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Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998), also: Nizar Kabbani |
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Syrian diplomat, poet, essayist and playwright, one of the most popular love poets in the Arab world. Besides running his own publishing house, Nizar Qabbani wrote over 50 volumes of his own. His central theme in his early erotic works was the physical attractiveness of women. He also revealed chauvinist attitudes and urged women to rebel against their status in society. Later he portrayed the complex relationships between men. In the 1950s, Qabbani was with 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati among the pioneers, who started to use the simple language of everyday speech in verse. Who are you, woman? Nizar Qabbani was born in Damascus, the son of Tawfiq Qabbani (d.
1954), a rich merchant and a member of the National Bloc, a
nationalist movement created to end the French rule. Because of his
anti-French activity, he was frequently arrested and once his
factory was burned by the authorities. His residence in Ma'zanat
A-Shah'am, one of Damascus's old districts, was a gathering place for
the National Bloc. Sahab, Qabbani's brother,
became the director of
Syrian Television and a career diplomat, who retired in the early
1980s. Qabbani's grandfather, Abu Khalil al-Qabbani (1835-1902), a
playwright and composer, is remembered as the "Father of Syrian
theatre". Qabbani studied at the National Scientific College School in Damascus and entered then the University of Damascus, graduating in 1945 with a law degree. Following his legal studies, he embarked on a diplomatic career, which enabled him to tour different cities. Qabbani served in the Syrian embassies in Cairo (1945-48), Ankara (1948), Lebanon, London (1952-55), Beijing (1958-60), and Madrid (1962-66). Syria had gained independence in 1946 and after several coups the power was seized by the Ba'ath Party. Due to his poem, 'Bread, Hashish, and the Moon,' the men of religion in Syrian parliament considered in 1954 demoting him from his diplomatic post. Qabbani retired in 1966 and moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where he worked in literary journalism and eventually founded Manshurat Nizar Qabbani publishing house. At that time, Beirut provided him with a thriving literary and cultural environment. Along with Bader Shaker al-Sayyab, Yusuf al-Khal, Onsi al-Hajj, Mohammad al-Maghout, and Adonis, he helped created modernism in Arabic poetry. In the 1980s, when the Civil War intensified, he left the Arab world. Qabbani spent the subsequent years in self-imposed exile in Geneva, Paris, and London, his home for the last years of his life. While still a student, Qabbani published his first collection of poems. His love poems, Qalit Li al-Samra'
(1944), written
in ordinary language, attracted especially young readers. Conservative
critics called his work blasphemeous. Of his second collection, Tufulat Nahd (1948), Qabbani said: "Let us then read these poems as we would look at the moon." ('Poetry
as a Social Document: The Social Position of the Arab Woman as
Reflected in the Poetry of Nizar Qabbani' by Arieh Loya, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, Oct. 1975) This book "broke all the taboos of Arabic poetry and was highly criticized for its sexual content. (Steel & Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 by Sami M. Moubayed, Seattle, WA: Cune, 2006, p. 562) However, from the
beginning of his career, Qabbani himself ignored all criticism. Inta Li (1956) is Qabbani's most outstanding early collection, in which he assumed a female persona in three poems, 'Pregnant,' 'A Letter from a Spiteful Lady,' and 'The Vessels of Pus' In 'Bread, Hashish and Moon' Qabbani castigated Arab societies for their weakness, drug-induced fantasies, and stagnation. "In the night of the East and when / the moon grows full / the East is stripped of all dignity / and initiative to struggle." ('Poetry as a Social Document: The Social Position of the Arab Woman as Reflected in the Poetry of Nizar Qabbani' by Arieh Loya, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, Oct., 1975) Qabbani's poetry sparked a parliamentary debate and demands for his dismissal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also in the following works Qabbani
also wrote from a woman's viewpoint and urged women to fight against
discrimination. Generally his readers
paralleled these themes with the fate of the Arab people, but there is
also a personal level: when he was fifteen his sister Wisal committed
suicide because the family wanted her to marry a man she did not love.
