Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm

Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm (born February 4, 1871, Dayrūṭ, Egypt—died July 21, 1932, Cairo) was an Egyptian poet known as the “poet of the Nile” (shaʿir al-Nīl).

Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm was born on a houseboat on the Nile. As a young man, he apprenticed in several law offices and later joined the military forces. In 1891 he graduated from Cairo’s military academy at the rank of second lieutenant in the Egyptian army. He served under Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener in Sudan, but after about five years there, he was removed from active duty for his alleged participation in a mutiny against the British. He began writing poetry during his stint in Sudan, and in 1901 his first collection was published. Thereafter, he wrote the nationalist poems for which he is best known and his well-known odes denouncing imperialism. In addition to his ability to express the sentiments of the common man, he had a superb skill as a reciter of poetry, both of which won him a prominent place in society. He became director of literature (1911–31) in the national library at Cairo. He also had a talent for writing prose, as can be seen in the unfinished work Al-Buʾasāʾ: Muʿarrab ʿan Victor Hugo (1903; “The Wretched: An Arabic Version of Victor Hugo’s Work”), an adaptation of Les Misérables.