QASSIM HADDAD

Bahraini poet. Born in Bahrain, he did not finish his secondary education and is largely self-educated. He rose to fame both as a poet and as a revolutionary, writing much verse on political subjects dealing with freedom and progress. At present, he is the head of the Union of Bahraini writers. The most famous poet of Bahrain, he has published 15 collections of poetry,

Good Omen , Beirut , 1970
Exodus of Hussain's Head from the Traitorous Cities, Beirut 1972
The Second Blood , Beirut , 1975
The Heart of Love , Bahrain , 1980
Resurrection , Beirut , 1982
Relating , Beirut , 1982
Splinters , Beirut , 1983
Walking Guarded with Ibexes , Bahrain , 1986
AL - NNAHRAWAN
Solitude of the Queens
Qassim's Grave , Bahrain , 1997
The Breasts (with Amin Salih
The Story of Majnoon Layla


He also wrote and published some prose books such :

Critique of hope , Beirut

Not by this Way nor by the other, 1997

Theatre in Bahrain , Experience and Horizon , Bahrain , 1980.

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He is a founding member of "Bahrain Writers Association" established in
1969


A member of "Awal Theatre" in Bahrain
A member of the editorial committee of the literary periodical
"KALEMAT" issued by Bahrain Writers Association".
Contributes in writing critical Essays and studies in Arabic
Newspapers and periodicals.
Many of his poems had been translated into English, French, and
German language
Participated in many Arabic and International Symposiums, Conferences
and forums on poetry and writing.
He have personal home page in entrant

Qassim Haddad was born in Bahrain in 1948 into a shi'ite Muslim family. He is a self-made man. Obsessed with the ideas of freedom and social and political justice, Haddad has paid a high price for his rebelliousness. He was arrested, tortured and imprisoned for five years for his political beliefs and activities for social and political change. He left prison a stronger man and more progressive poet than before, and continued to call for revolution. Indeed, shortly after he left prison he contributed to the founding of the Association of Writers in Bahrain; became the editor in chief of Kalimat, a leading literary journal; held a position in the Directorate of Culture and Art at the Ministry of Information; and was elected president of the Bahraini Writers Association.

Qassim Haddad is a prolific writer with more than 18 works of poetry and poetic prose to his credit. His collected works, published in two volumes in 1997, contains all of his work to that point.

In 1996 Qassim Haddad re-wrote the tale of Majnun Layla (Layla's Mad Lover), a classical romantic Arabic legend of a platonic love affair between the poet Qays Bin al-Mullawwah and his beloved Layla. The original legend--believed to be set in the seventh century, during the Ummayyed period--is well established in the literature. It centers around the madman of Bani 'Amir, a poet from Najd who loves a girl named Layla and is raised with her until she reaches young adulthood. When they are separated by her father, the young man goes mad and begins roaming the wilderness chanting poetry, living with animals in the desert and subsisting on whatever he can find to eat. Until his death he continues composing platonic love poems full of agony and emotion. Qays' poems about Layla established a new genre in Arabic literature, known as the school of chaste love. The legend has stood for centuries as a symbol for idealized love and a purity.

In recreating the legend, Haddad questions the original tone and changes its nature, altering the symbolism. He slyly rewrites the tale in the verbal style of the original poet, Qays, capturing the spirit of that time and place, but adding erotic and sensuous verses and images. In Haddad's version, neither Qays nor Layla is innocent. Not content to flirt, the couple engage in passionate encounters. In one of Haddad's newly created scenes, Qays comes at night to Layla's family tent, pretending to borrow butter. While Layla's father and family are busy with guests inside the tent, outside the tent butter flows between Layla's young naked breasts.
Qays' caresses culminate in an erotic sexual encounter. By rewriting the well-known story, Haddad opens a window of doubt into our past, provoking us to re-examine our received traditions.

Throughout his work, Qassim Haddad continues to address the psychological and spiritual discontent in the Arab world, expressing a dissatisfaction and bitterness of Arab intellectuals toward their governments. For Haddad, this discontent at times escalates to despair. Feeling that there is no way to remedy the situation, "All is in vain" he writes. Many other leading Arab poets infrequently share this view, Adonis writes "only madness remains," Khalil Hawai--"the light is dead," Badr Shakir al-Sayyab--"black fields have no water," Nizar Qabbani--"what use are a people who cannot speak," Abdul Wahhab al-Bayyati--"we are the generations of meaningless death," and Yusuf Al-Khal--"it is madness."