Elias Abu Shabaki (also spelled Ilyas Abu Shabaka; , May 3, 1903 – January 27, 1947) was a Lebanese writer, poet, editor, translator, and literary critic. He was one of the founders of the literary League of Ten and is considered a leading figure of the Arabic Nahda Movement. Born into a well-to-do Lebanese family, Abu Shabaki developed an interest in poetry at a young age. The son of a merchant, he was orphaned early in life, a loss that deeply influenced his early work. Abu Shabaki worked as a teacher and translator, and in addition to publishing several volumes of poetry, he wrote as a journalist for numerous Arabic newspapers and literary magazines.
An adherent of the Romantic school, he valued inspiration and rejected conscious control in poetry. His poems are often gloomy and deeply personal, frequently featuring biblical themes centered on his internal moral conflicts. Some of his work was highly controversial at the time, particularly his poetry collection Serpents of Paradise, which was considered obscene due to its explicit sexual content. His recurring focus on the spiritual consequences of carnality reflected a guilt attributed to his extramarital affairs during his marriage, continuing until his death from leukemia in 1947. Abu Shabaki advocated for the renewal and modernization of Arab literature and inspired successive generations of poets. His literary legacy is honored by the transformation of his house in his hometown of Zouk Mikael into a museum. Biography
Childhood and youth Elias Abu Shabaki was born on 3 May 1903 in Providence, USA to Youssef Abu Shabaki, a wealthy Lebanese merchant, and his wife, Nayla (née Saroufim). Elias' mother came from a family well known for its poetic gifts, and both Nayla's brother and maternal uncle (Elias Ferzan) were established poets. The couple had left the Lebanon to visit Nayla's uncle, Elias Ferzan in Providence where she gave birth to Elias at Ferzan's place. In 1904, Youssef and Nayla settled back in their native town of Zouk Mikael in the current Keserwan District in Mount Lebanon, a town overlooking the Mediterranean Sea which is noted for its natural beauty. Elias was raised as a devout Christian by his Maronite parents; he was admitted in 1911 to the Lazarist Saint Joseph College in the nearby town of Aintoura where he studied, among other courses, French and Arabic literature. Nayla introduced Elias to Arabic poetry and taught him a long poem written by her uncle Elias Ferzan, which, according to the young Abu Shabaki, was highly inspirational.
In 1914, while Elias' father was visiting his estates in the Khartoum region in Sudan, he was attacked by bandits who stripped him of his belongings and killed him; the loss of his father left young Elias in a state of emotional distress and depression that would mark the rest of his life. The orphaned Elias continued his education at Aintoura until the outbreak of the Great War when he had to quit the school due to financial problems, though the school was later forced to close by the Ottoman authorities. Elias resumed his studies at the College Central in Jounieh which was run then by the Marist Brothers before returning a year later to Saint Joseph's, but he never graduated as a result of a quarrel he had with one of his teachers; nevertheless, he continued his self-education and read religious books and French Romantic literature extensively, which inspired his first literary efforts. Among the French authors, Elias was particularly fond of the works of Charles Baudelaire and Alfred de Musset.
Courtship and marriage When he was 16, Elias met and was infatuated by his neighbor Olga Saroufim who was two years his senior. Their friendship rapidly evolved as they exchanged literary books and letters. Elias' attachment to Olga was most evident when she fell ill with fever during a visit to the southern city of Sour; Elias was reported to have invited his family members to kneel and pray for Olga to get better. After some 10 years of betrothal, Abu Shabaki wedded Olga in December 1931. Elias and Olga had a lone child together who died at birth in 1932.
Career Having lost his father at an early age, Elias was compelled to teach to earn a living. He taught for a while at the Jesuit mission school then at the school of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Gemmayze, and lastly at the Makassed school. Elias had had an affinity for journalism since his youth, and he eked a meager living through his contributions to a number of Lebanese publications (Al Adib, Al Bayrak, Al Bayan, Al Nida, Al Ma'rad, Al 'assifa, Lisan al Hal, Al Joumhour, Al Makshouf and Sawt Al Ahrar), also publishing a significant number of journalistic articles on various topics. Elias also corresponded with a number of Egyptian newspapers such as Al Muqtataf and Al Masa. At the request of his publishers, Abu Shabaki translated into Arabic a number of French literary materials from the 17th to the 19th century, such as Lamartine's Jocelyn and La Chute d'un ange, Edmond Rostand's La Samaritaine, Bernardin St. Pierre's Paul et Virginie and La Chaumière Indienne, and many other works by Henry Bordeaux, Voltaire, Antoine François Prévost, and Moliere. Elias was employed during World War II as a translator in the press and radio services of the French high Commission.
