Few writers have been as instrumental in introducing Arab culture and literature to the wider world as Salma Khadra Jayyusi.
That is why her recognition as the Cultural Personality of the Year by the Sheikh Zayed Book Award this month should come as no surprise.
In fact, the accolade for Jayyusi, 94, could perhaps be considered a little overdue.
I made the decision to drop everything else and dedicate myself to bringing Arab literature on to the world stage
The Palestinian poet has been actively promoting the wider dissemination of Arab literature since at least 1980, when she founded the Project of Translation from Arabic (Prota).
Since then, she has translated works by numerous Arab authors into English, anthologising them into volumes and writing critical introductions to help readers better understand the context of the literary genres and works included. Today, the anthologised works have become staples in libraries across the US, Europe and the Middle East.
"Prota was my way of 'teaching' Arabic literature," Jayyusi tells The National. "The books we translated and published are on the syllabi of Arabic programmes at all the major universities and are in constant use."
Jayyusi began studying Arabic literature in the 1940s, first at the Beirut College for Women and then at the American University of Beirut, from which she graduated in 1945. After that, she moved back to Palestine to work at the Teachers' Training College in Jerusalem.
However, she didn't stay there for long.
Finding inspiration in Baghdad
“In 1947, I moved to Jordan with my husband, who was a Jordanian diplomat,” she says. “And then it was Rome, Madrid, Baghdad and London in turn.”
It was in Baghdad that Jayyusi first became seriously involved in the Arab literary scene, meeting Iraqi poets such as Nazik Al Malaika and Badr Al Sayyab, both of whom profoundly inspired her own works.
“Al Malaika changed the metrics of Arabic poetry. I always like reading her poetry, even to this day,” she says. “Al Sayyab’s works speak with a profound language about the deep concerns of ordinary Arabs, with a poetry that is rich with imagery and music.”
Jayyusi left Baghdad to pursue a PhD in Arabic literature and travelled to London in the mid-1950s.
However, her time in the British capital was short-lived as the Suez Canal crisis broke out in 1956 and Jayyusi’s husband became a political refugee in Syria. She joined him there.
"The Damascus period was very rich in literary and intellectual occasions and connections," she says. "I started doing translations of important literary and critical works into Arabic, most notably the first two volumes of Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet."
In 1960, Jayyusi and her husband moved to Lebanon where her literary activities found further inspiration.
Putting the Palestinian experience into prose
Jayyusi published her first poetry collection Return from the Dreamy Fountain that same year. The works in her first collection addressed the collective predicaments the Arab world faced then: from the loss of Palestine to colonial settlement in 1948, to the Suez Canal crisis.
“The hopes and struggles for freedom and independence, as well as the necessities of commitment and sacrifice, were the major topics of public life at the time,” Jayyusi says. “Poets and critics, of course, expressed these in their work.”
One of the works from her debut collection, Rootless, was a long free-verse poem on the Palestinian Nakba and the experience of becoming a refugee through exodus.
“It had a particularly strong reception among poetry readers then,” she says. “There are quite a few poems in my first collection that speak of this bitter Palestinian experience.”
Jayyusi was involved in the free-verse poetry movement from the start of her career, which encouraged the use of free language and breaking out of traditional structures, while paying special attention to the musicality and metre of each line.
She says that her earlier poems are far less personal than her later works, which utilise more contemporary idioms and diction.
“My more recent poems highlight experiences that speak of the different ways of being human,” she says. “Poems about friendship, about death, about sickness; about the experience of being alone.
"There are feminist poems and poems that address the increasingly harsh and difficult developments that we suffered in the Arab world, ones that shattered many of the dreams and hopes we had earlier held dear.”
Bringing Arab literature to the 'world stage'
After publishing her first poetry collection, Jayyusi decided to leave Lebanon for Kuwait, before travelling to England to continue her PhD on trends and movement in contemporary Arabic poetry at the University of London, from which she graduated in 1970. Her study on 100 years of Arabic poetry was published as a two-volume work in 1977 and remains the major reference on the topic today.
Jayyusi then began her pedagogical journey, teaching at the University of Khartoum from 1970 to 1973 and at a number of universities in Algeria until 1975. She then went to the US on visiting professorships, eventually founding Prota in 1980 in Boston.
“In 1984, after visiting the Nobel Academy Library in Stockholm and discovering that all they had of Arab literature were four slim and unremarkable volumes, I made the decision to drop everything else and dedicate myself to bringing Arab literature on to the world stage,” Jayyusi says.
My more recent poems highlight experiences that speak of the different ways of being human
A painful loss
Many years later, tragedy struck Jayyusi's family with the death of one of her three children, Usama, in 2015. In her 1986 poem To Usama, Jayyusi expresses the special relationship she shared with her son, writing: "Without your presence / All time of day and night are void." The poem continues: "Should I blame you? / And you offered me the promise, a pledge of calm / A love like a tide that comes ashore / Only to recede."
Jayyusi says that the loss of her only son was a "bitter blow that overshadowed everything". She has subsequently been unable to keep in touch with the developments of Arabic poetry over the past few years, "much to my regret", says Jayyusi.
However, she believe today's poetic output in the Arab world seems robust and hopes contemporary scholars will set their sights on today's Arabic poetry to encourage its development.
Though in her mid-90s, Jayyusi is showing no signs of slowing down in her work. She has now moved to Amman, where she lives with her two daughters, and seeks to be active in the poetry community there.
She is currently writing her memoir, a task she says she finds "rather difficult because it concerns a penetration into one’s private self".
But, she says, "I am determined to continue."
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
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The specs: 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn
Price, base / as tested: Dhxxx
Engine: 5.7L V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 556Nm @ 3,950rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
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European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Company%20profile
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More on Quran memorisation:
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 6 Huddersfield Town 1
Man City: Agüero (25', 35', 75'), Jesus (31'), Silva (48'), Kongolo (84' og)
Huddersfield: Stankovic (43')
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
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Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
HEADLINE HERE
- I would recommend writing out the text in the body
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Saudi Cup race day
Schedule in UAE time
5pm: Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors Cup (Turf), 5.35pm: 1351 Cup (T), 6.10pm: Longines Turf Handicap (T), 6.45pm: Obaiya Arabian Classic for Purebred Arabians (Dirt), 7.30pm: Jockey Club Handicap (D), 8.10pm: Samba Saudi Derby (D), 8.50pm: Saudia Sprint (D), 9.40pm: Saudi Cup (D)
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Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Jawan
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