Nizar's Life

1916
Sykes-Picot Agreement divides the Ottoman Empire among the Entente powers
(Syria under French rule)

March 23 1923
Nizar Qabbani born in Damascus

1939-1945
WWII

Dec 28 1941
Syrian Independence

1944
Publishes first poem "The Brunette Told Me"

1945
Graduates from University of Damascus with a law degree

Joins diplomatic service

1947
Publishes Childhood of a Breast , his first anthology Wild Poems published -discusses eroticism and homosexual love

1947-49
First Palestinian War, Israel gains Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and all of Jerusalem

May 15, 1948
British to leave Israel, State of Israel recommended by UN as solution to conflicts. Same day, surrounding Arab Nations declare war.

1954
"Bread, Hashish and Moonlight" published

1956
Sinai-Suez War

1957
Poems For Nizar Qabbani

1961
My Beloved Published

1963
Poetry is a Green Lamp

1965
"Five Letters to My Mother" written while in Spain as a diplomat

1966
Quits diplomatic Service

Moves to London

Drawing in Words published

1967
6 Day War. Israel takes Golan Heights

Marginal Notes on the Book of the Retreat

1968
The Diary of a Blase Woman

Palestine Liberation Movement

Poets of the Occupied Land

1970
The Book of Love

Commando Graffiti on the Walls of Israel

1972
A Hundred Letters

Outlawed Poems

1973
Marries Balquis al Rawi

Eldest son dies in an accident, Beirut

War breaks out, Israel vs. Egypt and Syria, backed by Iraq and Jordan

1976
Syrian troops occuppy Northern Central and Eastern Lebanon

1979
Israel Signs Peace Treaty with the US

Ayatollah Khomeni takes power in Iran

1981
Balquis (the subject of his love poems) dies in bombing by pro-Iranian guerillas of the Iraqi embassy

1982
Sinai Peninsula returned to Egypt

Israeli troops occuppy S Lebanon

1987
Modern Arabic Poetry An Anthology

1988
American-PLO ties established

1990
"Abu Jahl buys Fleet Street" written

1998
On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani

May 1 1998
Died in London of a Heart Attack

 

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