On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of the Palestinian professor and poet Mahmud Sobh, the Círculo Intercultural Hispano Árabe (CIHAR) is organising a tribute to him and his poetry on Wednesday 21 February at 7 pm.
Memories of the professor and poet Mahmud Sobh is the title of this heartfelt and admired remembrance, which will take place online at this Google Meet link.
María Jesús Viguera, member of the Royal Academy of History, will speak at the event, which will be coordinated and moderated by Miriam Sobh. The poetry of the poet being honoured will be recited by Abdo Tounsi, Abdul Hadi Sadoun, Ángeles Fernangómez, Asunción Caballero, Cristina Barcala, Khaled Salem, Leonor Merino, Manuela Cortés, Miriam Sobh and Said Alami.
On Monday 21 February 2022, the Palestinian-Spanish professor, poet and translator Mahmud Sobh, the first Arab university professor to obtain a chair in Spain, passed away in Madrid. Born in Safad, in the north of Palestine, in February 1936 and settled in Spain since 1965, he left Spaniards and Palestinians a great legacy of works, poems and studies of the highest intellectual and poetic level.
In 1948, at the age of 12, he was expelled from Palestine with his family by soldiers of the then newly established State of Israel. Becoming a refugee in Syria, his life took a decisive turn when, in 1965, he accepted a scholarship to come to Spain to do his doctoral thesis on classical Andalusian poetry. In 1975 he won the Álamo Poetry Prize, and in 1978 the Vicente Aleixandre Prize. His poetic works in Spanish include his books Mar Blanco, Diván: antes, en, después, Libro de las qasidas de Abu Tarék and Posesos en Layla. His academic works include: Arab Troubadours of the Mediterranean: Twenty Poets of Love and Pain and History of Classical Arabic Literature.
Mahmud Sobh was proud to be Spanish although he never ceased to feel Palestinian and Arab to the core, dedicating himself throughout his life to fighting intellectually for his beloved Palestine.