In 1926 Elias produced his first poetic juvenilia al-Kithara (The lyre); the work attests of the young poet's inexperience but also of his promising talent. In 1928 Elias finished al-Marid as-samit (The silent invalid), a narrative poem which is one of Abu Shabaki's best known works, springing from the center of European romantic tradition. His next book Afa'i al-Firdaws (Serpents of Paradise), published in 1938, is lauded by many as Abu Shabaki's best work and one of the best accomplishments of romantic poetry in modern Lebanese and Arabic literature. Afa'i al Firdaws and Elias' latter works would play an influential role in the development of modern Arabic poetry and literature. In 1941 Elias published his third book al-Alhan (The melodies), an ode to simple peasant life, followed in 1944 by Nidaa' al-Qalb (The heart's evocation) and Ila al-Abad (Eternally), where Elias reverts to discussing matters of the heart from a more mature perspective. Ghalwaa was published in 1945. The book's title is an anagram of Olga's name in Arabic.
In addition to poetry, Elias published a number of studies, including a study in comparative literature called Rawabith al-fikr wal-ruh bayn al-Arab wal-Franja (Intellectual and spiritual links between the Arabs and the French), in which he sought to demonstrate the weight of French influence on world literature; he also authored long essays about Lamartine, Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde. In addition, Abu Shabaki produced a series of portraits of literary and political personages, which were first published in al-Maarad journal and then collected in a volume dubbed al-Rusum (The Portraits).
Death Elias died on January 27, 1947, from Leukemia at the Hôtel-Dieu de France Hospital in Beirut, he was buried in his hometown of Zouk Mikael. After his death, Elias' friends put together a number of verses and works that were published in periodicals in a book dubbed Min Sa'id al-Aliha (From the bosom of the Gods) in 1958.
Views and beliefs
Morality Elias was raised a devout Christian by his Maronite parents in the Lebanese countryside. His religious schooling and upbringing is reflected in his deeply spiritual writings and his resort to the Bible for some of his poems, which reflects the strong hold it had upon him. Elias developed a consuming obsession with the opposing forces of good and evil, awakened at an early age due to the loss of his father at the beginning of World War I; early writings attest to the young poet's disgust and disenchantment with human existence. This is best manifested in a poem entitled Qathoora (Defilement).
Abu Shabaki's stances and the subjects he treated were considered provocative and scandalous at the time. He forthrightly and fearlessly confronted matters of sin, sexuality and immorality in a deeply personal manner. Even though he was one of the first Arab literary figures to bluntly address these taboo issues, Abu Shabaki drew praise for his innovative style. During his lengthy engagement to Olga, Elias had a torrid love affair with a married woman that is subliminally confessed in his writing of Ghalwa and Serpents of Paradise, where the remorseful Elias engages in constant conflict between lust and love and the struggle to reconcile sensual bestiality with spirituality. Despite Abu Shabaki's celebration of carnal pleasures, he retained his belief in God, whose judgment he feared; his poems show a concern for the spiritual expenses that these pleasures entail.
Women and sexuality Some scholarsRobin Ostle in Between Heaven and Hell: Sin and Sexuality in the Poetry of Ilyas Abu Shabaka (1903–1947), Representations of the Divine in Arabic Poetry. Gert Borg and Ed de Moor (Eds.).Orientations 5, Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam-Atlanta, 2001, pp183-193 argue that Elias was a misogynist as attested at an early stage in his works, such as this passage from al-Kithara:
"Beware of love! Love is evil; it is a fire in the heart that melts.If there is a deceitful heart in men, then the hearts of women are more so."Al-Kithara, (Beirut 1926) p.35.
Elias epitomized beautiful lewd women as diabolical creatures, cunning temptresses causing man's downfall and "Serpents of Paradise"; this bitter and ironical antithesis is an allusion to danger and evil that is brought upon by lust and sin. Elias' aversion and attraction to women and sex is evident in the poem "Storm" where the disturbed poet condemns a prostitute while asking her to make love; similarly in "The Wretched Woman", Abu Shabaki depicts a prostitute who inflicts her clients with venereal diseases as a way to avenge herself. Elias' attitude towards women softened and changed radically as attest his later works as he went through a process of reconciliation and redemption through love.
Despite his views, Elias was romantically involved with at least four women, according to his biographer Razzuk Faraj Razzuk. Olga Saroufim, whom Abu Shabaki married in 1931, was the main love of his life, yet he had an affair with Rose, a married woman in his hometown, while he was engaged to marry in 1929. Elias alludes to this experience in many of his writings, especially his book "Serpents of Paradise". The third woman to mark Abu Shabaki's life, albeit in a minor role, was an Egyptian singer called Hadia who exercised a calming effect on Abu Shabaki, as evidenced by the poem written for her. After having parted with the singer, in 1940 Elias met a dancer called Leila Adem; the poems in "The Call of the Heart" and "To Eternity" were written for her. Abu Shabaki's relationship with Leila continued until his death in 1947.
Writing Abu Shabaki was a prolific writer, publishing a wide variety of works, including poems, journal articles, and literary studies. Widely seen as his most important work was Afa'i al-Firdaws (1938). Elias' writing is characterized by powerful imagery, realism, and often a striking carnality and obsession with the pleasures of the flesh. Elias believed that the purest art evolves from emotion, which he thought was the source of authentic and aesthetic experience; he set a high value for inspiration and denounced rationalism and the role of conscious control in writing poetry. In one poem, Abu Shabaki wrote that truthful poetry is the best, contrary to the old Arabic saying that the best poetry is that which feigns most.
Influences