Muhamed Refaat

Early life and training

He was born in Cairo on 9 May 1882, in the al-Magharbilin quarter. An eye disease at the age of two cost him his sight, and his father's death when he was nine left him to provide for the family. Sent to Quran school at an early age, he had memorised the whole Quran by about ten, then studied the rules of recitation under Sheikh Muhammad al-Baghdadi and Sheikh al-Samaluti. He also acquired a sound knowledge of music, which informed his command of the melodic modes.

The mosque and the radio

In 1918 he was appointed reciter of the Friday surah at the Mustafa Fadil Pasha mosque in the Sayyida Zaynab district, a post he held until 1943, drawing large crowds. On 31 May 1934 he opened the first broadcast of Egyptian radio with the opening verses of Al-Fath: "Indeed, We have given you a clear victory" (48:1). His broadcasts made him famous across the Arab world. When the BBC's Arabic service asked him to record, he hesitated and consulted Sheikh al-Maraghi, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, before recording Maryam for it.

His style is noted for matching the melody to the meaning of each verse, and he became a model for later generations of reciters.

Illness, death and legacy

From 1943, persistent hiccups and then a throat tumour prevented him from reciting. He turned down a public fundraising campaign for his treatment, saying that "the reciter of the Quran is not to be humiliated". He died in Cairo on 9 May 1950 (22 Rajab 1369 AH) and was buried near the Sayyida Nafisa mosque.

Much of what survives of his voice comes from recordings of his broadcasts made by an admirer, Zakariya Mahran Pasha: some thirty hours, later handed over to Egyptian radio, which still airs them.