Anwar Al Sadat
By Sammar Ibrahim

b. Dec. 25, 1918, Mit Abul-Kum, Al-Minufiyah governorate, Egypt d. Oct. 6, 1981, Cairo. Sadat's father, Mohammad Al Sadat was a villager, his mother, Set-Al-Barriya was Sudanese. His first years as child were greatly influenced by his grandmother's stories about heroes and acts of heroism, particularly the folkloric epic of Zahran, who was executed by the British in 1906.

Sadat graduated from the Cairo Military Academy in 1938 and was detailed to the infantry. He served in Upper Egypt, and when promoted, he was attached to signals. During that period, he met Sheikh Hassan Al Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and many others who worked together to change the then prevailing political conditions in Egypt. They tried to create channels of communication with the Germans during World War II. Their ultimate goal was to achieve independence from the British. In 1942, he was arrested for plotting against the British but he escaped during a transfer from one detention camp to another. While in hiding, he was forced to adopt various occupations for a living. Sometimes, he worked as a luggage carrier, a truck driver and even a marble contractor.

In September 1945, and with the end of the war, his sentence was repealed as was that of political prisoners during the period of military rule. Sadat regained his freedom and was back to underground political activities. A secret organization was formed to fight occupation in which Sadat initiated colleagues in using hand grenades.

Sadat was arrested again on the charge of assassinating then Minister of Finance Amin Osman and was imprisoned in 1946. The period of his imprisonment, this time, strongly affected him. However, the court cleared him for lack of evidence, and he was released in 1948. In 1950, Sadat returned to the Army where he met Gamal Abdel Nasser. Sadat joined Nasser's Free Officers' Movement which was then planning for the July Revolution.

When the date was set for action, he was serving in Sinai and was recalled to Cairo. He was assigned the duty of cutting off communication between occupation units and taking control of the Radio Station. It was he who delivered the statement declaring the Revolution.

With the July Revolution having succeeded, Sadat was self-satisfied. For at long last the dream has come true. Together with Mohammad Naguib, he was asked to deliver a final ultimate to King Farouk, and to process his exile.

During the period after the revolution, there emerged differences between members of the Revolutionary Council over the country's future. But Sadat kept to himself. Many interpretations were given for his behaviour during that time, the most prominent being that Sadat acknowledged Nasser's position as a leader. Should he have been more active than he was Nasser would have reined him in. He was thus intelligent enough to avoid a collision.

Sadat held many official positions, He was:

* member of the revolutionary court which tried the corrupt politicians of the deposed King's regime. * Founder and editor-in-chief of Al Gomhoureya newspaper (1953).

* Minister of state(1954).

* Member of the People's Court which tried members of the Muslim Brotherhood (1954). * Secretary General of the Islamic Conference (1955).

* Secretary General of the National Union (to 1961).

* Speaker of the National Council (1961-68)

* Member of the Presidential Council and later vice-president.

In September 1970, Nasser died of a heart attack. His death was a shock, particularly since Egypt was in a state of war with Israel.

Sadat assumed office temporarily in his capacity as vice president, until officially elected on 15 October, 1970. During that time, there were ongoing intrigues by forces who believed him weak and who anticipated his regime's collapse at any moment. He, however, proved himself to be more than they could take on.

In May 1971, Sadat was able to alienate those elements. He then released political prisoners reinstalled the ousted judges, ordered telephoned bugging stopped, abolished censorship on newspapers, and restored sequestrated properties to former feudalists and capitalists.

He resolved the National Council and created the People's Assembly, changed the country's title, formerly the United Arab Republic, into the Arab Republic of Egypt. He also promulgated the 1971 permanent Constitution (which remains operational to date).

Along side all such achievements, he could not forget to restore Egypt's dignity and free its land from Israeli occupation. Hence, the October War, which took everyone by surprise. With victory achieved, Sadat's popularity grew so that he was able to introduce a number of political and economic changes, which included opening up Egyptian economy to the West, particularly the US and encouraging foreign investments. He also reopened the Suez Canal for international navigation and returned the Sinai oil fields.

However, the economic opening up policy produced several negative elements which combined to trigger a general uprising due to price rises in January 1977.

Convinced that peace with Israel would reap an enormous " dividend," Sadat initiated his most important diplomatic ploy. In a speech to the Egyptian parliament in 1977, Sadat affirmed his desire to go anywhere to negotiate a peace with the Israelis. Even, he affirmed, he would go to the Israeli parliament to speak for peace.

The Israelis responded with an invitation to do just that and Sadat's speech to the Israeli Knesset initiated a new momentum for peace that eventually culminated in the 1978 Camp David Accords and a final peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

He was assassinated by Muslim extremists while reviewing a military parade commemorating the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973.