Jordan News

The Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science “ALECSO” adopted the Jordanian poet Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal “Arar” as an Arab symbol for culture for the year 2022, pursuant to the decision of the Conference of Ministers Responsible for Cultural Affairs in the Arab World at its twenty-second session, according to which the recommendation of the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture was adopted regarding Choosing the symbols of Arab culture, based on the controls agreed upon by their Excellencies, members of the committee. And the representatives of the Arab countries on the committee supported the candidate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, to be an “Arab symbol of culture 2022,” which bears this accreditation of importance to the poet in the conscience of Jordanians and Arabs, and what constitutes the presence of the Jordanian intellectual in the Arab cultural movement.
Culture Minister Haifa Al-Najjar said: The poet Arar is one of the pioneers of the heritage revival movement in the modern era, transferring the Jordanian poem from its local spaces to its Arab spaces, and his poetic texts carried a lot of the local heritage heritage, his intimate relationship with the Jordanian place, and his continuous defense of the Arabness of Palestine.
Al-Najjar added that “Arar” represented a clear national case in the early respect of the Jordanian state for intellectuals, through his great presence in the council of the founding King Abdullah I Ibn Al-Hussein, which reflects the constant interest and appreciation of the Hashemite leadership for men of thought, culture and literature, thus he was a model for the authentic and immortal poet in the national conscience.
Al-Najjar indicated that the Ministry of Culture relied in its nomination for this stature out of its interest in the first generation of writers and intellectuals, appreciating the Arab Organization for Education, Culture and Science’s choice of Jordan’s poet “Arar” as an Arab symbol, expressing her thanks to the members of the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture for their noble decision in choosing a leading Jordanian stature in Poetry, literature, language, history, translation, and a literary stature, he was the founder of the Jordanian poetic movement with its Arab and human cultural extension.
Al-Najjar praised the role of the Ministry of Culture for this cultural achievement, and praised the role of the Director of the Directorate of Communication and International Cooperation in the Ministry of Culture, Mrs. Rola Awad, representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in the Permanent Committee for Arab Culture, and the work team that submitted the nomination file and made a tangible national effort.

She stressed that the adoption of Jordan’s poet “Arar”, as a symbol and title of Arab culture, is a pride for Jordan, and in honor of Jordanian creators, and incites generations of poets and writers to assume the responsibility placed upon them as we cross the bicentenary of the establishment of the Jordanian state, and coincides with the selection of the birthplace of the poet Arar Irbid The Arab Capital of Culture, and confirms the presence and legacy enjoyed by Jordan and its creators in Arab culture throughout the Arab world.
She pointed out that choosing Irbid, the Arab capital of culture, is a reason for reviving Arar’s legacy through programs and projects that enrich research on his life and creativity and his national positions.
It is noteworthy that “Arar” was born in the city of Irbid on 25/5/1899 in the city of Irbid, and received his primary education there. He traveled to Damascus in 1912, and continued his education in Anbar’s office, and there he participated in the anti-Turkish movements, and he was subsequently exiled to Beirut.
At the beginning of the year 1917, he traveled with his friend, Muhammad Subhi Abu Ghanima, to Istanbul, but he did not reach it, as he settled there in “Arabkir”, where his uncle Ali Niazi was a resident. To work as a second teacher in Eskişehir, he resigned in March 1919.
Upon his return to Jordan, he worked in the education field as a teacher in Karak, then as an administrative governor in Wadi Sir, Zarqa, and Shobak. He became a public prosecutor, then head of ceremonies in the Emiri Court during the reign of King Abdullah I.
Critics named Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal, Arar, the poet of Jordan for his poetic leadership that established the sober traditional poem, and for its themes of bias towards simple people and peasants, and for its simplicity and metaphor of everyday vocabulary, its metaphors from the vernacular dictionary, and its inclusion of popular proverbs in hair.
The poet Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal was fluent in Turkish, French and Persian, and the first to warn in his poetry of the danger of the Zionist octopus that would extend on the map of the Arab world, which confirms his foresight, and he believed that the fountain of Arab culture that he translated through writing in Arab newspapers and periodicals at that time represented Citadel of defense of Arab civilization.
The poet Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal “Arar”, who is the father of the martyred former Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal, opened up throughout the Arab countries through the relationship he woven with Arab writers in Egypt, Palestine, Damascus, Baghdad and Beirut, and through his openness to world literature, and its translations of the Rubaiyat, as well as His interest in literary, linguistic and intellectual issues through dialogue on the pages of newspapers and magazines with a number of Arab writers at the time, including: Ibrahim Naji, Ahmed Al-Safi Al-Najafi, Ibrahim Toukan, Abdul Karim Al-Karmi (Abu Salma), Sheikh Fouad Al-Khatib, and his relationship with the court was close. The late King Abdullah I Ibn Al-Hussein, where a group of poets and writers used to gather, and debates and poetic oppositions revolved among them.
His production varied between poetry, history, linguistic study, intellectual issues, and translation, Divan on the Nights of Wadi al-Yabis, with Welfare and Boys, imams from Quraish, articles on language and literature, and Arar political papers.
Although he was not able to collect his poems in a book, many researchers, academic scholars, graduate students and critics turned to the artistic value, poetic topics and his tumultuous life. They collected his poems and writings after his death, and many studies and university letters were written about him.
Mustafa Wahbi al-Tal “Arar” died on the 25th of 1949, and was buried in Irbid based on his will, and his house was transformed into a cultural forum and museum.