Banned by the British and memorialized by the masses, Nuh Ibrahim’s poetry embodied the Palestinian spirit of resistance in the 1930s.
The year was 1930. The Great Depression was in full swing, devastating lives from Australia to Egypt. In Cairo, the divine, haunting voice of Umm-Kulthum had started to attract attention, as she went from unknown daughter of a rural imam to legendary diva who would soon hold the Arab public in thrall. And in Syria, the French introduced a new constitution to assert power over the Syrian nationalist movement, as strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience punctuated life in Damascus.
That same year, on a June morning in the coastal Palestinian city of
- 1. “Siyasat al-Dima’. Hal Takun Wasila lil Salam? [The policy of blood. Is it a means to peace?]” Filastin, June 25, 1930. Barakat, Rena. Thawrat al-Buraq in British Mandate Palestine: Jerusalem, Mass Mobilization, and Colonial Politics, 1928-1930. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago, 2007.
- 2. Barakat, Rena. Thawrat al-Buraq in British Mandate Palestine: Jerusalem, Mass Mobilization, and Colonial Politics, 1928-1930. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago, 2007.
“I am not just your brother or son, I am the brother and son of our umma [nation]. Do not cry or wail after me… you must sing and be happy… my death should be celebrated… [because the] umma that stands in the face of this misery and fights it, is an umma that will forever survive.”1
- 1. Quoted in Barakat. “Thawrat al-Buraq” Second bracket in the original.
Red Tuesday was also the name of a poem penned by the famed poet
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Born in
- 1. Shaheed, Samih. “Poetry of Rebellion: the Life, Verse and Death of Nuh Ibrahim during the 1936-39 Revolt.” Jerusalem Quarterly 25 (2006), p. 65.
- 2. Hijab, Nemer. Al-sha‘ir al-Sha‘bi: al-Shahid Nuh Ibrahim [The Popular Poet: the Martyr Nuh Ibrahim]. al-Yazori Press: 2006.
- 3. Ibid. And: Shaheed. “Poetry of Rebellion," p. 66.
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In memory of Hijazi, Jamjoum and al-Zeer, he wrote:
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The town crier called, a strike’s at hand On Tuesday, they will be hanged Ata and Fou’ad, who are so brave Fear not reprisal, fear not the grave. |
Since the 1930s this poem, From Acre Prison, has been popularized as a folk song. Most famously, it was recorded in the 1980s by the band al-‘Ashiqin, who have performed it in festivals from Palestine to Algeria and Yemen.
Though known at the time as the poet of the
It is hard to imagine him as the same man who was a favored disciple of the legendary anti-Zionist leader and imam
- 1. Hijab. "The Popular Poet."
In 1937, Nuh Ibrahim was himself sent to Acre prison for five months. There, he became known for writing poems for the prisoners and reciting them. His most famous work during this time, Mr. Bailey, became the anthem of political prisoners, both men and women, during the British Mandate.1
- 1. Shaheed. “Poetry of Rebellion,” p. 66.
After being released from prison, he joined fellow fighters in the revolt while continuing to write zajal, and his work became so popular that the British press censor issued a ban against its publication:
“Based on my jurisdiction as censor of the press, and as established by the emergency laws, I, Owen Tweedy, warn against the printing or publishing of the book containing the collection of poems by Nuh Ibrahim which was printed outside Palestine, and which is also known as “The Song Collection of Nuh Ibrahim”, whether printed or published in the open or secretly.”1
Nuh Ibrahim’s fame as a poet was fated to last only four years. In 1938, he died at the height of his fame–only 25 years old–in an ill-matched battle with the British in the