Muthaffar al-Nawab or Muzaffar al-Nawwab (; 1 January 1934 – 20 May 2022) was an Iraqi poet and political critic.
Life and career
Al-Nawwab was born in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, in 1934 into an
aristocratic
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At the time of the word's ...
Shi'ite family of Indian origin that appreciated art, poetry and music. He showed a talent for poetry from an early age. He completed his undergraduate studies at the
University of Baghdad
The University of Baghdad (UOB) ( ar, جامعة بغداد ''Jāmi'at Baghdād'') is the largest university in Iraq, tenth largest in the Arab world, and the largest university in the Arab world outside Egypt.
Nomenclature
Both University ...
and became a teacher, but was expelled for political reasons in 1955 and remained unemployed for three years, at a difficult time for his family who was suffering financial hardship.
["Iraqi Poets who Lived in Exile", ''Poetry News Agency'' 14 April 2014]
Online:
He joined the
Iraqi Communist Party
The Iraqi Communist Party ( ar, الحزب الشيوعي العراقي '; ku, Partiya Komunista Iraqê حزبی شیوعی عێراق) is a communist party and the oldest active party in Iraq. Since its foundation in 1934, it has dominated the ...
while still at college, and was tortured by the
Hashemite
The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921 ...
Government. After the
Iraqi revolution in 1958 which overthrew the monarchy, he was appointed an inspector at the Ministry of Education. In 1963 he was forced to leave Iraq to neighbouring Iran, after the intensification of competition between the nationalists and the communists who were exposed to prosecution and strict observation by the ruling regime. He was arrested and tortured by the
Iranian secret police, before being forcibly repatriated to the Iraqi government. An Iraqi court handed down a death sentence against him for one of his poems, later commuted to life imprisonment. He escaped prison by digging a tunnel and fled to the marshlands, where he joined a communist faction that sought to overthrow the government.
Known for his powerful revolutionary poems and scathing invectives against Arab dictators, he lived in exile in many countries, including Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Eritrea, where he stayed with the Eritrean rebels, before returning to Iraq in 2011.
Before he returned to Iraq, he had been essentially stateless being able to travel only on Libyan travel documents. The first complete Arabic language edition of his works was published in London in 1996 by "Dar Qanbar" He died on 20 May 2022 in the University Hospital Sharjah in the UAE.
وفاة الشاعر العراقي الكبير مظفر النواب
Al Arabiya
Work
He is often known as the "revolutionary poet". His poetry is replete with Arab and international revolutionary symbols. He used his work to incite public emotions against repressive regimes, political corruption and injustice. His language was harsh, with occasional use of profanity. His earliest writing employed the southern Iraq dialect because he believed that the region was more revolutionary. However, the use of that particular dialect failed to garner a mass audience, and he eventually switched to classical language in his later works.
See also
* Iraqi art
Iraqi art is one of the richest art heritages in world and refers to all works of visual art originating from the geographical region of what is present day Iraq since ancient Mesopotamian periods. For centuries, the capital, Baghdad was the Med ...
* List of Iraqi artists
The following is a list of important artists, including visual arts, poets and musicians, who were born in Iraq, active in Iraq or whose body of work is primarily concerned with Iraqi themes or subject matter.
Note: This article uses Arabic nami ...
References
Further reading
* Athamneh, W., "Arabic Poetry and Terrorism: The Dictator Perishes and the Poet Remains", ''Arab Studies Quarterly'', Vol. 40, No. 2 (Spring 2018), pp. 97–116, DOI: 10.13169/arabstudquar.40.2.0097 (an exaination of the poetry of three revolutionary poets; Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati
Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (December 19, 1926 – August 3, 1999) was an Iraqis, Iraqi Arab poet. He was a pioneer in his field and defied conventional forms of poetry that had been common for centuries.
Biography
He was born in Baghdad, near the s ...
, Nizar Qabbani
Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani ( ar, نزار توفيق قباني, , french: Nizar Kabbani; 21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) was a Syrian diplomat, poet, writer and publisher. He is considered to be Syria's National Poet. His poetic style combines simp ...
and Muzaffar Al-Nawwab
External links
Muzaffar al-Nawwab poems in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nawab, Muzaffar
1934 births
2022 deaths
Iraqi people of Indian descent
Iraqi communists
Iraqi exiles
20th-century Iraqi poets
Writers from Baghdad
21st-century Iraqi poets