After struggling with illness, writer and journalst Salah Eissa passed away Monday night at the Maadi Military Hospital at the age of 78, state media reported.
A funeral was held on Monday and attended by officials, friends, and family members, who paid their respects.
The well-known journalist was born on 4 October 1939 in Daqahliya governorate. He later began a career in journalism and writing, working for several newspaper and magazines. Until his time of death, he headed the editorial board of Al-Qahera cultural publication.
He worked at the state-owned newspaper Al-Gomhuria and helped establish partisan and private newspapers, such as Al-Yassar, Al-Ahaly, and Al-Ketab.
In the 1960s, at the peak of his communist tendencies, he was imprisoned under former president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was later detained after mass protests and riots in January 1977, following then-president Anwar Sadat’s decision to lift subsides on essential food products.
His style of history writing included focusing on the subaltern figures and common population. His publications included The Orabian Revolution, The Princess and the Effendi, A Constitution in the Garbage Can, and Raya and Skina’s Men.
