointment with them. Asi came to the appointment alone. A current quickly ran between the two men. The next day, Assi, Mansour, and Elias Al-Rahbani came, and their two sisters, Ilham and Salwa (the eldest), the wife of Abdullah Al-Khoury, Ibn Al-Akhtal Al-Saghir. Each of them carries a musical instrument. Sabri listened to songs and songs, to get to know them, and the journey began.
The two projects met. Sabri is interested in collecting and endorsing the folklore of the region, while Assi has a dream of folklore, feeling and creativity, but he does not know how to translate all of this.
Near East Radio had allocated a huge budget equal to one and a half times the budget of the Lebanese state, to develop art in the region, and to hold concerts for great singers in Jaffa, such as Umm Kulthum, Abdel Wahhab and Fayza Ahmed. “My father was so convinced that he allocated 70 percent of the budget in his hands to the Rahbani brothers. He was convinced that with them he would achieve his dream. Munjid continues: “He believed that there is no homeland without folklore, and no state can be established without folklore, and he considered his project as a founding civilization.”
The story of “Zahrat al-Madaen”
The songs that Fayrouz presented to Palestine were followed by Sabri Al-Sharif, Ibn Jaffa. In the beginning was her masterpiece “We Will Return”. After the fall of Jerusalem in the year 67, Jordanian Information Minister Salah Abu Zaid asked him to quickly sing a song for the occasion, on the level of “We Will Return.” “My father spoke with Mansour and Assi. They wrote the song, composed it, and recorded it in just three days. It was sent with a driver to Jordan and broadcast on the same day.”
After the tripartite aggression against Egypt, the “Near East” radio had moved to Cyprus, and then to Beirut. The majority of employees decided to resign, in protest against the aggression, including Al-Sharif. A well-to-do person, Badi Boulos, came and asked him to continue the work he had started, but by financing it this time, and the “Lebanese Artistic Recording Company” was established, of which he is the president and operates under the management of Sabri Al-Sharif. All the artists with whom Al-Sharif was working with in “Al-Sharq” joined The lowest », including Fayrouz, Asi and Mansour.
Inauguration of the Baalbek festivals
In 1957, the President of the Republic, Camille Chamoun, decided to create an activity that highlights the civilized face of Lebanon. The Baalbek Festivals were chaired by his wife, Zalfa. “Shimoun met with Sabri Al-Sharif and presented the idea to him, and he agreed. My father discovered that Shimon was an artist who loved music, especially classical, and his wife, Zalfa, had a very fine taste. She used to go down with him to Al-Taweelah market to choose fabrics and sew them for the band.” The band was formed by students from the American University who were trained in dance by Marwan and Wadih Jarrar. The two were sent to Russia to learn more about dance and choreography, and return with more experience. Sabri al-Sharif had two months to prove his worth. Shimon said to him, “Oh, we will give you a medal, or I will shoot you.” All this effort for one 40-minute concert presented in the name of “Lebanese Folk Art” in which Fayrouz, the Rahbani Brothers, Wadih Al-Safi, Nasri Shams Al-Din, Philemon Wehbe, Tawfiq Al-Basha, Zaki Nassif, Saed Sabri Al-Sharif, Nizar Mikati and Muhammad Shamel participated. In the play “Days of Harvest” that dazzled the Lebanese, Sabri Al-Sharif decided to make Fayrouz climb on a rock, in the Temple of Jupiter, and sing with her sweet voice, as if she was flying in the air, “Lebanon, sweet green.” After this ceremony, Chamoun suspended the honorable Sharif and granted him Lebanese citizenship.
Sabri Sharif’s rights were wasted
Munjid explains to us that he did not want to raise the issue of rights, even though his father is a partner of the “Rahbani brothers” according to the contract signed between them, and he does not like to be part of the destruction of this beautiful entity. However, “I saw everyone being groaned and not asking, so I decided to tell the truth.”
After the first “Baalbek Festival”, the idea of establishing a folklore band began. The artists were divided into two bands. The “Al-Anwar Band” with Saeed Freiha included Sabah, Wadih Al-Safi and others, and Al-Sharif stayed with Assi and Mansour, and they established the “Lebanese Folk Band” and became partners in everything.
The truth is in cassettes
In 1973 the partnership ended. My father waived his share, and presented the Lebanese Nights in the Baalbek festivals the following year without the Rahbanites. With him were Tawfiq al-Basha, Philemon Wehbe, Zaki Nassif, Elie Choueiri and Melhem Barakat.
However, Munjid blamed his father for not giving him his rights. “They did not insist on him staying when he decided to leave. The ego grew and became inflated, and the partners were divided.
Monajed believes that what his father did was great and decisive, and that no one mentions this role today, given that the share of Sabri’s heirs is exactly the same as the heirs of Asi and Mansour in all the works that were produced under the name of the “Lebanese Folk Band”, “with evidence that Mansour gave my mother a small amount, which is Certainly less than her right when he presented with Fayrouz a combination of three plays in Baalbek in 1998.
Before his death, Sabri Al-Sharif was keen to record tapes in which he narrated everything he had, and the content will soon be published in a book. The “leader” became bedridden for the last eight years of his life. He was sad, because he spent 30 years with the Rahbani house, “and my uncle Mansour did not visit him during his illness except once, and the second was to console him.” Life is beautiful and sad at the same time. “I asked my father in his last days what Assi Rahbani meant to him. He replied: My life, and all my life.”
