Abu Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abu al-Fath (1058–1138/9), called Ibn Khafajah, a native of Alzira, was one of the most famous poets of al-Andalus during the reign of the Almoravids. He was born in 1058 in Alzira near Valencia where he spent most of his life. He was the maternal uncle of poet Ibn al-Zaqqaq.
Ibrahim Abd al-Fattah Tuqan was a Palestinian nationalist poet whose work rallied Arabs during their revolt against the British mandate. Tuqan was born in Nablus, Palestine. 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 during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Muhammad Sulayman al-Ahmad, better known by his pen name Badawi al-Jabal, was a Syrian poet known for his work in the neo-classical Arabic form. According to anthologist Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Badawi was "one of the greatest poets of the old school".
Nasib Arida was a Syrian-born poet and writer of the Mahjar movement and a founding member of the New York Pen League.
Aida Adib Bamia is professor emeritus of Arabic language and literature at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is a specialist in North African literature. Her work on Arabic literature has helped to bring quality translations to English readers.
Zayd Mutee' Dammaj, was a Yemeni author and politician. He is best known for his short novel The Hostage which was selected by the Arab Writers Union as one of the top 100 Arabic novels of the 20th century.
Al-Rahinah or The Hostage is a 1984 Yemeni short novel by Zayd Mutee' Dammaj. It was selected by the Arab Writers Union as one of the 100 best Arabic novels of the 20th century. The novel has been translated into French, English, German, Russian and Hindi.
Mayfa' Abdel Rahman al-Qiyadi was a Yemeni short story writer and journalist. He studied at the Gorky Institute in Moscow and obtained an MA in 1982. He is known for his short stories which explore the social and political realities of Yemen. His first collection of short stories appeared in 1975, followed by a second one in 1983. His work has appeared in English translation in a 1988 anthology called The Literature of Modern Arabia.
Abd al-Majeed al-Qadi is a Yemeni playwright and writer. His work is notable for its engagement with social problems that afflict Yemen. His first two plays were called Al-Daudahi's Daughter and Young Man Mansour. His short story, "The Final Ring", has been translated into English and appeared in a 1988 anthology on modern Arabian literature.
Liana Badr is a Palestinian novelist, and short story writer.
Kamal Haydar (1933–1980) was a short story writer from southern Yemen. He was noted for his stories that dealt with social issues in Yemen. He published a collection of his short stories, Signpost (1978), only two years before his death. One of his stories, "A Man of No Consequence", was translated into English by Olive Kenny and Thomas Ezzy and appeared in a 1988 anthology of modern Arabian literature.
Trevor LeGassick was a noted Western scholar and translator in the field of Arabic literature. He obtained a BA in Arabic from the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1958 and completed a PhD, also from SOAS, in 1960. After stints in Wisconsin and Indiana, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1966, where he would teach for fifty-two years. He was promoted to full professor in 1979.
Issa J. Boullata was a Palestinian scholar, writer, and translator of Arabic literature.
Yahya Yakhlif is a Palestinian writer and a novelist. He was born in Samakh, a Palestinian village that was abandoned during the 1948 Palestinian exodus, four years after Yakhlif's birth. Consequently, Yakhlif and his family became displaced refugees.
The Project of Translation from Arabic is an academic project initiated by Dr Salma Khadra Jayyusi in 1980 in order to translate, and publish, works of Arabic literature into the English language. The stated goal of PROTA is "the dissemination of Arabic culture and literature abroad." The project had its genesis in the late 1970s when Columbia University Press invited Jayyusi to prepare a large anthology of modern Arabic literature. Funding came from the Iraqi Ministry of Information and Culture. Two major anthologies came out of this early endeavour: Modern Arabic Poetry (1987) and The Literature of Modern Arabia (1988).
Al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir (1912–1937) was a Sudanese poet who wrote in Arabic. He died from tuberculosis at the age of 25, and his work only became widely known after his death. Al-Tijani's poetry is generally classified as belonging to the Romantic tradition, although he had strong Neoclassical influences.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provide translation of Arabic literature into English.
Husain Sirhan was a Saudi Arabian poet. Born in Mecca, he had limited schooling and was largely self-taught. His writing was full of innovative ideas, and he was also exercised by the question of death. He became a recluse in later life. His poetry was translated into English and appeared in two anthologies of Arabian literature.
Rajaz is a metre used in classical Arabic poetry. A poem composed in this metre is an urjūza. The metre accounts for about 3% of surviving ancient and classical Arabic verse.
Shi'r was an avant-garde monthly literary magazine with a special reference to poetry. The magazine was published in Beirut, Lebanon, between 1957 and 1970 with a three-year interruption. The founders were two leading literary figures: Yusuf al-Khal and Adunis.
