ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

Zuheir al-Shalabi (born 1943) is a Syrian novelist born in the village of Tal, near Damascus. He was a soldier, diplomat, and businessman. He settled in Cyprus. He was involved in social and cultural activities in his area, and a member of the Union of Arab Writers. The writer Zuheir al-Shalabi has eleven editions of epic novels, short stories, poems, free verse poetry, and a number of distinctive and humanitarian screenplays.

His life
He was born during the Nakba (1948) and grew up in an atmosphere of defeat after the 1967 war, participated as a soldier in the 1973 war, and witnessed the political fluctuations in the Arab world and the world over a period of less than fifty years. His teachers taught him since primary school to ask questions, until he surprised his most important teacher, Adnan Baghajati, when he was sixteen by asking: "Why do we live?"

Biographical notes
He had hopes for Arab unity and participated in this direction throughout his life through his attempts to reconcile with it. He lived a period of unity between Syria and Egypt in all its details and was enthusiastic about the nationalistic trend at that time.

Since childhood, since the stage of kuttabs under Sheikh Nabi and others, he has always been passionate about freedom, which includes human dignity, and his love for others and acceptance of the other in his difference with principles of respect. He hates violence and searches for reconciliation between peoples and dialogue between civilizations. He read humanistic texts, including those written by Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Hemingway, Hugo, and what was said about Gandhi, Tagore, Arab exiled poets, English Romantic poets, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Taha Hussein, and other great thinkers and humanitarians. He studied meditation and has a wide idea of the peoples and their ways of life.

He faced pressures, especially in seeing his father's misery, his mother's ambitions, and the presence of his seven younger brothers, which made him oscillate between choosing a study that suits him, between medicine, engineering, literature, and law.

He was chosen for an embassy to study nuclear physics, but he did not complete his studies. He studied at Damascus University in the field of English literature, obtained a teaching license, and became a teacher and instructor in several cities in Syria for ten consecutive years.

In the early 1970s, after the war, he moved to the Syrian Foreign Ministry's properties, and registered as a young member of the Union of Arab Writers at the recommendation of Dr. Eskander Luqa and with the support of his teacher Adnan Baghajati, who was later the president of the union.

During the following years, he represented Syria in Cyprus for more than six years, between being the second person and then the first person. He returned to his country, Syria, in 1982, then submitted his resignation after his request for a one-year leave was rejected. He disagreed with the Minister on whether this was a right or not.

He started a small business between Syria and Cyprus using weak means, and had to prove himself in his new world. He did not succeed in trade, and his criticism of the sheikhs' methods and their practices made his position difficult. During this period, he developed a working relationship with some old friends, where he exerted efforts for fifteen years to find himself again with four children and their mother in Cyprus.

Literary activity
Zuheir al-Shalabi has 12 printed editions and around 1000 short stories, 3 novels until now, and around 1000 poems. He has a YouTube channel with 270 recordings, including full-length short films directed by him.

The first stage
He began his literary activity since 1969. Through his love for the word, he presented a number of stories that were published repeatedly in Al-Tali'a magazine, Al-Sawt Al-Mu'allim magazine, and Al-Istiqama magazine under the title of Youth Literature. In 1973, he met a number of known artists and writers, such as Muhammad al-Alawi, Adnan Baghajati, and others.

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