The 79th anniversary of his passing ... Ibrahim Toukan, the owner of the "Mawtani" anthem, and the professor who opposed the Prince of Poets

Mervat Sadiq-Ramallah

79 years have passed since the death of the Palestinian poet Ibrahim Touqan, the author of the poem “Mawtani”, which became an unofficial anthem for Palestine, as he died in May 1941.

Despite decades of his absence, his poems are still present in the national and Arab memory, and writers invoke him as "one of the most important poets of his time."

Palestinian and Arabic literature is named Ibrahim Touqan as one of the poles of modern Arab poetry, and he is called "the poet of patriotism and the guardian of the earth", after his poems were known against British colonialism and Zionist ambitions in the thirties of the twentieth century, and he was one of the most famous writers of his time calling for Arab nationalism.

Beginnings in Nablus The
poet was born to the well-known family of Touqan in Nablus in 1905, and he is the brother of the Jordanian Prime Minister at the end of the seventies Ahmed Touqan, and for the "poet of Palestine" Fadwa Touqan, whose teacher and editor of her poems was written about him by his well-known author "my brother Ibrahim".

Touqan received his elementary lessons at the Rashidiyya School in Nablus, and it was said that she was distinguished by its educational curriculum that was different from that adopted by the Ottoman Empire in that era, thanks to its professors who studied in the reign of Al-Azhar Al Sharif, and they were influenced in Egypt by the poetic and literary rise of the era. 

Touqan enrolled in the Bishop High School in Jerusalem in 1919, in which he was educated by Nakhle Zreik, one of the flags of teaching the Arabic language in Jerusalem and the Levant, then he joined the American University in Beirut in 1923 and obtained a degree in literature in 1929. He married a woman from the Abdul Hadi family and gave birth to Jaafar And an Arab.

His stories on the radio
Toukan worked in education at the An-Najah National School in Nablus, then returned to teaching at the American University of Beirut, and worked as a teacher of the Arabic language for two years (1931-1933). In 1936 he took over the Arabic section of Radio Hina al-Quds, and was appointed director of Arab programs.

Tuqan's radio experience was mentioned in a documentary entitled "Here Jerusalem", directed by Raed Dizdar, in which he exposed the role of the poet and his outstanding contributions, whether through his poems, literary tales, or his role in covering the massacres committed by the Zionist gangs.

The Palestinian Research Center mentions the protest of the Zionist movement to the British Mandate of Ibrahim Touqan as a result of the literary tale “The Truth of Samawal” (Jewish pre-Islamic poet) that aroused the ire of the Zionist movement, after Touqan said that the fact that Samuels protected shields in his fortress that he was known to, is not because of loyalty to their owners as It was common, but “because of his love for money and greed known to the Jews,” and for his stances, the British sacked Toukan from his work on radio in 1940.

Touqan traveled to Iraq, where he worked as a teacher in the high teachers ’home, where he was dubbed“ the poet of the university ”, before his life fell upon him and returned to his country, where he died at the age of 36 on May 2, 1941, before seeing his homeland“ safe, forbidden, and honored. He also sang in the poem “Mawtani” written in 1934 and composed by musician Muhammad Fleifel, to be repeated by Arab students in all their arenas until today.

In 1990, the Palestine Liberation Organization awarded him the "Jerusalem for Culture, Arts and Literature" Medal, and his biography was presented in an Iraqi series entitled "Ibrahim Toukan".

Unpublished papers
in the book "Ibrahim Gardens", the Palestinian poet Al-Mutawakkil Taha presented unpublished papers to Ibrahim Toukan and studies of his poetry, and in his letters and special teachings to his sister, Fadwa, who was his teacher and guide in writing poetry and continued with the world of literature.

In the letters, he writes her with al-Fusha and then addresses her in brackets with the accent of the people of Nablus (How Melih ha is), then signs his name that Barhoum calls him.

The poet Taha, who is interested in the history and achievement of Ibrahim Toukan, says that "poetry fails when it loses the compass, and cuts the link to history and accumulated experiences, and heavy symbols, and to what the spirit of the group accomplished throughout its existence", as if it was completely intended that one of the factors of Touqan's survival and his poems are immortal in memory, that he preserved A compass for his cause and he worked to strengthen the spirit of the group in his nationality.

Here also the professor of Arabic literature and critic Adel Al-Osta explains the reasons for the permanent attendance of Touqan in the national memory. He says, "If we go to the fact that we - the Palestinians - lived after the period of Touqan experiences similar to the conditions in his time, then his poems written about the events of his time remained appropriate because Is now cited. "

Al-Osta mentions Al-Jazeera Net that Touqan’s poetry was opposed to old Arab poets whose poems were immortalized, and by her immortality his poems were also immortalized. As opposed to the prince of poets Ahmed Shawky in his poem, “Arise the teacher and give him veneration ..” Toukan replied in the poem “The Poet The Teacher”:

If he had experienced education longing for an hour, he would have spent naughty and idle life

Al Osta says that Touqan was a poet of a homeland and that his affiliation was not a party or a leader. He attacked the parties and the tragedies that brought them to Palestine, so he wrote:

My heart is for my country

Not for a party or leader 

My goal is national service

In my misery or obscurity

Al-Osta believes that the singing and writing of the poem “Mawtani” was a national anthem that contributed to its spread and perpetuation. Because people - he says - hated parties and leaders, and saw that the homeland is greater than these and this is what the hymn achieves.

Opened in poetry
in terms of his role, Ibrahim Touqan renewed in Arabic poetry, according to Al-Osta, so he wrote different poems in form. The Palestinian historian and writer Ihsan Abbas listed four poems of Touqan in which he saw a breakthrough in all Arab poetry: “the guerrilla” and “the red Tuesday”, the “Ethiopian sacrifice” and “Ghada Seville”, and Abbas said of him that he is “the only poet of his generation” Who deserved the title of poet. "

Al-Osta believes that Touqan was the one who first exposed the Palestinian militant figure to poetry with verses that "do not escape from his safety ... his soul is above his comfort," and his student, the poet, the martyr Abdel-Rahim Mahmoud "Abu Salma" followed.

In his poetic language, Touqan rang between poetry eloquent heritage and those close to the vernacular, as he approached the limits of the drama and wrote poems with a symbolic direction such as "Abyssin the slaughtered" and "Muzbul Bulbul".

We should not forget his tendency to ridicule, Al-Osta says: “His poetic irony was an important step in the path of Palestinian poetry, and it is not ridiculous without wit. It was a tendency to write satirical poems close to the current language, taking a saying that was popular in his era.” The best poetry was not close to the language of the people, "he said, and felt that poetry was a joke that the poet could write and might fail, and he succeeded in doing so.

Al-Osta recalls the great role of Touqan's national poems in inflaming feelings against colonialism, and his sister, Fadwa, said that when he read the poem "Red Tuesday" (1930) in a demonstration in Nablus denouncing the execution of three revolutionaries in the Acre prison (Muhammad Jumum, Atta Al-Zeer and Fouad Hijazi), he raised Feelings of the people, "If there were English police, an unforeseen event would happen."

Like his national poems, readers also defined social poems by Ibrahim Touqan, such as the poem “Laying the Doves According to them,” in which he glorified the nursing profession.