Omar Abu Risha

Omar Abu Risha was a Syrian poet and diplomat. He served as the Syrian ambassador to the United States from 1961 to 1964 and was a renowned poet who lyricized Fī Sabīli al-Majd , Syria's de facto national anthem.

Biography

Abu Risha was born into a wealthy literary family in Manbij, near Aleppo. He received his educational upbringing in Syria and continued his tertiary studies at the University of Damascus. He also studied at the American University in Beirut in 1931 and later read chemistry at the University of Manchester but returned to Syria in 1932.
While initially a fan of Abbasid poetry, he later looked for more independent voices in poetry and considered Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis to be the greatest love poem ever written. His favorite poets were Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote the poem Khatam al-Hub and produced literary works while attending to his duties as librarian of Aleppo, Syria. His works included several volumes of poetry and poetic dramas.
In 1949, the Syrian government appointed him ambassador to Brazil. As a diplomat until 1964, he was ambassador to Argentina, Chile, India, Austria, and finally the United States.