Biographies: Mohammed Al Maghut - Writer

Biographies

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A Syrian writer, born in 1934 in the city of Salamiyah in the Hama Governorate, to a very poor family. He first studied in the Koranic school and then joined the agricultural school in Salamiyah, where he completed his preparatory studies. After that, he moved to Damascus to attend high school. After his return to Salamiyah, he joined the Syrian National Party without reading its principles. He withdrew his membership in the sixties after he was imprisoned and prosecuted because of his affiliation. He completed his military service in the army, where his first prose poem was “A Refugee Among the Sands,” which was published in El Jundi magazine on May 1, 1951, and after the completion of his military service, he settled in Salamiyah. The assassination of Adnan al-Malki on April 22, 1955, was a turning point in the life of Al Maghut as the Syrian National Party was accused of assassinating him at that time, and party members were prosecuted, and many of them were arrested, and Al Maghut was among them. During the period of the union between Syria and Egypt, Al Maghut was wanted in Damascus, so he decided to flee to Beirut in the late fifties. He joined the group of the magazine "Poetry.” after which he met the poet Sania Saleh, who later became his wife. Al Maghut returned to Damascus after he became a household name. His first collection, "Sadness in the Light of the Moon” was published in 1959, followed by his second collection, “A Room with Millions of Walls” in 1960. In 1961, he was imprisoned again, and after his release, he married Sania Saleh. In the seventies, Al Maghut worked in Damascus as editor-in-chief of “El Shurta” magazine. He started to express himself through other forms of writing, so he wrote the plays "Tishreen Village" and "Alienation." The eighties were difficult and harsh, beginning with the death of his sister Laila in 1984, then the death of his father in 1985, and the most difficult blow he received was the death of his wife Sania Saleh in 1985 after a long struggle with cancer, then the death of his mother in 1987. Those successive tragedies left a profound impact on him and his works and writings. On the afternoon of Monday, April 3, 2006, Al Maghut passed away at the age of 72, after a long struggle with illness.

29 March 2022
Dalia Saad