Al Ain Book Festival 2025 celebrates the poet Hamad bin Suhail Al Ketbi
Al Ain, November 28 / WAM / Al Ain Book Festival 2025, organized by the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, presented this evening one of the most beautiful evenings of its program “Nights of Poetry: The Sung Word”; It celebrated the biography of the “Poet of Life”, the late Emirati poet Hamad bin Suhail Al Ketbi, who had a unique imprint on the path of Emirati and Gulf popular poetry.
The evening, which witnessed the presence of Sheikh Zayed bin Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Zayed bin Mansour bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, opened with the screening of a documentary film that recounts the poet’s human and poetic life from his inception until his death, and talks about his qualities and positions in daily life and at work, his close relationship with his father, the great poet Suhail bin Mubarak Al Ketbi, and his influence on his poetic talent, as well as his close relationship with the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, “may God rest his soul,” and his poem “The Crown of My Head,” which he dedicated to Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, “Mother of the Emirates,” President of the General Women’s Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation.
The video also showed some of his famous poems that he recited himself, including the poem “Marhaba al-Sa’,” and other clips of his poems recited by his children, including the poem “Salil al-Ma’ani” in the voice of his son Muhammad, which he composed in response to his father’s poem dedicated to him, “Sayyid al-Ghawali.”
The poet Ali Al-Khawar, a friend of the poet and the main guest in the session, which was moderated by the journalist and poet Aida bin Masoud, spoke about his relationship with the late man and how it began and strengthened. They had a working relationship in the team supervising the poems sung by the founding father, Sheikh Zayed, noting that he had the qualities of kindness, tolerance and generosity, and came to help others with all chivalry and chivalry.
He also offered an in-depth reading of Al-Ketbi’s experience, highlighting his role as one of the innovators of the lyric poem, and the owner of a special style that combined sweetness and depth, simplicity and dream, and the reality that touches people. He talked about the quarrel and response that existed between the poet and his late father, repeating some of these poems to the audience. He pointed out that he had poems of rivalry between him and the poet Ali bin Salem Al-Kaabi, to the point that it was called the comparison between them. With “the entwined poem.”
Al-Khawar announced the work on issuing a collection of poetry by the poet Hamad bin Suhail Al-Ketbi, may God have mercy on him, entitled “The Crown of My Head.” He said: “The collection collects the most beautiful poems of the poet, and it is the first of his complete works. The idea for it began before his death, and he even recommended it to me, and he chose its name himself after the poem he loved most in his heart, which is “The Crown of My Head.” The collection consists of 6 chapters, which I called Crowns,” indicating that the collection will see the light at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. 2026, published by the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language.
At the end of the evening, His Excellency Saeed bin Hamdan Al Tunaiji, Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, honored the sons of the late poet Hamad bin Suhail Al Ketbi: Zayed, Mohammed, and Hamdan, by honoring the descendants of their father, the “Poet of Life,” who gave life to Emirati poetry.
The “Nights of Poetry” program reflects the vision of the Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, in preserving and promoting the national cultural heritage. This program emphasizes the importance of supporting the cultural and poetic movement, by describing popular poetry as a vibrant bridge that connects the past to the present, and expresses the spirit of the Emirates and its renewed identity.
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