Bamba Kashar

An Egyptian show dancer, whose full name is (Bamba Ahmed Mustafa Kashar), was born in 1860 to a wealthy family. Her paternal grandfather is Mustafa Kashar, one of the notables of Egypt, and her father is Ahmed Mustafa, one of the famous Qur’an reciters. Her mother was a descendant of Mamluk notables, and her lineage goes back to Ashraf Inal. Her father died when she was fourteen years old, and her mother married the reciter of Khedive Tawfiq, which prompted Bemba and her sisters to boycott their mother and move to another residence next to a well-known Turkish dancer at the time, whose name was (Salem), who discovered Bemba’s talent for dancing, and took her with her to all her concerts. Bamba was famous for being the dancer of kings and sultans, and they called her “Sitt of All” before Mrs. Umm Kulthum. In her time, she was a strong competitor in her time to the famous dancer Shafiqa Al-Qibtiya, who used to dance with a candlestick on her head. Bamba with a grimace would dance with a tray on top of her head filled with cups filled with gold. She also used a horse-drawn carriage in her transportation, with a number of men running in front of it to clear the way for the carriage and singing, “Oh Bumba, peeled, oh peeled almonds.” She was It always organizes dance festivals, but it used to be called Zar parties, which were performed by Saleh Abdel-Hay and Abdel Latif Al-Banna. She was married six times, and her second marriage was to the well-known vocalist at the time (Sayed Al-Safti). She joined silent cinema at the end of her life, appearing in the films (Laila) in 1927 and (Daughter of the Nile) in 1929. She continued to practice dancing until she reached the age of seventy, and she died in 1930. On the day of leader Saad Zaghloul’s return from exile, Bamba Kashar carpeted the entire Muski Street with the finest carpets.