Ahmed Shawky, an Egyptian poet (October 16, 1868 - October 14, 1932), is considered one of the greatest Arab poets in various eras. Writers and poets of his time pledged allegiance to him over the emirate of poetry, so he was called the “Prince of Poets”.
He had a unique poetic talent, and a fluid pen, he did not find any trouble in composing poetry, as meanings always flowed to him like a flowing river; That is why he was one of the most fertile Arab poets, so his poetic output reached what almost no ancient or modern Arab poet had reached him, as the number of his poetry verses exceeded twenty-three thousand and five hundred.
Ahmed Shawqi Ali was born in the Hanafi district of Cairo in 1868 AD, to a Circassian father and a mother of Greek origins, but he was raised and raised by his maternal grandmother, who worked as a maid in the Khedive Ismail Palace. Shawqi, at the age of four, entered the book, and he memorized a portion of the Qur’an in it, and then moved to complete his primary education. The boy showed a fondness for poetry in his childhood, which made him dedicate himself to poets, so he memorized and extracted from it as much as he could, and when he completed fifteen years of age, he joined the translation department, which Newly established law school
Then he traveled to France to complete his legal studies at the expense of Khedive Tawfiq, and that first study trip decided Shawky's intellectual and creative premises, during which he participated with fellow missionaries in the formation of the (Egyptian Progress Association), which was one of the forms of national action against the English occupation. At that time, he was linked with a close friendship with the leader, Mustafa Kamel, and he was open to the projects of the Egyptian Renaissance.
Throughout his stay in Europe, he was there in his body, while his heart remained attached to Arab culture, to the great Arab poets, and to their head, Al-Mutanabbi. But his influence on French culture was not limited, and he was influenced by French poets, especially Racine and Molière.
The English exiled the poet to Spain in 1915, and in this exile, Ahmed Shawky was acquainted with Arabic literature and the Andalusian civilization, in addition to his ability, which was formed in the use of several languages and knowledge of European literature, and Ahmed Shawky was during this period aware of the conditions taking place in Egypt, so he became involved In poetry, through his interest in popular and patriotic movements seeking liberation from a distance, and the feelings of sadness in his poetry over his exile from Egypt, and on this basis he found another trend in Ahmed Shawky's poetry away from the praise he committed to before the exile. Shawky returned to Egypt in 1920.
Writers and poets pledged allegiance to Ahmed Shawky as their emir in a ceremony held in Cairo in 1927 AD, and the man remained admired and appreciated not only among the elite among the intellectuals and writers, but from the general public as well. general.
Ahmed Shawky is considered one of the founders of the School of Revival and Resurrection of Poetry, along with: Mahmoud Sami Al-Baroudi, Hafez Ibrahim, Ali Al-Jarm, and Ahmed Muharram. The poets of this school adhered to the systems of Arabic poetry according to the approach of the ancients, especially the period between the pre-Islamic and Abbasid eras. Shawqi organized poetry with all its purposes: praise, lamentation, flirtation, description, and wisdom.
His poetic plays include the killing of Cleopatra, Qambiz, Majnoun Layla, and Ali Bek the Great. He died on October 14, 1932.
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