Kamal Kheir Beik

Beik was born in Qardaha, Latakia, in November 1935.[1][2] He descended from an Alawite family, part of the Kalbiya confederation of Alawite tribes which included the Assad family.[1][3] The two families were related through the marriage of Rifaat Al Assad's daughter with a relative of Beik.[3]

Beik received his PhD from the University of Geneva in 1972 under the supervision of Simon Jorgy.[4] His PhD thesis was entitled Le mouvement moderniste la poésie arabe (French: Modernity in Contemporary Arabic Poetry) which covered an analysis of the contemporary Arabic poetry with a specific focus on Shi'r, an avant-garde poetry magazine published in Beirut in the period 1957–1970.[2][5] His PhD dissertation was published in French in 1978[6] and in Arabic in 1982.[2]

In 1953 Beik joined the SSNP.[3][4] He was sentenced to death due to his alleged role in the assassination of an army chief, Adnan Al Malki, in April 1955.[3][4] Following this incident he left Syria and settled in Beirut, Lebanon.[3][4] There he joined the Shi'r society led by Yusuf Al Khal and Ounsi Al Hajj.[3][4] Beik was among the emerging Arabic Modernist movement members.[7] In Lebanon he worked as a teacher in the Bishmizzine High School in the Koura District which was a Christian school serving the Greek Orthodox villages.[3] He divided his time between Koura and Beirut.[3] He was appointed head of information of the SSNP in 1959.[4] Poems of Beik were featured in Al Binaa, a paper affiliated with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in Lebanon.[7] His first book entitled The Volcano was published in 1960 under his pseudonym Cadmus.[2] The same year he involved in the coup attempt against the Lebanese President Fouad Chehab and was sentenced to death due to his role in the coup attempt.[4]

Therefore, he left Lebanon for Jordan and then, settled in Paris, France, where he resumed his literary studies.[4] He published a second book, Roaring Demonstrations, under another pseudonym Kamal Mohamed in 1965.[2] His poems were collected by his close friends and published in three books, namely A Notebook of Absence, Farewell to Poetry and Rivers Cannot Swim in the Sea.[2]

From 1965 Beik wrote poems in free verse in which he expressed his opposition to the leading ideologies and views in the Arab World such as Arabism and nationalism.[2] His poems were significantly influenced by the Lebanese civil war and frequently contained sense of disillusionment and despair.[2] While living in France Beik was an active supporter of the Palestinian resistance which led to his forced leave of the France.[4] During this period he began to work with Wadie Haddad, a Palestinian leader, and Anis Naccache.[1][8] Beik participated in some armed attacks with them.[4] He was allegedly a member of Black September group.[9]

Next he settled in Switzerland and taught Arabic literature at the University of Geneva between 1973 and 1975.[10] He involved in the OPEC siege in Vienna with Carlos the Jackal in 1975[1][10] and took part in the activities to finance the siege.[8] In his testimony Carlos claimed that an Arab leader met Beik and asked him to organize an attack against the oil ministers and to eliminate the Saudi oil minister Zaki Yamani.[8] Upon this meeting Beik contacted with Wadie Haddad proposing him to execute the siege.[8] After this incident Beik returned to Lebanon.[4]

Beik first married to a Greek Orthodox woman from Koura during his exile in Lebanon.[3] His second marriage was in Paris.[3]

Beik was subject to several assassination attempts while living in France.[2] He was killed in Beirut in the last period of the civil war in Lebanon on 5 November 1980.[2] During the attack two colleagues of Beik, Bashir Obeid and Nahia Bijani, who were the members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, were also murdered.[2] The perpetrators were the members of a Nasserist group called Mourabitouns (Guardians).[1]

Beik was buried at the Shatila Martyrs' cemetery.[1]