Al-Mutanabbī

Al-Mutanabbi is one of the best Arabic poets of the classical period. He was born in Kufa in what is now southern Iraq during the early tenth century-a place and time of great importance because of the proliferation of petty kingdoms in the central Muslim lands. A product of his time, he was mostrar más patronized by the Hamdanid ruler in Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawlah, for whom he wrote many panegyrics. Because he was educated among the Bedouin, he was well versed in the traditional poetry of Arabia, and many critics and literary historians now consider him as representing the peak of patronized poetry. He was, however, quite unorthodox in his views, which landed him in prison. During his lifetime he was accused not only of blasphemy but also of plagiarism. His pen name, al-Mutanabbi, means "one who pretends to be a prophet." Although he used some of the oldest forms of the Arabic language, he combined them with new poetic elements and wrote with great clarity. The intensity of his language often gives his poetry a heroic quality. In spite of all the criticisms leveled against him, his poetry is of a moralistic nature. True to the rather unorthodox life he lived, al-Mutanabbi died in 965 at the hands of highwaymen. 020 Al-Sa'Dawi, Nawal Life Dates:1931- Nawal al-Sa'dawi is one of the most published Arab women writers in the West and in the Arab world, yet she has received scant critical acclaim in her homeland, especially among more conservative readers. Her outspoken feminist and political views have even led to her imprisonment in the past. She was born in the Nile Delta village of Kafr Tahla in 1931 and was trained as a medical doctor. For a brief time, she was the Director of Public Health. This medical background figured in some of her works of fiction, most notably Mudhakkirat Tabibah (Memoirs of a Woman Doctor), which first appeared in serialized form in the popular Egyptian weekly Ruz al-Yusuf. In recent years she has held academic posts and, continuing to be politically active, helped found the Arab Women's Solidarity Association. She was editor of its journal Nashrat Tadamun al-Mar'ah al-'Arabiyah for its brief four-issue run before it was suspended in 1991. Although al-Sa'dawi is primarily known for her novels, she has also written short stories, memoirs, travel essays, and social criticism. The most notable example of the last genre is The Hidden Face of Eve, which deals with women's issues in the Arab world. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos