Experience the poems of Muhammed al-Zubayri.

A champion of political reform and reconciliation, al-Zubayri is considered to be one of the foundational figures of the modern Yemeni state. A politician and pamphleteer before his assassination in 1965 during Yemen’s civil war, he considered himself firstly and foremost a poet.  

During the panel-led event, Professor Sam Liebhaber, Associate Professor of Arabic at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA, will read a selection of al-Zubayri's works, taken from the two poetry collections that he is currently translating, A Prayer in Hell and Revolution of Poetry. 

Janet C.E. Watson, Leadership Chair for Language@Leeds at the University of Leeds and Fellow of the British Academy, will also lead an interview with Professor Liebhaber and Fatima Al-Zawya, an expert in the promotion and preservation of the Yemeni oral heritage. Delivered in association with the University of Leeds.