page_title: Qatari literature
section_title: Poetry
hierarchical_section_title: Qatari literature / History / Early Qatari literature / Poetry
caption_attribution_description: English: Coin of Qatari in Arab-Sassanian form with kharijits slogan on 3rd Quadrature
context_page_description: Qatari literature traces its origins back to the 19th century. Originally, written poetry was the most common form of expression, but poetry later fell out of favor after Qatar began reaping the profits from oil exports in the mid-20th century and many Qataris abandoned their Bedouin traditions in favor of more urban lifestyles.
  Due to the increasing number of Qataris who began receiving formal education during the 1950s and other significant societal changes, the following years saw the introduction of short stories, and later, novels. Poetry, particularly the predominant nabati form, retained some importance but would soon be overshadowed by other literary types. Unlike most other forms of art in Qatari society, females have been involved in the modern literature movement on a similar magnitude to males.
context_section_description: Poems were the first literary form to be mass produced by Qatari writers. Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a, a folk hero dating to the seventh-century, was renowned for writing poetry. He led the Kharjite sect of Islam for a short period; his poems often glorified martyrdom. However, as a result of wide-spread illiteracy that historically prevailed in the Arabian Peninsula, poetry was more often spoken than written. It was seen as a verbal art which fulfilled essential social functions. Having a renowned poet among its ranks was a source of pride for tribes; it is the primary way in which age-old traditions are passed down generations. Most often, poems were composed in the Nabati form (also known as Bedouin poetry). Poems composed by females primarily focused on the theme of ritha, to lament. This type of poetry served as an elegy.
  The beginnings of contemporary written poetry in Qatar dates back to the early 1800s with Abdul Jalil Al-Tabatabai and Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Uthaymeen. The former poet was born in Basra but migrated to the flourishing coastal town of Zubarah at a young age. In September 1802, after the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Sultan bin Ahmad imposed a sea blockade of Zubarah, Al-Tabatabai wrote the following poem:
  For you God will suffice against
  the pangs of separation from your dead ones,
  Your longing and pining is like a fire burning
  in your heart
  Your longing is not hidden,
  A longing for the southern wind.
  Al-Tabatabai later migrated from Qatar to Bahrain in the 1820s, following the lead of many other prominent residents of Zubarah. As for Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Uthaymeen, he was born in the mid-1800s in Saudi Arabia. He would go on to form a close relationship with Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, then ruler of Qatar, and even composed eulogies praising him. Nonetheless, according to academic Mohammed Al Qafud, these two poets did not leave a lasting impact on the poetry scene in Qatar, mainly due to the temporary nature of their stays in the country.
  One of the first Qatari-born poets to leave an enduring impact on the peninsula's literary culture was Majid bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, born in 1873. He expressed an interest in poetry since a young age, and his poems ranged in theme from war to his wife's death. Like most other poems produced in the Arabian Peninsula, his poems followed the nabati structure. Al-Khulaifi's poems were preserved and printed in a 1969 book entitled From Qatari Poetry alongside fellow poets Mohammed Al Fayhani and Ahmed Al Kuwari.
  During Sheikh Jassim Al Thani's reign (1878–1913), he funded the printing of many Islamic texts. For instance, in 1892 he provided financing to print 100 copies of Mahmud al-Alusi's book Fathul Mannan: Completion of Laying the Foundation and Response to Brothers Reconciliation and then donated those copies to Muslim academics and students. The next year, in 1893, he gifted al-Alusi with 100 copies of the book.
  In the early and mid-1900s, two notable poets were Ahmad bin Yousef Al Jaber and Abdulrahman bin Qassim Al Maawda. Al-Jaber wrote many poems with religious as well as political themes, including a eulogy for Gamal Abdel Nasser, the recently deceased President of the United Arab Republic. The latter poet, Al Maawda, spent his life in both Qatar and Bahrain. He too wrote poems with a political slant, often about pan-Arabism.
caption: Coin minted in the name of war poet Qatari ibn al-Fuja'a with slogan of Kharijite. His poems were predominantly related to war and martyrdom.
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