Tarek Ali Hassan
Dr. Tarek Ali Hassan (Arabic: طارق على حسن , born 19 October 1937 in Cairo), is a professor of medicine and chief of endocrinology at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He is also a composer, musician, writer, painter, and philosopher. His music, in a modern polyphonic style, has been performed in Egypt and in many countries.
Hassan has published major dramatic works in English and in Arabic. Soliman: An Egyptian Drama is conceived as an experimental total theatre experience. He has also published Towards a Philosophy of Pluralism and Complementarity. He was a founding member of the People Not Psychiatry Society, the Egyptian Society for Group Training, and the Friends of the Opera Society.
He is chairman of the Zenab Kamel Hassan Foundation for Holistic Human Development, which works on human development and empowerment issues in the Imbaba district of Cairo.
Tarek Hassan's philosophy involves a deep belief in that human beings are a unique evolutionary breakthrough. He is a dedicated critic of static models in science, and in the humanities. To him the model of Homo sapiens sapiens is not Achilles or Agamemnon but Osiris, Mozart, and Gandhi. He believes that survival and thriving by creativity is a major unique human breakthrough which is destroyed by violence. The key to interactive creativity which is the survival secret of the species and the real breakthrough, is non-violence to self, other-self and Nature. Humans at large have misunderstood human nature. The whole socio-political forces operate against consciousness of and acceptance of integrated interactive non-violent human nature. The tragedy is so deep that violence has become "normal" and "glorious" and an accepted channel to power and to "peace". This philosophy is also enshrined in his total theatre dramas, some of which were performed in the student drama festivals in London and Durham as well as at the Edinburgh Festival during the 1960s.
Some of Hassan's musical works have become repertoire at the Cairo Opera, such as the Symphonic Suite: Al Mansoura, The Fanfare for the Opera, and the Sinfonietta for Strings, as well as several chamber works including the Piano Quartet (which is dedicated to Marianne von Grunigen), and the cello sonata.
In 1991, he was presented with France's highest arts decoration: he was made a Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Literature), the highest rank for this award, for "his services to International Culture, drama and International communication and violence-resolution.[1]