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| Nizar Qabbani |
Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani was a Syrian diplomat, poet, writer and publisher. He is considered to be Syria's National Poet. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, religion, and Arab empowerment against foreign imperialism and local dictators.
- Nizar Qabbani is arguably the most popular and widely read poet in the Arab world, renowned particularly for his poems on themes such as religion, love and femininity, which challenged taboos about eroticism. As a former Syrian diplomat, he was also deeply political, spurred on by the failures suffered by the Arabs in the conflict with Israel.
Qabbani was critical of the
authoritarianism that had become deeply embedded in the post-colonial Middle
East. Nevertheless, he was a committed Arab nationalist with tributes made to
several Arab cities, including his most beloved of all, his native Damascus.
He authored over 50 collections of
poetry and prose in his lifetime. Several of his works found their way into
lyrics sung by legendary Arab artists like Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafiz and
Fayruz.
- Nizar Qabbani was born into a wealthy family in Damascus on 21 March 1923, a year after the formal dissolution of the Ottoman Caliphate, which led to Syria being divided into statelets created by the French. His father, a factory-owing nationalist, supported the armed struggle for Syrian independence against the French mandate and was arrested several times as a result. His paternal grandfather, Abu-Khalil Al-Qabbani, was a well-known poet, composer and actor. Inevitably, this had an effect on Nizar’s upbringing and shaped his outlook. The tragic suicide of his older sister as she expressed her refusal to marry someone she did not love when Qabbani was 15 also stayed with him and may have influenced his keenness to address cultural and societal restrictions on women in his later work. He appealed to Arab women readers by writing in the feminine first person in several pieces.
