Ma'rūf ar-Ruṣāfi, 1875–1945

Abstract

In the year 1292/1875 there was born to a mixed Kurdish-Arab family a child who was destined to play a prominent part in modern Arabic literature. He was named Ma'rūf and was the second of two children in the family.No one can say with certainty who was Ma‘rūf’s father because he himself rarely spoke about his family. So far as I am aware, there is not a single reference to his father in his Dīwān. Ma‘rūf’s unwise reticence concerning his family helped his opponents to allege that he was an illegitimate child. The late Tāha ar-Rāwī, the Iraqi philologist, who associated with Ma'rūf for over a quarter of a century, asserted that he avoided answering questions concerning his parentage and, if pressed hard, he would answer briefly and change the subject. The investigations of genealogists led them to the conclusion that his father belonged to the Kurdish tribe of al-Jabbārah, which was acknowledged by all the Kurds as being of ‘Alid origin. If so, then it must have been originally an Arab tribe which migrated to non-Arab districts. His mother is said to have belonged to the tribe of al-Qarāgfūl, a branch of ammar which dwells in the plain regions of Iraq.Rusāfī was brought up in his grandfather's house in the quarter of al-Qarāgūl in Baghdad. A small dark room was allotted to him, which made him inclined to solitude and meditation. In his childhood he was not seen to mix with other children. But his fondness for mechanical instruments led to an accident in which he lost one of his fingers.