Qabbani referred to her as "the martyr of love". Qabbani saw new hope for wider political and social
transformation in the Palestine Liberation Movement. Ala hamish daftar al-naksa
(1967) was born under the devastating shock of the Six Day War. Qabbani
criticized Arab leadership during the war. "The stage is burned / down
to the pit / but the actors have not died yet." (from 'The Actors,' translated by Diana Der Hovanessin and by Lena Jayyusi, Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, New York: Columbia University Press, 1987, p. 379)
He was banned from entering Egypt, partly due to a poem in which he
asked President Gamal Abdul Nasser: "When will you go away?" After Nasser's death he eulogized him as "the Fourth Pyramid" in La! (1970)
– Qabbani idolized the Egyptian strongman for standing up for the
British. Quabbani called Nasser the only true giant "in an age of
dwarfs". Noteworthy, he also supported Saddam Hussein. Shaken by the vicious circle of violence in the Middle East, Qabbani shifted from love themes to political ones. 1967 is said to have been a watershed for many Arab intellectuals. "O my sorrowful country, / You have turned me in a moment / From a poet writing poetry of love and longing / To a poet writing with a knife." (The Political Poetry of Nizār Qabbānī: A Critical Study and Translation by Abdullah A-M. A. Al-Shahham, thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989, p. 54) In a poem written immediately the June defeat Qabbani used the image Harun al-Rashid in a negative sense, as a symbol of tyranny, although in popular memory this famous caliph was the archetype of a great ruler. In 'Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat' from 1967 he wrote: "My master Sultan, / You have lost the war twice / because half of our people have no tongues. / And what is the worth of a voiceless people?" ('Qabbānī, Nizār' by Parvin Loloi, Contemporary World Authors, edited by Tracy Chevalier, Detroit: St. James Press, 1993, p. 421) When many other poets found their main subjects from the world politics and the fight for human dignity, Qabbani still revisited his erotic poems, but giving the concept of love a broader meaning: "If only they knew / that what I write about love / is written for my country." ('Politics and Erotics in Nizar Kabbani's Poetry: From the Sultan's Wife to the Lady Friend' by Mohja Kahf, World Literature Today, Vol. 74, No. 1, Winter, 2000) His early political verse were mostly collected in Al-A 'mal al-styasiyya (1974). Besides being a spokesman for Arab women, Qabbani expressed in many poems his stand against dictatorship. He clashed with King Hussein of Jordan, accusing him of murdering Palestinians living in Amman during the Jordanian-Palestinian war of September 1970. From Egypt he was banished in 1977 after criticizing President Anwar al-Sadat's visit to Israel, labelling Sadat as an agent of Israel who was "mad" and who had "raped" Egypt. Qabbani was married twice. With his first
wife, Zahra Aqbiq, he had two children, Tawfiq and Hadba;
Tawfiq died in a car accident. His second wife was Balqis al-Rawi, an
Iraqi schoolteacher, whom he had first met at a poetry recital in
Baghdad, She inspired many of his love poems, of which 'Choose' has
been read as his marriage proposal. Balqis was killed in 1981 at her
Beirut office in a bomb attack by pro-Iranian guerrillas. Qabbani
remained deeply devoted to her memory for the rest of his life. The
death of his eldest son, a medical student, led him to write Ila al- Ameer al-Dimashqi Tawfiq al-Qabbani
(To the Damascene Prince Tawfiq al-Qabbani). Qabbani's niece, the
feminist writer Rana Qabbani, was married to the Palestinian national
poet Mahmoud Darwish. In the 1980s, Qabbani wrote poems, which celebrated the teenage rebels of the Palestinian intifadah.
