The National Anthem of Algeria
The words to " Qassaman " (We Pledge) were written in 1956 in Serkaji-Barberousse Prison in Algiers , where the author Moufdi Zakaria was incarcerated by the French colonial forces. The poem was put into music, first by Mohamed Triki in 1956, then by the Egyptian composer Mohamed Fawzi . Originally containing five verses, the third verse containing anti-French lyrics was dropped when it became the official national anthem upon independence on July 5th 1962. Mohamed Fawzi , (born Mohammed Fawzi Habas Elhaw in 1918 in Tanta Egypt , died 1966) was an Egyptian composer and singer. Fawzi had a beautiful voice which was inherited from his father (a Quran reciter); he began singing at weddings and other events when he was twelve years old. Soon he learned to play the flute, and he went to Cairo looking for an opportunity to sing. Having studied Arabic music in Cairo, he started to work with Badiah Massabni, and then with Fatma Rush di, where he performed and sung the role of Anto...