Mustafa Wahbi Al-Tal | |
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Arar, 1922
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Born | Mustafa Wahbi Saleh Al-Tal May 25, 1897 Irbid, Ottoman Empire |
Died | May 24, 1949 Irbid, Jordan |
(aged 51)
Pen name | 'Arar |
Occupation | Lawyer, judge, teacher, political agitator, writer, poet, philosopher |
Language | Arabic, English, Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, French. |
Nationality | Jordan |
Genre | Poetry, essay, philosophical literature, social commentary, translation |
Notable works | Ashiyyat Wadi Al-Yabis, Arar Political Papers, Al 'A'imma Fe Quraish, Bil Rafah Wal Banin, translation of Khayyam's famous quatrain to Arabic |
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Mustafa Wahbi Al-Tal, better known as Arar (25 May 1897 – 24 May 1949), was a Jordanian nationalist poet, reformist, lawyer, teacher, judge, political agitator and philosopher. He was a pioneer of Jordanian patriotism and a spokesman for the nation’s ideals and aspirations. He was known for his nationalist and revolutionary oeuvre and his activism in accordance to it. Rebellious patriotism in Arar's poetry is inextricably tied to his never-ending Don Juanism. As a lover, obsessed by the nostalgia for places that had once quenched his thirst for love, Arar created a quite new type of metaphors and terms of reference to the beloved and to her place in the poet's dream-world. Place-related identity terms referring to the poet's beloved or her close surroundings.
Arar was born Mustafa Saleh Mustafa Yousef Al-Tall in the city of Irbid in Jordan during the Ottoman Empire era. A second name, "Wahbi," was added to his birth name per the Western tradition imported via the Ottoman Turks. Jordan was at that time a part of the Ottoman Empire referred to as Bilad Al-Sham.
He finished his elementary school education in Irbid in 1911. In 1912, Arar registered in a school in Damascus called the Anbur School, which was named after a Damascan Jew who founded it. Arar's father was an alumnus school. Before the end of the school year, however, he was exiled with some other Jordanian students to Beirut, Lebanon, by the Ottoman authorities. He returned to Anbur School from exile in 1913 or 1914, and then visited Irbid during 1915. In 1917, while in tenth grade, he visited Istanbul for six months, which was during World War I. During this time he also got married to Setteh Jaber Marashdeh.
In 1917 or 1918, he was exiled again to Beirut, for political activism. From 1919 to 1920, he participated in a demonstration and gets expelled once again from Anbur School to Aleppo, Syria. He earned his high school diploma from the Madrasat Tajheez Halab in Aleppo.
Following completion of his high-school education, he found employment as a teacher of Arabic literature in Al Karak in 1922. He was, however, fired from his job in 1923 and was first exiled to Ma'an, then Aqaba, and then Jeddah. On his return from exile in 1924 he began his long-lasting relationship with the Gypsy community in Mandatory Palestine.