Salma al-Malaika

Salma Abdul Razzaq al-Malaika[lower-alpha 1] (Arabic: سلمى الملائكة; c. 1908–1953) was an Iraqi poet. She wrote under the pen name Umm Nizār about women's rights and patriotism in Iraq. Her first published poem was an elegy for Iraqi poet Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi. A collection of her poetry was published posthumously in 1965 as The Song of Glory (Unshūdat al-Majd). Her daughter was the poet Nazik al-Malaika.

Early life and family

Salma al-Malaika was born in Baghdad in 1908[1] or 1909[2] to a Shīʿite family.[3] Her younger brother Abd al-Sahib Al-Malaika (Arabic: عبد الصاحب الملائكة) became a poet and lawyer. Al-Malaika was a teacher of Arabic in secondary schools.[4] She married the poet Sadiq al-Malaika.[5] Her daughter Nazik al-Malaika became a poet[6] and was among the first Iraqi poets to use free verse.[7]

Poetry

Al-Malaika was an autodidact, educated exclusively in Arabic, but also is thought to have had limited knowledge of Farsi.[1] She was familiar with Arabic poetry, including Andalusian and Umayyad poetry, as well as Arabic history and pre-Islamic literature. She wrote her poetry in secret and did not publish anything until 1936.[1] Following the death of Iraqi poet Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi in 1936, al-Malaika wrote an elegy for him expressing women's gratitude for his women's rights advocacy. It was published in newspapers and well received in Baghdad literary circles.[1] She wrote using the pen name Umm Nizār.[lower-alpha 2]

Al-Malaika's poetry was traditional, both "in form and in its use of linguistic ornament".[7] She wrote feminist verse, glorifying the role of Arab women in history and emphasising the predicament of modern Iraqi women, urging them to overcome difficulties as the "victims of ignorance, stagnation, and narrow-mindedness".[1]

She also wrote poetry about patriotism and Iraq's struggle for independence. Her other poetry focussed on liberation movements in the Arab world and the Palestinian issue.[1] Most of her collected poetry was written during the 1940s.[8] Among the topics she addressed were the 1940 uprising of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani that led to the coup against the British, the 1948 Al-Wathbah uprising in Baghdad, and the 1948 tragedy of Palestine.[6] In her poems about Palestine, she refers to it as a land of peace and martyrdom that was "stabbed in the heart" by the British issuance of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. She refers to the United Nations as the "league of disgraceful humiliation" and the Security Council as "the council of falsehoods". In her poems, she specifically addresses the Partition Plan for Palestine and the subsequent 1949 Armistice Agreements.[9]

Al-Malaika died in London in 1953. Following her death, her husband and daughter collected her poetry.[1] The collection was published in 1965 as The Song of Glory (Unshūdat al-Majd). Her daughter wrote the introduction.[6]

Notes
  1. Her name is sometimes transliterated as Sulaymah al-Malāʿikah.[1]
  2. Al-Malaika's oldest son was named Nizār.[1]

References
  1. Zeidan, Joseph T. (1995). Arab Women Novelists: The Formative Years and Beyond. SUNY Press. pp. 58, 82. ISBN 978-0-7914-2171-0.
  2. "Salma al-Malaika". Grand Larousse encyclopédique (in French).
  3. Die Welt des Islams. Vol. 36–37. D. Reimer. 1996. p. 235.
  4. Talhami, Ghada Hashem (2013). Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8108-6858-8.
  5. "بالأسماء: أكثر من 80 امرأة عراقية رائدة غيّرن تاريخ العراق!". قناه السومرية العراقية (in Arabic). 8 March 2022.
  6. "Malaika, Salma al- (1908–1953)". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Detroit: Gale. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7876-7585-1.
  7. Benson, Dorothy (Spring 1989). "Women and Poetry in the Arab Middle East". The Poetry Ireland Review (25): 102–108.
  8. Creswell, Robyn (2019). Nazik al-Mala'ika and the Poetics of Pan-Arabism. Critical Inquiry. p. 76.
  9. Suleiman, Yasir (1995). "Nationalist Concerns in the Poetry of Nazik al-Mala'ika". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 22 (1/2): 95. ISSN 1353-0194.
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