Ibrahim Tuqan

Ibrahim Tuqan
200px Portrait
Born	1905 Nablus, Ottoman Empire
Died	May 2, 1941 Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Occupation	Poet and college professor
Nationality	Palestinian Arab
Period	1923-1941
Genre	Nationalist
Children	Ja'afar Tuqan

Ibrahim Abd al-Fattah Tuqan (Arabic: إبراهيم طوقان‎‎, 1905–May 2, 1941) was a Palestinian nationalist poet whose works rallied Arabs during their revolt against the British. Tuqan was born in Nablus, Palestine during Ottoman times. He was the brother of poet Fadwa Tuqan and he tutored and influenced her to write poetry. Ibrahim belonged to the prominent Tuqan family that governed Nablus for much of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Biography

File:Ibrahim Abdelfattah Toukan.jpg

Tuqan at an early age

He attended the al-Rashadiyya al-Gharbiyya School in western Nablus for his primary education, then St. George's School in Jerusalem for his secondary education. He continued his studies at the American University in Beirut from 1923 to 1929. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in literature, Tuqan worked as a professor of Arabic literature at An-Najah National University in Nablus. He later worked in two jobs as a professor at the American University in Beirut and a sub-director of the Arabic Programme Section of the Jerusalem-based Palestine Broadcasting Station.

In 1937, he married Samia Abd al-Hadi, and they had one son, Ja'afar, and one daughter, Urieb. Tuqan had stomach problems throughout his life and in 1941 he died at the age of 36 from a peptic ulcer in the French Hospital in Jerusalem.

Poetry

Tuqan's career as a poet began during his adolescence. He was greatly influenced by his grandfather who wrote zajal, as well as his mother who was fond of "heroic" Arabic literature. After encouragement from his father, Tuqan took a great interest in the Qur'an, apparently "reading it through every Ramadan". Tuqan published his first poem in 1923 while in Beirut. There he found that the Lebanese press were very encouraging of publishing his works.

Most of his poems dealt with the Arab struggle against the British who had controlled Palestine since 1922 as a mandate. His poems gained fame in the Arab world during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. According to author Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Tuqan's poetry is marked by "sincerity and emotional veracity. His verse clear and direct, the diction simple and well-chosen, and the phrases powerful and often terse."

Here is an excerpt from one of his notable poems, Mawtini, which he wrote during the Arab revolt:

The sword and the pen

Not talking nor quarreling

Are our symbols

Our glory and covenant

And a duty to fulfill it

Shake us

Our honor

Is an honorable cause

A raised flag

O, your beauty

In your eminence

Victorious over your enemies

My homeland

My homeland

The poem is the de facto national anthem of the Palestinian National Authority and in 2003, Iraq adopted the poem as its official national anthem.

See also

• List of notable people from Nablus
• List of Palestinians