Najib ar-Rayyis

Najīb Mahmūd ar-Rayyis ( Arabic نجيب محمود الريس, DMG Naǧīb Maḥmūd ar-Rayyis ; * 1898 in Hama , Syria ; † 1952 in Damascus , Syria), was a Syrian journalist , editor, and anti-colonial activist .

Life

Nadschīb ar-Rayyis was born in the Ottoman Empire in the Syrian city of Hama in 1898 and received his basic education at private schools there. He then moved to Homs with his father , where he was appointed police chief while he continued his studies with renowned professors of the Arabic language and Islam .

Work as a journalist

In 1919 ar-Rayyis went to Damascus to work as a journalist in the Syrian newspaper industry. He subsequently corresponded with numerous Lebanese newspapers, including al-Ahrār  /الأحرار / al-Aḥrār  / 'The Free' and an-Nahār  /النهار / 'The time of day', later he published the newspaper al-Qabas himself from 1928  /القبس / 'The Embers', which became the mouthpiece of the nationalist movement and national renewal in Syria and the Arab regions. al-Qabas became one of the most famous newspapers in Syria and also enjoyed great credibility among the Syrian people.

al-Qabas was founded in 1953 with the Damascus newspaper al-ʿIlm  / published by ʿIzzat Husrīaالعلم / 'Knowledge' merged through the decree of President Adīb al-Shishaklī , when two newspapers in the country had to be merged into one, and then appeared under the name of az-Zamān  /الزمان / ,The time'. After the merger decree was repealed, they parted ways with the newspaper al-ʿIlm shortly thereafter . Later, ar-Rayyis' heirs and ʿIzzat Husrīa proposed another voluntary merger of the two newspapers by mutual agreement, the first edition of which appeared in 1954 under the name of al-Qabas al-ʿIlm , but it soon returned to independent publication.

Fight for the nation

Najīb ar-Rayyis was best known for his journalistic work in the fight for the nation. His leading articles were fiery lashes against the French colonial rulers, which is why the appearance of al-Qabas was suspended again and again until the order was repealed by paying the high price of imprisonment and exile by the French mandate . He achieved great fame through his well-known patriotic poem Yā ẓalām as-siǧn , which he composed in 1922 during his exile on the island of Arwād off the Syrian coast near Tartūs . Between 1920 and 1943, ar-Rayyis was repeatedly an inmate of prisons, penal camps and places of exile, etc. a. in Damascus, al-Mizza, Aleppo , Beirut , Rāschayā , so that in the course of his life he spent a total of eight years in prison.

From 1943 onwards, ar-Rayyis was again a free and honored man with principles, which is why the residents of Damascus elected him their deputy under President Shukrī al-Quwatlī for four years . In Parliament he became known as an articulate and courageous speaker in defense of the interests of the country and the well-being of the people. After this period, however, he did not stand for election and occupied himself exclusively with his newspaper, for which he wrote articles in which he called for the preservation and protection of independence. He preferred the journalistic work to the parliamentary work in order to call on the government to promote the economy, to support agriculture and industry, as well as to increase production.

death

ar-Rayyis continued his journalistic work until he felt tired and uncomfortable and went to thermal baths in Syria to find healing there. He stayed there for a few weeks, after which he returned, still feeling tired. Treatment by the best doctors put him on the road to recovery from the disease, but then died and was buried in Damascus.

His works

Nidāl  /نضال / Niḍāl  / 'Kampf', the first book published by Najīb ar-Rayyis, was published in 1934 by the Damascus printing house al-Qabas and compiles a number of his articles on important events of the time. The book was recently republished with no change from its first edition. The characteristic of this book, which comprises 366 medium-sized pages, is that it is an example of the style of Najīb ar-Rayyis, “heated and peculiar, as he practiced it at his newspaper al-Qabas and which on his political and patriotic attitudes in defense of independence and the unity of Syria ”.

Jirah  /جراح / Ǧirāḥ  / 'Wounds', the second book by Najīb ar-Rayyis, was published a few months after his death in 1952 and then again after almost 56 years without any change or revision. The book comprises 220 pages of medium format and contains essays on events in Syria between 1935 and 1945, “when political life in Syria was noisy and festive due to the revolutions and the struggle against colonialism and the demand for the country's unity and independence ".

al-Qabas al-mudī '  /القبس المضيء / al-Qabas al-muḍī '  /' The shining embers', the tenth book in the series al-Aʿmāl al-muchtāra  /الأعمال المختارة / al-Aʿmāl al-muḫtāra  / 'The selected deeds', which was published by the publishing house Riyād al-Rayyis in 1994, is “a book about Najīb ar-Rayyis and at the same time from his pen”. The book, which is 470 large-format pages, contains some of the things that were published about Najīb ar-Rayyis during his life and after his death, as well as various things he himself wrote “about the Lebanese press that specifically shed new light on his life and his attitude ”. The publishing house an-Naschr published it again with the comment: "In its new edition, some new articles and pictures were added to this book that were missing in the original edition".

His poem Yā ẓalām as-siǧn

ar-Rayyis created this patriotic poem in the form of a qasida in 1922 while imprisoned on the island of Arwād, where he was exiled because of his opposition to the French mandate in Syria.

This poem, with its formal and content structure typical of a Qasida, was set to music by the composer Muhammad Fulayfil and known as a song under the same title.

نهوى الظلاما إننا
فجر مجد يتسامى
يا مقر المخلصينا
لا يهابون المنونا
يوم أقسمنا اليمينا
واتخذنا الصدق دينا
واسمعوا منا الكلاما
منعه كان حراما
ما تقاسيه بلادي
ذو وفاء و وداد
نغمة تشجي فؤادي
للأسى والاضطهاد
لم أخن يوما نظاما
في فؤادي قد أقاما

ظلام السجن خيم يا
ليس بعد الليل إلا
إيه يا دار الفخار
قد هبطناك شبابا
و تعاهدنا جميعا
لن نخون العهد يوما
أيها الحراس رفقا
متعونا بهواء
لست والله نسيا
فاشهدن يا نجم إني
يا رنين القيد زدني
إن في صوتك معنى
لم أكن يوما أثيما
إنما حب بلادي

translation

O darkness of the dungeon envelop (us), for we love darkness;
After the night there would be nothing if the dawn of glory did not rise.
Oh, o place of fame, o abode of the faithful,
We brought you young men who are not afraid of death
And we all gave one another our word, on that day we swore the oath.
We will never break the promise because we took the righteousness to believe.
O guards, be lenient and hear from us the words,
let's enjoy the air, it would be a sin to withhold it.
By Allah, I never forget what my country suffers,
I call on you to witness, O stars, that I have loyalty and love in me.
O sound of the fetters, give me more of the sound that makes my heart wistful,
for in your voice there is a sense of sadness and oppression.
I was never a nefarious person, I never betrayed the order,
rather the love for my country has a firm place in my heart.

Individual evidence