Iraqi poet Muthaffar al-Nawab dies at 88

The great Iraqi poet Muthaffar al-Nawab died on Friday at the age of 87 after a struggle with illness.

“Al-Nawab died in University Hospital Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates," his family said.

al-Nawab was born in Baghdad, in 1934 into an aristocratic Shiite 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 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

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.



PUKmedia