2022/04/18
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The dancer of kings and sultans who rose to the throne of oriental dance for more than half a century, and the first owner of an art festival in Egypt
And the first artist who had a sense of patriotism following she completely furnished Al-Moski Street with the finest types of carpets at her own expense, in celebration of Saad Zaghloul’s return from exile.
Bamba Koshar is a performance dancer who has been on the throne of oriental dancing for nearly 50 years. Her grandfather is Sultan Mustafa Kosher, one of the notables of the nineteenth century.
Her father is a reader of the Qur’an and her mother is the granddaughter of Sultan “Al-Ashraf Ital”, the Sultan of Egypt during the era of the Mamluk state, but she started with her talent and began her artistic career,
She worked in some Turkish groups, and then became the most famous dancer in Egypt before the era of cinema, as she appeared in one movie, which is the silent movie “Laila”.
She lived from 1860 to 1930, and was born in Bamba in 1860 to a wealthy family. Her paternal grandfather is Mustafa Keshar, a notable of Egypt, and her father Ahmed Mustafa, a famous Quran reciter.
Her father, the famous Quran reciter, Ahmed Mustafa, died when she was fourteen years old.
She was discovered by the dancer “Salm”, and she accompanied her to all her concerts. Bamba was famous for being the dancer of kings and sultans, and they called her “Sit al-Kul” before Mrs. Umm Kulthum.
Kosher, in its time, was a fierce competitor to the famous dancer, Shafiqa the Coptic, who was dancing with a candlestick on her head.
She also used a horse-drawn chariot in her transportation, and in front of it a number of men ran to make way for the cart and sing “Oh, blaze, peeled almonds.”
It is reported that she married Bamba six times, and they are the well-known vocalist at that time, “Sayed Al-Safti”, one of the students of the artist “Abu Khalil Al-Qabbani”, who achieved wide fame in Egypt. Because of his family’s insistence on the need to retire.
Then she married for the fourth time to one of the notables of Upper Egypt and he gave her a dowry of sixty acres of the finest agricultural land. Then she was associated with the fifth of her husbands who flooded her with gifts and money and scattered gold under her feet. Marriage by marrying one of Cairo’s notables and chiefs.
She always organized dance festivals, but she called them “The Zar Parties”, which were performed by Saleh Abdel Hai and Abdel Latif Al-Banna.
She joined silent cinema at the end of her life, appearing in the films “Nidaa El-Rab” 1926, “Laila” 1927 and “Bint El-Nil” 1929, and continued to practice dancing until she reached the age of seventy, and died in 1930.
The movie “Bamba Kosher” (1974) starring Nadia Al-Jundi, directed by Hassan Al-Imam, story, script and dialogue by Jalil Al-Bandari and Muhammad Mustafa Sami, produced by Imad Hamdi and distributed by Nadia Al-Jundi, and in this film he played the role of “Sayed Al-Safty” the artist Saeed Saleh.
