Tayseer Sboul | |
|---|---|
 Sboul in 1960s | |
| Born | 15 January 1939 Tafila, Transjordan |
| Died | 15 November 1973 (aged 34) Amman, Jordan |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist, poet, writer, radio host and lawyer |
| Language | Arabic |
| Nationality | Jordanian |
| Genre | Poetry, essay, play writer, novel, translation |
| Literary movement | Postmodernism |
| Notable works | You as of Today |
| Spouse |
May Yateem
(m. 1973) |
| Children |
|
Tayseer Sboul (Arabic: تيسير السبول; 15 January 1939 – 15 November 1973) was a Jordanian writer, novelist, poet, radio host and lawyer. Sboul is one of Jordan's most celebrated writers and poets.[1] His first novella You as of Today about the Arab defeat during the 1967 Six-Day War gained widespread Arab recognition and is considered one of the most influential of its time.
Born on 15 January 1939 in Tafila, a town on the edge of Transjordan's southern desert, he completed his middle school education near the industrial city of Zarqa. Having graduated from Amman's Hussein High School with distinction in 1957, he received a government scholarship to study philosophy at Lebanon's American University of Beirut, later relocating to Syria to study law at the University of Damascus. He married a Syrian-Bahraini woman, May Yateem, and returned with her to Jordan. During his two short stays in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he fathered a son and a daughter, Otba and Saba. He then returned to Jordan again and opened a private law practice in Zarqa, but soon after left that career to become the host of a radio talk show until his death in 1973. His show gained fame for hosting promising Arab and Jordanian writers.
Sboul wrote his first novella, You as of Today, just after the Arab defeat during the 1967 Six-Day War. Its title was inspired by the patriotic song You as of Today Are Mine My Homeland which he sang as he went to visit the destroyed Allenby Bridge connecting both banks of the Jordan River. He was devastated by the sight of the destroyed bridge as it symbolized Jordan's loss to Israel of the West Bank, a territory which he considered a vital part of the Arab homeland. The novella talks about a young Arab man as he struggles with his failed relationships with members of the opposite gender, his dysfunctional family and corrupt political leadership. You as of Today brought the Arab world's attention to Jordanian writers in 1968 when it won the Al-Nahar Award for the Best Arabic Novel. The novella was popular for its form which was described as postmodernist, and which he developed away from traditional writing forms of the Arabic novel.[2]
Despite initial Arab military successes during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Sboul felt increasingly sorrowful and began to feel a lack of any hope to bring about positive change to the Arab world. On 15 November of that year, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. His friends established the Jordanian Writers Society after his death, an idea that was brought up in Sboul's writings. The Society holds an annual literary award in his honor and numerous Jordanian universities' literary conferences are held in his name.
- ^ Sboul 2016, p. 2–4.
- ^ Tayseer Sboul, Nesreen Akhtarkhavari (2016). You as of Today My Homeland: Stories of War, Self, and Love. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 9781628952698. Retrieved 20 January 2020.