Poetry Flourishes in the United Arab Emirates
NOTE: This post originally appeared on the "old" Brad’s Reader that was using the Blogger platform. But since I practically had no readership then, I’m pretty sure not many of you read this post. I did, however, change the post by adding a few things and editing it to make it more "reader friendly" than the original.
In recent years the Middle East is a region of the world that has been plagued by war, poverty and political unrest. With all the negative news coming out of the Middle East, it’s hard to imagine a culture where the arts can flourish – especially poetry. In the western hemisphere, poetry is seen as something that only academics and artists are concerned with, but the mainstream pretty much ignores. But one country in the Middle East is different; it’s a place where poetry is as important as any sporting event.
This article from the New Statesman about poetry in the United Arab Emirates hits closer to home for me, as I went to Dubai in 1999 while in the Navy. It’s a beautiful country with an amazing amount of culture, to say the least, so it’s no wonder that poetry flourishes there.
In fact, poetry doesn’t just flourish in the UAE, it’s actually big money!
As a hobby of princes, it is an accordingly lucrative business. The Gulf version of Pop Idol is Millions Poet: a television spectacular in which Arab poets battle it out for a million dirhams – about £140,000.
It would be almost unheard of for a poet in the United States to make such a large amount of money from a poetry contest. I think any writer, whether it’s poetry or even fiction, would be thrilled to earn such an amount for their creative efforts.
But don’t think that poetry is just for the academics and "artsy" types in the UAE. The passion for the art extends all the way up to the highest leadership of the government:
In the UAE, poetry – along with falconry and horsemanship – is the pinnacle of manly achievement. Even the hard-headed ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has a website featuring his verses and declaring that "poetry has allowed Sheikh Mohammed to express the creative, sensitive side of his nature that he has little chance to display in the political arena".
This almost doesn’t come as a surprise. The Arabic language is a rich one, and lends itself well to the poetic form. The Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, is considered the highest form of Arab poetry around. However, let’s not forget that the UAE is the exception, not the rule, when it comes to cultural appreciation. In fact, they pride themselves on being "different" than the other countries in the region:
"Unlike the rest of the region, we don’t have any political conflicts or unrest," explains Jumaa al-Qubaisi of ADACH. "And we lead the region in cultural and religious tolerance." Emiratis are bemused by the rest of the Arab world – Saudi Arabia for its insularity and religious severity, and the Mediterranean Arab countries for their chaoticism and poverty.
Often, we become so immersed in the culture of our own country, we forget that we don’t live in a vacuum, and something like poetry has universal appeal. Now, if only I could actually learn to read Arabic so I could read all this work coming out of this part of the world! If anyone out there is fluent in Arabic, I’m sure there is money to be made translating these works into English for all us westerners to read and enjoy.
Read the entire New Statesman article here:
Of Poetry and Princes
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