Modern Literature in Arab Iraq

Modern Literature in Arab Iraq: Part One (Poems) is one of the first serious attempts to chronicle the modern literary movement in Iraq. Journalist and writer Rafael Butti presented an unprecedented work for its time, bringing together a selection of contemporary Iraqi poets, including biographies and a review of their poetic output. Despite the controversy and criticism the book generated upon its publication, due to the varying length of biographies from one poet to another, it marked a milestone in the documentation of modern Iraqi literature, bringing together sixteen prominent poets such as Baqir al-Shabibi, Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi, Ma'ruf al-Rusafi, Abdul Mohsen al-Kadhimi, Kadhim al-Dujaili, and others. The author did not offer a direct evaluation of their poetry, but rather presented vivid examples of their poems, allowing the reader to form their own opinion. This pioneering documentary book provides the reader with a broad panorama of the features of Iraqi poetry in the early twentieth century and of the voices that laid the foundations for the literary renaissance in Mesopotamia.