Ibrahim Tuqan

Ibrahim Tuqan
Portrait
Born	1905 Nablus, Ottoman Empire
Died	May 2, 1941 Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Occupation	Poet and college professor
Nationality	Palestinian Arab
Period	1923-1941
Genre	Nationalist
Children	Ja'afar Tuqan and Ureib Tuqan Al-Bukhari

Ibrahim Abd al-Fattah Tuqan (Arabic: إبراهيم طوقان‎‎, 1905–May 2, 1941) was a Palestinian nationalist poet whose works rallied Arabs during their revolt against the British. Tuqan was born in Nablus, Palestine during Ottoman times. He was the brother of poet Fadwa Tuqan and he tutored and influenced her to write poetry. Ibrahim belonged to the prominent Tuqan family that governed Nablus for much of the 18th and 19th centuries.

He attended the al-Rashadiyya al-Gharbiyya School in western Nablus for his primary education, then St. George's School in Jerusalem for his secondary education. He continued his studies at the American University in Beirut from 1923 to 1929. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in literature, Tuqan worked as a professor of Arabic literature at An-Najah National University in Nablus. He later worked in two jobs as a professor at the American University in Beirut and a sub-director of the Arabic Programme Section of the Jerusalem-based Palestine Broadcasting Station.

In 1937, he married Samia Abd al-Hadi, and they had one son, Ja'afar, and one daughter, Ureib. Tuqan had stomach problems throughout his life and in 1941 he died at the age of 36 from a peptic ulcer in the French Hospital in Jerusalem.

Tuqan's career as a poet began during his adolescence. He was greatly influenced by his grandfather who wrote zajal, as well as his mother who was fond of "heroic" Arabic literature. After encouragement from his father, Tuqan took a great interest in the Qur'an, apparently "reading it through every Ramadan". Tuqan published his first poem in 1923 while in Beirut. There he found that the Lebanese press were very encouraging of publishing his works.

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