Quick Facts
Biography
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919–1994) (Arabic: جبرا ابراهيم جبرا) was a Palestinian Syriac-Orthodox author, born in Bethlehem at the time of the British Mandate. Educated in Jerusalem and, later, at Cambridge University, he settled in Iraq following the events of 1948.
Poet, novelist, painter, translator and literary critic, he has also translated some English works into Arabic, including James Frazer's The Golden Bough and some of the work of T. S. Eliot. He has produced around 70 books consisting of novels and translated material, and his own work has been translated into more than twelve languages.
Partial bibliography
Arabic:
1. Tammūz fī al-Madīnah. 1959. (Tammuz in the City)
2. al-Ḥurrīyah wa-al-Tūfān. 1960.
3. al-Madār al-Mughlaq. 1964.
4. al-Riḥlah al-Thāminah. 1967. (The Eighth Journey)
5. al-Safīnah. 1970. (The Ship)
6. ‘Araq wa-Qiṣaṣ Ukhrā. 1974.
7. Ṣurākh fī Layl Ṭawīl. 1974. (A Cry in a Long Night)
8. Jawād Sālim wa-Nuṣb al-Ḥurrīyah. 1974.
9. al-Nār wa-al-Jawhar. 1975. (Fire and Essence)
10. Baḥth ‘an Walīd Mas‘ūd. 1978. (In Search of Walid Masoud)
11. Yanābi‘ al-Ru’yā. 1979.
12. Law’at al-Shams. 1981.
13. ‘Ālam bi-lā kharā’iṭ. 1982. (A World without Maps) (with 'Abd al-Raḥmān Munīf)
14. al-Ghuraf al-Ukhrā. 1986. (The Other Rooms)
15. al-Bi'r al-ulā. 1987. (The First Well)
16. Malik al-Shams. 1988.
17. Yawmiyyat Sarāb ‘Affān: Riwāyah. 1992.
18. Shari‘ al-Amirāt : Fusūl min Sīrah Dhātiyyah. 1994.
English:
1. Hunters in a Narrow Street. 1960.
2. The Ship. Trans. by Adnan Haydar & Roger Allen. 1985.
3. The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood. Trans. by Issa Boullata. 1995.
4. In Search of Walid Masoud. Trans. by Adnan Haydar & Roger Allen. 2000.
5. Princesses' Street: Baghdad Memories. Trans. by Issa Boullata. 2005.
6. The Journals of Sarab Affan. Trans. by Ghassan Nasr. 2007.
Translations (English to Arabic):
1. Mas’at Hāmlit, Amīr al-Dānmārk. 1979. (Shakespeare's Hamlet)
2. Sūnītāt. 1983. (Shakespeare's Sonnets)