The owner of the famous house, “If the people ever wanted life, then fate must respond.” He was a sentimental poet with a deep feeling. He called for the liberation of Arabic poetry from its old stereotype, and openness to thought, imagination and new forms of expression.
Birth and upbringing
Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi was born on February 24, 1909 in the village of al-Shaba in the governorate of Tozeur, the capital of the oases in southern Tunisia.
He grew up in a religious and educated family, his father, Muhammad al-Shabi, graduated from the Al-Azhar Mosque, and became a judge.
Abu al-Qasim accompanied his father when he was a child on all his movements between the Tunisian cities in which he worked, which gave him knowledge of many areas and created a great love for the beauty of the places he visited.
Study and training
He received his primary education in the Arabic language only in the Qur’anic books in the city of Gabes (south), and he had a strong memory that enabled him to memorize the Qur’an at the age of nine, and he began to learn the origins of Arabic and religion at the hands of his father until he was sent in 1920 to the capital, when he was in the second Ten to pursue secondary education at Al-Zaytoonah University.
He was not satisfied with the lessons that were given in the mosque, he used more than reading to expand his knowledge, and he used to frequent the libraries of the ancients of Sadiqiyah and Khalduniyah to draw on ancient and modern Arabic literature, as well as European literature based on some translations.
In 1927, Chebbi obtained a high school diploma from the Zitouna Mosque, the highest certificate awarded at that time, then joined the Tunisian Law School and graduated in 1930.
His presence in the capital, Tunis, enabled him to attend literary councils and intellectual forums, and he joined the literary club of the ancients of Sadiqiyah.
His literary talents began to emerge in his poems and lectures, which indicated a desire for renewal and transgression of the familiar, which drew criticism from conservatives.
The literary path
Abu al-Qasim's education was based mainly on the Arabic language, but his thought was open to other cultures, so he read European and American literature.
In February 1929, al-Shabbi gave the first lecture in his literary life at the Khalduniyah Library on “The Poetic Imagination of the Arabs,” reviewing all Arab production of poetry in different times and in all countries, after which he became the writer of the newly established Muslim Youth Association.
He loved sitting among the great Tunisian writers. When he was a student at the Zitouna Mosque, he frequented the literary club to listen to lectures, poetry councils, and thought forums.
He called for the liberation of Arabic poetry from all the remnants of the old, and to follow the example of the Western flags in thought and imagination. During his lecture, he directed a sharp criticism towards the mentality of inertia entrenched in the minds of some men of culture and politics who refuse to open up and develop poetry, literature and creativity.
His lecture provoked critical reactions to him, to the extent that some conservatives called for a boycott of him, which hurt himself, which he translated in some of his poems, and his psychological condition worsened after the death of his father and the departure of his beloved.
His poems varied, the most prominent of which were in nature, spinning, and patriotism. He took the "Apollo" magazine in Cairo as a platform, and published a number of his poems in it, which prompted its editor-in-chief, poet Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi, to ask him to write the introduction to his book "The Fountain".
Despite his fame in the field of modern Arabic literature, he met with a lot of rejection and alienation from the conservative writers in Tunisia.
Al-Shabbi was one of the poets who sang about the future and believed in renewal, and rejected stagnation and imitation, and poured themselves into their social reality, so he sang about life, art, homeland, nature, revolution and the will to live.
The poem "The Melody of Life" is one of the most famous poems of al-Shabbi, and it included the famous poetic line "If the people ever wanted life***, then fate must respond", which was the most prominent slogan raised by angry youth during the Arab Spring revolutions.
The most famous of his works
is the Divan of Songs of Life and the Poetic Imagination of the Arabs. He wrote part of his memoirs, and has literary articles and various poems that he published in the Egyptian “Apollo” magazine, which was the door to his fame to the Arab world.
Death
Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi died - at the age of 25 - on October 9, 1934 at the Habib Thamer Hospital in the capital, Tunis (formerly Italian Hospital) after a long struggle with heart disease, and deep sadness over the death of his father.