Proceedings Book, ECLSS CSU, 2020 Final

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 2019

In January this year, with my first article on Salīm Barakāt, Empire, Split Ethnicities, and an Explosion of Poetry, I introduced Barakāt’s early writings saying that guidelines to understanding the poetry of the Kurdish poet Salīm Barakāt (b. 1951, Qamishli, Syria) are to be found in a poem by his friend, Palestinian poet Maḥmūd Darwīsh (b. 1941, al-Birweh, Palestine – d. 2008). I now present guidelines to understanding the mature output of both these poets guided by Barakāt’s poem “Maḥmūd Darwīsh” (1984 – 2002). Barakāt’s multi-layered substantially surrealistic poem also serves as an ‘index to the acts of the wind.’ In the same period, Syrian Alevi poet Adūnīs (Ali Ahmad Said Esber, b. 1930) published his book al-Sūfiyya wal Surriyāliyya (Sufism and Surrealism) (Dar al-Saqi, 1995), and then his poem Fihris li-A‘māl al-Rīḥ (Index to the Acts of the Wind) (1998) exemplifying the theories of the book. I have included translations of salient whole poems. Keywords: Salīm Barakāt, Maḥmūd Darwīsh, Adūnīs, Modern Arabic Poetry, Sufism, Surrealism

Middle Eastern Literatures, 2019

Salīm Barakāt is a Syrian-Kurdish poet and novelist, who first appeared on the Arabic poetic scene in the early 1970s. Although he experimented in his early work with a mixed form of verse and prose, he ultimately took up prose as matter for poetry, positing a distinct definition of the “poetic” rooted in an interrogation of the Arabic language and a close attentiveness to and violent playfulness with its grammar and syntax. This paper is a close reading of a poem titled “Istiṭrād fī siyāq mukhtazal” (Digression in an Abridged Context) from his 1996 collection T̩aysh al-yāqūt (The Recklessness of Sapphire). Language in this poem is penetrated, disrupted, occupied and overcome as the poem progresses towards its final Kurdish “shot,” towards the echo within one tongue of another tongue that has been repressed. Thus, Barakāt superimposes the linguistic onto the ethnic, sublimating the tension of Arab and Kurd into an invasive linguistic intervention. By that, he also disrupts the relationship between language and voice and urges us through his language play to hear, in Arabic, a different voice.

Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts, 2014

In order for the English reader to understand, enjoy and appreciate contemporary Iraqi poetry, light must be shed on its past. The reader will find that the translated poetry reflects the experiences of theIraqi people, dictatorship, social problems and the horrors of war and terrorism that the country still endures. The article that accompanies the poems, written by Professor Malik AlMuttalibi (College of Fine Art, Baghdad University) aims to paint a picture of the historical background of contemporary Iraqi poetry and the stages through which it went. Khaloud Al-Muttalibi

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 2018

Abstract Guidelines to understanding the poetry of the Kurdish poet-prophet Salim Barakat (b. 1951, Qamishli, Syria) are to be found in a poem by his friend, the Palestinian poet-prophet Mahmud Darwish (b. 1941, al-Birweh, Palestine – d. 2008) – Laisa lil-Kurdi ila al-Rih [Ila: Salim Barakat] (The Kurd Has Only the Wind [For Salim Barakat]) ( (2004). For the benefit of the English-speaking reader, as Darwish‘s poem and Barakat‘s poetry (also in Arabic) have not previously been translated to English, I have included, in the body of this study, my translation of Darwish‘s aforementioned poem and various of Barakat‘s poems, namely: Niqabat al-Ansab (Lineage) (1970); Kama‟in fi al-Mun„atafat Killiha / Htam ma – Sihm (Ambushes at Turns / Conclusion – A Sort of Arrow) (1985). I have appended the whole of Barakat‘s long poem Surya (Syria) (2014). The techniques Barakat introduces into the art of writing modern Arabic poetry come from modern mainstream poetry, as well as from his Kurdish and Persian background. Altogether his concept of history, which puts into sharp outline the norm of the ancient and medieval world of empire, enters the poem-of-his-being, the ―work‖ as Maurice Blanchot describes it – and makes his chronicling unique. Discussion of the selected poems clarifies as to how Barakat became a poet-prophet, and describes the commitment he took on not only to the Kurdish nation, but also to the entire Middle East. Keywords: Salim Barakat, Kurdish poet, Zoroastrianism, modern Arabic poetry, Mahmud Darwish

Journal of Arabic Literature, 2017

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 2018

Abstract Kurdish poet Salim Barakat (b. 1951, Qamishli, Syria) in 1986 published a philosophical poem entitled Haza‟in Manhuba (Glimpses of Spoliation), the whole of which I have translated from the original Arabic and included as annotated appendix. Barakat writes modern secular poetry in a genre I describe as modern Islamic literature, a genre that finds its roots in the Turkic poetry of Shah Isma‟il I who founded the Safavid dynasty in Persia. Barakat‟s theoretical model for his philosophical poem within the aforementioned genre, and his use of meaning-making techniques of repetition is to be found in the arena of ancient Greek literature. It is, however, essentially his concept of history that affords him space to include these meaning-making poetic techniques as he strives to present to his readership an exact description of the revolts, uprisings and insurgencies that have been ongoing since the Abbasid caliphate. He explains the why and how of the wrongdoing, and the consequences on the Day of Judgment, the divine sphere of action functioning as part of his historical narrative. His symbols, in this particular poem, lean less on the Persian and Arabic Sufi poets. He rather creates symbols of his own, symbols that provide an aura of the scientific, and are as “unimaginative” as possible – being symbols of the most basic kind. As usual, his extraordinarily skilled and extensive use of devices of repetition reflect his Kurdish heritage. Keywords: Salim Barakat, Unimaginative Symbols, Kurdish, Kurdish heritage, Haza‟in Manhuba

مجلة العلوم الإنسانية والطبيعية, 2022

This study concentrates on the Saudi poet Mustafa Balilah and a distinguished poem by him in order to shed light on some literary characteristics of contemporary Saudi Arabian poetry. It places special emphasis on the concept of 'homeland' as an illustration of where modern Saudi poetry is headed. One may argue that Arabic poetry is currently enjoying good conditions among Arab authors, critics, and poets. By manipulating the poet's lovely poem as a symbol of his devotion to his large realm, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the researcher expects to highlight, on the one hand, the poet's knowledge. On the other hand, the researcher makes an effort to examine the poet's genius in how he used the Arabic language in his poem, focusing on the conception of the homeland. The paper commences with a brief introduction. It is divided into three main pieces. The first shows a general idea of Saudi Poetry: Outline, presenting the status of Saudi poetry as a genre of the ancient-living Arabic literature. The next piece deals with a short survey of the concept of homeland in the poetry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its influence. After that, it moves to the third part, which presents a critical-analytical approach to The Poem Analysis: My Beloved Homeland with a selection of lines from the poem. Finally, the paper comes to an end with a succinct conclusion and recommendations.

2024

Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory is a pioneering book that offers a fresh perspective on Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literature in their interrelations. The authors challenge Eurocentric paradigms while creating a framework for exploring these traditions on their own terms. Authored by an international team of scholars, the chapters centre the conceptual foundations of their respective literary traditions, with a focus on the discipline of comparative poetics ('ilm al-balāgha) in the Islamic world. By liberating the study of Islamicate literary texts from Eurocentric theoretical paradigms, the book paves the way for a more inclusive global discourse in literary studies. Specifically, the roots of this collaborative research in comparative poetics and in the rhetorical traditions of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkic worlds will foster new methods of close reading that are in line with the aesthetic standards intrinsic to these texts and their traditions. Engaging and insightful, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in broadening their understanding of world literature and literary theory.

2020

Arabs from widely different experiences have resorted to language arts over the centuries to express themselves and as a means of encouraging, regulating, or shaping their societies' social fabric. The current study is an effort to evaluate and analyse the literary, metaphysical, theosophical, philosophical, and imaginative dimensions of the Al-Khansa' poetry. It is a fact that too many studies have now been completed on the Abbasid period's poets, and far less attention was paid to the reviews on the Poets of the Abbasid period, so this is the insight that have culminated me to endeavour upon operating on the subject. The findings are based entirely on a review of the literature of books and papers previously published, and a study from a few listed poems. The critical inference is that the influence of Arabic poems entirely depends on how they have been written. Besides, the development of reasonably large stages for poetry shedding, the availability of rewards for innovative poetry, and even an authoritarian dictator or institution's backing are established as its most significant factors for developing a famous poem.

To read Mahmoud Darwish is an unforgettable and transformative experience, one of beauty and simultaneously of profound pain for it makes the reader vividly aware of the injustice and staggering cruelty that Palestinians have endured for almost seventy years at the hands of Israel, a genocide the entire world is accountable for. The renowned Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka eloquently describes this effect: “Then came silence. Mahmoud Darwish began to read. We did not know a word of Arabic, but we heard his voice reach out and sink deep down to pluck the strings of the Palestinian soul. It was a magical night in Ramallah, the magician’s night in Ramallah, the magician, Mahmoud Darwish, whose spell was cast the way it has been through ages…” In his tireless quest for freedom, Mahmoud Darwish successfully transcends all kinds of borders. Not only those of land and occupation, and the confines of oppression, but also those of country and nationalism. Furthermore, Darwish’s poetry frees his audience from the boundaries of subjective experience, allowing them to access “visions of universal truths in the depths of the mind.” Although Mahmoud Darwish “did as much as anyone to forge a Palestinian national consciousness,” his poetry and prose deal primarily with humanity, “highlighting universal human values through the mirror of the Palestinian experience.”