Unknown Past: Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt

A biography of the "Cinderella" of Egyptian cinema-the veneration and rumors that surrounded an unparalleled career, and the gendered questions that unsettled Egyptian society. Layla Murad (1918-1995) was once the highest-paid star in Egypt, and her movies were among the top-grossing in the box office.She starred in 28 films, nearly all now classics in Arab musical cinema.In 1955 she was forced to stop acting-and struggled for decades for a comeback.Today, even decades after her death, public interest in her life continues, and new generations of Egyptians still love her work.Unknown Past recounts Murad's extraordinary life-and the rapid political and sociocultural changes she witnessed. Hanan Hammad writes a story centered on Layla Murad's persona and legacy, and broadly framed around a gendered history of twentieth-century Egypt.Murad was a Jew who converted to Islam in the shadow of the first Arab-Israeli war.Her career blossomed under the Egyptian monarchy and later gave a singing