Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Hassan Hassan Muhammad Hussein Al-Bahiri was born in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood of occupied Haifa in 1921, to a Palestinian family whose origins trace back to the depopulated village of Al-Tira in the occupied Haifa district. He studied primary school at the Amiriya School in Haifa until the fourth grade. He worked at the Hejaz Railway Station in 1933, then in the employment department of the Railway Authority. This job allowed him to travel to Egypt and meet some Egyptian writers. After 1948, he worked as an Arabic language teacher in Damascus schools until his retirement in 1978. He also served as supervisor of the literary section at Damascus Radio , where he broadcast programs such as "With the Dictionary," "From Our Literary Heritage," "Morning Anecdotes," and "Evening Anecdotes." He later became head of the Cultural Programs Department at the General Directorate of Syrian Radio and Television.
As a child, Al-Bahiri was influenced by the preachers of Haifa mosques, such as Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Sheikh Nimr al-Khatib, and Sheikh Abd al-Rahman Murad. He participated in the resistance in Haifa during the 1948 war; he was part of the night watch patrols, was active in planting mines, and supervised the blowing up of the Great Palestine Mills in Haifa in April 1948, where a large number of Zionist forces had fortified themselves.
He wrote a number of articles in Palestinian newspapers and magazines, including Al-Difaa newspaper published in Jaffa, and participated in educational conferences held by the League of Arab States. He published a number of poetry collections, including: Al-Asael wal-As'har (1943), Afrah al-Rabi' (1944), Ibtisam al-Duha (1946), Haifa fi Sawad al-Uyun (1973), Li-Filastin Ughanni (1979), Zilal al-Jamal (1981), Al-Anhar al-Dham'i (1982), Tabarak al-Rahman (1983), Jannat al-Ward (1989), Risala fi Eid (1990), Li-Ayni Biladi (1993), Sa'arja' (1994), Alwan (1995), D'aba bayna al-Jidd wal-Hazl (1996), and Khamrat al-Shi'r (1997).
Al-Bahiri was awarded the Jerusalem Medal for Culture in 1990 in recognition of his literary achievements. Several studies and research papers have been written about his life and poetry, including the book "Hassan al-Bahiri: The Poet in Whom Genius Triumphed Over Deprivation" by Subhi Ubaid. His poems were also collected in a three-volume work titled "The Nightingale of Palestine: Hassan al-Bahiri – The Complete Poetic Works." Al-Bahiri bequeathed his house to be transformed into a Palestinian cultural center after his death, to be named "Beit Falastin" (House of Palestine).
Al-Bahiri suffered in his life; he was displaced with his family from Haifa during the Nakba events, specifically on April 23, 1938, and lived in refugee camps in Syria. He was imprisoned in Syria for several months, and suffered from heart disease as a result. He died in Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus on October 25, 1998, and was buried in the Martyrs' Cemetery in Yarmouk Camp.
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