Abdullah Al-Baradouni

Abdullah Al-Baradouni (; 1929–1999) was a Yemeni writer, poet and critic. He published 12 poetry books as well as six other books on topics such as politics, folklore, and literature. He is considered Yemen's most famous poet.

Early life
Al-Baradouni was born on 18 October 1929 in Zaraja, and grew up in Dhamar Governorate, Yemen. He contracted smallpox at the age of five, leading him to completely lose his eyesight by the age of six. He began school in his village at the age of seven, and two years later moved to Dhamar city where he enrolled at the Shamsia School. When he was 13 years old, he simultaneously started reading old poetry and writing his own. As an adolescent, he satirized the Imamate in some of his poems which he circulated in secret, and in 1948 was arrested and thrown into prison for nine months. He moved to Sana'a before he was 20, after his release. He studied in its Grand Mosque, then moved to Dar Al-Ulum at the beginning of 1940 to study poetry and language. He graduated from Dar al-Ulum with distinction and a certificate in Islamic law and Arabic language sciences. After graduation, he became a teacher at Dar Al-Ulum. From 1954 to 1956, he practiced law, especially arguing the cases of divorced women, earning himself the name "the divorcees' lawyer."

Literary career
After the 1962 revolution, he started working for Sana'a Radio, where he became a manager in 1969 and, later, head of the programs until 1980. He continued preparing a rich literature program called "Magazine of Thought and Literature" each week until his death in 1999. He worked as a supervisor for the army magazine from 1969 until 1975 and had a weekly article each week entitled "Thought and Literature Issues" and a weekly article in Al-Thawra newspaper entitled "Cultural Issues." He was one of the first people to call for the creation of the Union for Yemeni Authors and Men of Letters and was voted in as its first chairman.
 
Al-Baradoni, as described by most critics, contributed to the rising of the Arabic poem along with a few great poets. However, most of his works were not published during his life.

Beliefs
He advocated democracy and women's rights. He wrote poems critical of the government and the revolutionaries that overthrew them, which led to his imprisonment in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

Death

Al-Baradouni died of heart attack on 30 August 1999. "The great poet Abdullah Al-Baradoni's passing away has left a great vacuum in the arena of poetry," said Dr. Abdulaziz Al- Maqaleh, an advisor to the president and director of the Yemen Center for Studies and Research. "This vacuum can be filled only by his works, which were and will remain the subject of unlimited interest for coming generations in Yemen," he said. "This generation has lagged far behind the field of literary and creativity." Minister of Culture, Mohammad Abu Bakr Al-Muflehi said that Al-Baradoni is one of the most important symbols of global culture in the second half of the 20th century. "He is one of those people who raised the name of Yemen in the Arab and international forums," said Al-Muflehi. "Yemen now has a prominent location on the map of Arab culture.""At the end of each August, we remember how death has taken our poet, philosopher, and thinker," he said. "He took it upon himself to upgrade, develop, and renovate Arab poetry to become one of its best- known poets," he said.

Bibliography

Famous poetry collections
 From the Land of Sheba
 On the Path of Dawn
 The City of Tomorrow
 Journey to the Green Days
 Smokey Faces in Night Mirrors
 The Quality of Time, Creatures of the Second Nostalgia
 The Fluidity of Light, Answer to the Ages
 The Return of Wiseman Ben Zaid.

Source:

Non-Fiction
 A Journey in Modern and Ancient Yemen poetry
 Yemeni issues
 Popular culture in Yemen
 Yemeni Experience and Sayings
 Culture and the Yemeni revolution
 From the First Poem to the Last Bullet: A Poetic Study of Zubairi Poetry and his Life.

See also
 Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh

References

1929 births
1999 deaths
Yemeni poets
Blind scholars and academics
Blind writers
People from Dhamar Governorate
Yemeni academics
20th-century poets
Academic staff of Cairo University
20th-century Yemeni poets
20th-century Yemeni writers
Yemeni literary critics
Yemeni critics
20th-century Yemeni historians
Yemeni blind people
Blind poets