Habib Al Sayegh

Al Sayegh had had a daily column in Al Khaleej newspaper, and he published his works at an early age. He participated in many Arab and international conferences and seminars. He produced ten poetry collections, and his poems have been translated to English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. Al Sayegh died on August 20, 2019, and at the age of 64.

He wrote classical Arabic poetry, such as “vertical poetry” (Arabic: الشعر العمودي) and “tafila” (Arabic: التفعيلة) as well as prose. In 1980, the first poetry collection of Al Sayegh's Here is the Bar of Bani Abs Tribe, Open House was published. In the following year, he published his second poetry collection, The Final Statement by the Official Spokesman for Himself. In 1982 he published Poems to Beirut and followed it with Mayari in 1983. Features was published in 1986 and Poems following the Rhythm of the Sea in 1993. Both The Rose of Old Age and Tomorrow were published in 1995. Broken Rhythm followed in 2011, and in 2012 he published A Graph for Towers of Giraffes and I Call Death “My Son”.

Habib al-Sayegh was born in Abu Dhabi. He joined Al-Ittihad newspaper when he was 15 years old. In 1977, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1977, as well as a Master’s degree in Comparative Linguistics and Translation in 1998 from the University of London.

Habib Yousef Abdullah Al Sayegh (Arabic: حبيب الصايغ) (February 8, 1955 – August 20, 2019) was an Emirati poet and writer. He was born in Abu Dhabi and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 1977, as well as a Master’s degree in Comparative Linguistics and Translation in 1998 from the University of London. He worked in the fields of media and culture, as he was the Editor-in-Chief of Al Khaleej Newspaper. He was the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Writers Union, and the first Khaliji to become Secretary-General of the Arab Writers Union.