Karbala in Modern Arabic Poetry

The present study discusses how the Battle of Karbala and the killing of Hussein b. Ali are reflected in modern Arabic poetry, especially among the pioneers of the modern Arabic literary renaissance in Iraq, al-Sayyab and al-Jawahiri. The study shows that the aforementioned battle is a significant theme in contemporary Arabic poetry, and that poets linked their own lives and the life of their nation with the killing of Hussein in Karbala, perceiving the wrongs which they themselves experienced and which were committed against their peoples as a continuation of the wrongs committed against Hussein at the time. Karbala became a symbol of grief and tragedy, which some poets applied to the Palestinian issue. For others Karbala was a symbol of rebellion and martyrdom while the Umayyad caliph Yazid b. Mu'awiya served as a symbol of oppression and denial of rights. In fact, Karbala in contemporary Arabic poetry can be said to have become a hymn to freedom, recited by nations that thirst for freedom, and Hussein has taken on a timeless character