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Ahmad Shauqi (1868-1932). Mixed origin Studied law and translation In1887 was sent by Khedive Taufiq to France to study Law at the University of Montpellier. Held a high office in the court Composed panegyric poems on official occasions
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Mixed origin • Studied law and translation • In1887 was sent by Khedive Taufiq to France to study Law at the University of Montpellier. • Held a high office in the court • Composed panegyric poems on official occasions • known for his loyalty to Abbas and the Ottomans and his attacks on the British • Exiled to Spain in 1915 (during WWI) • Developed interest in Spanish Arabic poets while in exile, especially Ibn Zaidun
Wrote poems about the glories of the past Arab civilization of Spain and his nostalgia for Egypt • Returned to Egypt after the war to devote his time to literary activities. • Identified with the cause of the Egyptian people, nationalistic feelings and aspirations becoming more active, violent (1919). • During this time he wrote his poetic dramas. (except for Ali Bayk al-Kabir in 1893) • Active until his death in 1932 when he was as one scholar said, "at the height of his great poetic gifts".
First volume of verse published in 1898. • Collected works published in four volumes: 1 and 2 in 1926 and 1930, 3 in 1936 and 4 in 1943 (both posthumously) • First volume contains poems on historical, political, social themes • Second volume contained descriptive, amatory, miscellaneous poems • Third volume was devoted to elegies • Fourth volume was a mixed collection including poems from the three previous categories as well as juvenilia, fables, poems for children and some humorous verse
In 1961 Muhammed Sabri published 2 more volumes under the title:al-Shauqiyyat al-Majhula • In addition to poems he published many short prose romances of • indifferent quality. Example: Adhra al Hind (The Maid of India, 1897), Ladiyas, 1899 and others. • Translated Lamartine's Le Lac into Arabic verse (translation lost) • While in France became interested in theater and wrote the first serious modern Arabic poetic drama • Remained a neoclassicist although he borrowed the external form of Western literature • Wrote a variation on Avicenna's Ode on the Soul setting an example to be followed by other succeeding poets • Accomplishment: made the traditional Abbasid idiom so relevant to the problems of modern life that poetry became a force to be reckoned with in the political life of modern Egypt.
