Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Majdhub

Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Majdhub was born in 1919 in al-Damar, the capital of the River Nile state in North Sudan.[2] His father is the Sufi sheikh, known in Sudan as Muhammad al-Majdhub, who belongs to the Ja’aliyin tribe of the north-central Sudanese tribes. He was Khalwa educated, where he learned reading, writing and the Qur'an.[1] According to Babkier Hassan Omer, the Khalwa's fire (known as al-Toqaba) inspired al-Majdhub to call his first collection "The Fire of Majdhib". He wrote in the introduction to the collection “The knights, jurists and paranormal people watched around it, glorifying and chanting, His Eminence among people and security comfort, for centuries".[1]

The Sudanese writer and academic Abdullah Al-Tayyib (1921-2003) grown in al-Majdhub's house after the death of his father. Both grew up close friends and poets.[1]

Young al-Majzoub

al-Majdhub travelled to Khartoum for school, and joined the Gordon Memorial College and graduated as an accountant.[3] al-Majdhub worked as an accountant in the government of Sudan and moved between the north, south, east and west, which benefited him in creating an imaginary repertoire that, along with his innate readiness, paved the way for the development of his poetic craft.[1]

During this era, there emerged publications such as al-Sudan, al-Nahda, and al-Fajr. Within the pages of al-Fajr, writers such as al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir and Muhammad Ahmad Mahjub made their initial debut.[4]

According to historian Huda Fakhreddine, the members of the Fajr group possessed an understanding of Sudan's hybrid cultural heritage and the historical currents that contributed to its distinctiveness. They aimed to shape the linguistic symbols that would define a national identity.[5]

Huda continues that Muhammad Ahmad Mahjub articulated the concept of Sudanese literature "written in Arabic but infused with the idioms of our land, as this is what sets the literature of one nation apart from another." The Fajr group's found its earliest manifestation in the works of Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Majdhub. He became the first poet whose writings reflected an awareness of belonging to both "Black" and "Arab" cultures.[5]

Late al-Majzoub

The critic Osama Taj Al-Sir believes that "Sudanism" (or Sudanisation) was clear in al-Majdhub's poetry, which appeared in his imagination, images and language, which his late son, the journalist Awad Al-Karim al-Majdhub, who says about his father, "Perhaps what distinguishes the language of al-Majdhub is its mixing - sometimes - Between classical and dialectal Arabic to the point of using the language of ordinary speech and planting it in the fabric of his poem.[1][6][7] Osama Taj Al-Sir, Professor of Literature at the University of Khartoum told Al-Jazeera Net that "al-Majdhub conveyed the Sudanese life to poetry, and he is one of the first to mix between the eloquent and the common, the Sudanese project represents for him a stylistic technique".[1][5][7]

Al-Siddiq Omar Al-Siddiq, attests the Sudanism was not the only prominent feature of al-Majdhub, and the poetic imagery is one of the clearest among them. Al-Majzoub was creative in taking pictures and bold in drawing them, and this "audacity" is not limited to pictures only.[1][7]

One of the most important features of al-Majdhub's poetry is his interest in the simple man in the street, as Osama Taj Al-Sir believes that Al-Majzoub: "moved poetry - in a highly poetic and pictorial language - from the centrality of life to its periphery (linguistic, social, and political). He wrote about coffee shop owners, shoe-cleaners, pickpockets, the bean seller, the shard seller, the beggar, and so on." al-Majdhub mentioned the reasons in the introduction to Nar al-Majdhub: "I have benefited a lot from mingling with people, especially the poor, for they have a striking sincerity that has benefited me and cured me".[1][7]

al-Majdhub authored a number of other books and collections.[8] He also participated in the magazines, e.g., The Nile, Hana Omdurman, Youth and Sports, and other Sudanese magazines. In Arabic, Dar Al-Hilal, Al-Doha, and the Beirut magazine Al-Adab were publishing his work. He has several radio interviews, the most prominent of which are his interviews with Sudanese radio and television, Voice of the Arabs, Voice of America, German, Egyptian and Tunisian radio.

al-Majdhub has gained recognition in the history of Sudanese literature as a trailblazer in the modernisation of Sudanese poetry. He is credited with founding a significant poetic movement, along with his relative Abdalla al Tayeb, which introduced a fresh approach to poetic creation, breaking away from traditional and rigid poetic forms and doctrines.[3] This new school of poetry embraced a more unrestrained and liberated style, in line with the practices of contemporary poets.[4]

Fakhreddine, Huda J. (2021-03-31), "Muhammad al-Maghut and Poetic Detachment", The Arabic Prose Poem, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 107–137, doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474474962.003.0005, ISBN 9781474474962, retrieved 2023-05-21

• "BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, Moving with God". BBC. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
• Sudania 24 TV (11 Dec 2017). مغامرة محمد المهدي المجذوب في سودنة الشعر العربي [Muhammad Al-Mahdi Al-Majzoub's Adventure in the Sudanization of Arabic Poetry] (in Arabic).