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YACOUB SANUA

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The Molière of Egypt رصم رييلوم «
and 'father'' of the Egyptian Theatre

1839 – 1912

Yacoub Sanua

Yacoub Sanua (in Arabic عونص بوقعي (, was born in Egypt in 1839, to an Egyptian Jewish

mother for generations in Egypt, and an Egyptian Jewish father of Italian descent, Raphael
Sanua. Raphael served as an advisor to Emir Ahmad Pasha, grandson of Muhamad Ali, ruler of
Egypt.

Professor Sasson Somekh, head of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Tel
Aviv University, Head of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo in 1996-98, and one of the
greatest scholars of Arabic literature in our generation defined him thus : "Yacoub Sanua,

creator and 'father' of the Egyptian theater, journalist, playwright and satirist, was also active in
the Egyptian Nationalist Movement. He was never afraid to express in the strongest way, the
Egyptian opposition to British imperialism".

Yacoub Sanua was also the one who coined the slogan "Egypt for the Egyptians" which became
the slogan of Egyptian Nationalism for generations.

Yacoub Sanua education and upbringing

As a child, Yacoub Sanua studied in a Talmud Torah in Cairo and later in an elementary school,

where he also acquired knowledge of foreign languages and learned the Christian and Islam
Scriptures. At the age of 13, Ya'acov Sanua already recited a poem he had composed for Emir

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