'I Am a Terrorist' was directed against Western media for labelling
Arab men terrorist when they defend their homes and their people's
dignity. Following the Oslo Peace Accord, the accord between Israel and
the PLO, he wrote against the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat,
accusing him of having conducted "peace of the weak" at a time when
what the Arabs needed was "peace of the brave." After Balqis's death, Qabbani wrote several poems dealing with his
grief and loss. "I knew that she would be killed / she was
beautiful in an age that was ugly / pure in an age that was
contaminated / noble in the age of hoodlums." (from 'Twelve Roses in Balqis's Hair,' On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Quabbani, p. 64) Nizar Qabbani died of a
heart attack in London on May 1, 1998, after a brief illness. Four days later, his body was flown to Damascus
for burial; it was his final wish to be buried there. Qabbani's funeral was broadcast live all around the Arab
world. A street in Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood in Western Damascus was
named after him. Qabbani was a frequent contributor to the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat. His poems have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Italian, Persian and Russian. Although his work assailed Arab leaders and they were banned, people obtained copies illegally. Many of his lyrics have been popularized by Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian vocalists, including the Egyptian Um Kalthum, the musician Mohammad Abd al-Wahab, the singer Abd al-Halim, the Lebanese star Fayruz. The Iraqi born the top-selling artist Kazem al-Saher acquired the rights to several of Qabbani's lyrical works, such as 'The Impossible Love,' Qabbani's last poem. The Syrian novelist Colette Khury based her bestseller Ayyam Ma'ahou (1959, Days with Him) on her real-life friendship with Qabbani. Although Qabbani's poems continue the sixteen centuries old tradition of Arabic love poetry, they are updated with modern experience and echo the rhythms, intonations, and idioms of everyday language. His early works Qabbani wrote in classical forms. Love is for Qabbani something that is mystical, but at the same time very sensual. Saudi Arabia blacklisted Quabbani for the sexuality of his poetry. "Undress . . . for a very long time / No miracles have fallen on this earth. / Strip naked . . . disrobe. / I am mute— / Your body knows all languages." (from 'The Book of Love,' On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Quabbani, p. 4) Qabbani could also use Christian images: "All that they say about me is true; / All they say about my reputation / In love, with women . . . is true, / But they did not learn / That I bleed in your love / Like Christ." ('Book of Love,' On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Quabbani, p. 3) Influenced by the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, he saw a poem as a painting - one collection was even entitled 'Drawing with Words' (Al-rasm bi-al-kalimat, 1966). "As a person, Nizar was always elegant, friendly, aloof and generous. He was also described as pious. Having spent a long time in the Diplomatic Corps, Nizar presented himself in a dignifie manner that was described by some as arrogant and aristocratic. I, personally, had the honor of meeting with Nizar three times and found him accessible and kind." (from 'Introduction,' in Nizar Qabbani: Journal of An Indifferent Woman, translated from Arabic with an introduction by George Nicolas El-Hage, 2015, p. 9) The Palestinian poet, translator and anthologist Salma Khadra Jayyusi said of Qabbani: "His abundant love poetry is the major source of hope that the human heart can finally transcend pain and fear and dare to assert its capacity to summon joy and engage passion. His poetry brings freedom from tension, liberation from gloom, a refreshing release of laughter and gaiety. Above all, it proudly proclaims a new reverence for the body; it washes away the traditional embarrassment, now many centuries old, which was linked to woman's physical passion." (from 'Introduction' by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology, p. 37) For further reading: al-Marjiʻiyāt al-turāthīyah fī shiʻr Nizār Qabbānī by Nizār Yāsīn Rabābiʻah (2021); Artists, Writers and The Arab Spring by Riad Ismat (2019); Nizar Qabbani: My Story with Poetry: "An Autobiography," translated from the Original Arabic with an introduction by George Nicolas El-Hage (2017); Nizār Qabbānī: Arabische Poesie und kollektives Bewusstsein by Kameran Hudsch (2010); 'Qabbani, Nizar' by Spencer C. Tucker and Sherifa Zuhur, in The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Volume One, A-H, ed. by Spencer C. Tucker (2008); Steel & Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000 by Sami Moubayed (2006); 'Metaphor, Image, and Music in a Line by Nizar Quabbani' by Z. Rihani, Z., Translation Review, ISSU 64 (2002; 'Politics and Erotics in Nizar Kabbani's Poetry: From the Sultan's Wife to the Lady Friend' by Mohja Kahf, in World Literature Today, 74:1, Winter (2000); On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani, by Lena Jayyusi, et al. (1996); 'Qabbānī, Nizār' by Parvin Loloi, Contemporary World Authors, edited by Tracy Chevalier (1993); Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (1977); A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry by M. M. Badawi (1975); 'Poetry as a Social Document' by A. Loya, in Muslim World 63:1 (1973); 'Nizar Quabbani, the Poet and His Poetry' by Z. Gabay, in Middle Eastern Studies 9:2 (1973) Selected bibliography:
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