Mohammad Abdul-Wali
Mohammad Abdul-Wali | |
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| Born | November 12, 1939 Debre Birhan, Ethiopia |
| Died | April 30, 1973 Yemen |
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Mohammad Abdul-Wali (November 12, 1939 – April 30, 1973) was a Yemeni diplomat and a prominent writer of Yemeni-Ethiopian descent.
Life and career
Abdul-Wali was born in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. His mother was Ethiopian and his father, who was probably a shopkeeper, was originally from Yemen's Al-Hujariah region. His father was politically active and opposed Yemen's monarchy, and was forced to flee - first to Aden, and then to Addis Ababa.[1]
As a child, Mohammad Abdul-Wali attended the Yemeni Community School in Addis Ababa. In 1954, his father sent him to study at an Islamic studies institute in Aden; this was the first time Abdul-Wali had been to Yemen for any significant period of time (he had briefly visited when he was six years old).[1][2]
In 1955, Abdul-Wali began his studies at the university of
After finishing his studies in 1962, Abdul-Wali returned to
Abdul-Wali was married twice: first to his cousin, when he was 14 years old; and later to a Swedish woman, after the death of his first wife.[2]
Legacy and works
Abdul-Wali is considered one of the forerunners of the modern Yemeni literary movement, described by fellow Yemeni writer Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh as "Yemen's Chekhov."[4] He is regarded as one of the first Yemeni writers motivated by artistic purposes rather than nationalist agendas.[5]
He published three collections of short stories: al-Ard, ya Salma ("Our Land, Salma", 1966), Shay’ ismuhu al-hanin ("Something Called Love", 1972) and ’Ammuna Salih ("Uncle Salih", 1978); as well as two novellas: Yamutun ghuraba’ ("They Die Strangers", 1971) and Sana'a: madeena maftuha (Sana'a: An Open City, 1977). His collected works were posthumously published in 1987. An English-language translation of 14 of his stories, They Die Strangers: A Novella and Stories from Yemen, was published in 2001 by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas-Austin.
Given Abdul-Wali's Ethiopian heritage, many of his works dealt with immigrants to Yemen and the fate of Yemeni-African marriages. His novella They Die Strangers, for example, is about a Yemeni national who opens a small shop in Addis Ababa but has a long-standing desire to return home.[5] Similarly, his short story "Abu Rupee" describes a boy living in Ethiopia with a Yemen-born father, and who has never seen the country. Several of his stories are also set in Yemen's Al-Hujariah region, where his father was from.
Books
- Our Land, Salma (الأرض يا سلمى) (1966), short story collection
- They Die Strangers (يموتون غرباء) (1971), novel
- Something Called Love (شيء اسمه الحنين) (1972), short story collection
- Sana'a: An Open City (صنعاء.. مدينة مفتوحة) (1977), novel
- Uncle Salih (عمنا صالح العمراني) (1978), short story collection
References
- Johnson-Davies Denys, ed. (2006). The Anchor book of modern Arabic fiction. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-1-4000-7976-6.
- Muhammad Abdul-Wali. "Broder, ska du slåss mot dem alla?/Demonen". Karavan (in Swedish). 1/2012: 8–13.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d al-Samman, Eyad N. (16 July 2007). "Faces and Traces: Muhammad Ahmed Abdul-Wali". Yemen Times. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
- ^ a b Weir, Shelagh (2001). Introduction to They Die Strangers. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 1-11.
- ^ زين الدين, وسام (12 November 2017). "بين التكفير والغربة مات غريبًا.. محمد عبد الولي". Al Bawaba. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ Al Maqaleh, Abdulaziz (19 September 1973). Fii al-Qissa, introduction to Zayd Mutee' Dammaj's collection of stories, Tahish al-Hauban (Fourth ed.). Giza, Egypt: Anaween Books. p. 11.
- ^ a b "Young Yemeni Literature Is Looking for Its Place". Qantara. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
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