Mir Basri
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Mir (also transliterated as Me'īr and Meer) S. Baṣrī (; 1911-2006) was an Iraqi writer, economist, journalist, politician and poet. Among many public positions he held, Basri served as the head and central leader of Iraqi and Baghdad's Jewish community.


Early life

Basri was born on 19 September 1911 in Baghdad to Shaool Basri and Farha Dangoor (the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Baghdad, Ezra Reuben Dangoor). HIs father was a cloth merchant in Baghdad, and his uncle was the head of the Sharia court in Baghdad in 1848 AD. Basri was educated Baghdad at al-Ta'awun and the Alliance school where he studied
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, English, and French. Following his secondary education, he trained as an economist and studied
Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...
. He mastered the Arabic sciences at the hands of Father
Anastase-Marie al-Karmali Butrus Mikha'il 'Awwad al-Marini ( / ; 5 August 1866: "ولد الأب أنستاس ماري الكرملي، في بغداد، يوم ٥ آب ١٨٦٦، من أب لبناني الأصل، وأم بغدادية. / تلقى دروسه الابتد ...
and Dr. Mustafa Jawad. He studied the history of Iraq at the hands of the lawyer Abbas Al-Azzawi, and studied the Hebrew language at the hands of Isaac Butfis, and prosody at the hands of the poet Mahmoud Al-Mallah. He turned to studying economics and world literature in depth, and he was familiar with ancient and modern Arabic poetry and was influenced by the writers of the diaspora, so he wrote poetry in Hebrew and French and then left them for Arabic.


Economic research and literature

Basri graduated from the
University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) (, also known as Baghdad University) is a public university, public research university in Baghdad, Iraq. It is the largest university in Iraq and the tenth largest in the Arab world. History The College of Isl ...
, where he studied economics. He wrote his economic research in the newspapers Al-Ikhwa Al-Watani, Al-Bilad, and Al-Shaab, and edited the weekly newspaper Al-Daleel.


Political career


Position in the Iraqi Kingdom

In 1928, Basri joined the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, going on to hold a number of government positions including many relating to Iraq's Jewish community. He held many positions in Iraq, including: secretary of the advisory committee and supervisor of supply affairs, director general and secretary at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, undersecretary and director of protocol therein, and president of the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce. He also attended many international conferences representing Iraq. Basri also held the position of honorary president of the Jewish Community in Iraq during the late sixties and early seventies. He headed the Iraqi delegation that the Indian poet Tagore received when he visited Baghdad.


Ba'athist Iraq

He was chairman of the Jewish Council of Iraq. The Baath government confiscated his house and car, and Basri was then the head of the Jewish community in Iraq, after the death of Rabbi Sasson Khadouri, the acting head of the Mosaic community in Iraq, so Basri became the first religious official for Iraqi Jews abroad. He wrote letters to
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 15 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party a ...
and
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
demanding the rights of the Jewish citizens who began to flee the country one after the other. In early January 1969, Basri, then-Chairman of the Jewish Council of Iraq, was detained for almost two months for interviewing an American who the Iraqi government alleged to be a spy. His detention has been characterized as motivated by antisemitic efforts to censor the Iraqi Jewish community. After Basri's arrest, the Jewish poet
Anwar Shaul Anwar Shaul (; ; 1904–1984) was an Iraqi-Israeli journalist, publisher, author, translator, and poet. Early life and education Shaul was born in Hillah to a family of Iraqi Jews. He was of Mizrahi descent on his father's side (Iraqi-Jewis ...
, who held the position of legal advisor to the head of the Mosaic community, wrote a poem in which he said: If I derived my faith from
Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
, then I am the one who lives under the shadow of the religion of
Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
. The tolerance of
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
was my refuge and the eloquence of the
Qur’an The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
was my resource. What I have gained from my love for the nation of Ahmad, be on the religion of the Prophet, worship him I will remain that Samual in loyalty, whether I am happy in Baghdad or not —
Anwar Shaul Anwar Shaul (; ; 1904–1984) was an Iraqi-Israeli journalist, publisher, author, translator, and poet. Early life and education Shaul was born in Hillah to a family of Iraqi Jews. He was of Mizrahi descent on his father's side (Iraqi-Jewis ...
He sent it to Saleh Mahdi Ammash, who released him, after getting impressed by the poem. A judicial order was issued to release him. He was released to attend the Arab Writers Conference in Baghdad. The Iraqi delegation was headed by
Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri (); (26 July 1899 – 27 July 1997) was an Iraqis, Iraqi poet.Adel Darwish, 'Obituary: Mohammed Al-Jawahri', ''The Independent'', 11 August 1997Online(subscription only) at HighBeam. Considered by many as one of the bes ...
and included Anwar Shaul as well. Basri presented an important research that won the admiration of the Arab conference attendees.


Later year and death

In the early 1970s Basri, who had originally been unwilling to immigrate from his home country, left Iraq for
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
. Before Basri left Iraq in 1974, he donated his personal library, which contained about four thousand books, as a gift to the Iraqi National Library and Archive. Basri left Iraq for Amsterdam in 1974. From Amsterdam, he immigrated to the United Kingdom where he lived until his death in 2006 in London.


Writing

During his career, Basri wrote in a variety of genres, including poetry, biography, periodical, and essay and memoir. Much of his writing is centred on his identity as a Jew living in the Arab world during the establishment of Israel; themes of patriotism, homeland,
Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
, and religion are common. Basri described himself as being enthralled with Arabic, particularly
Arabic poetry Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existe ...
, and published much of his work in the language. In the field of poetry and literature, he published in the Egyptian Al-Kateb magazine, the Beirut Al-Adeeb magazine, and others. He documented the lives of nearly a thousand Iraqi figures in various sciences and arts. Basri wrote an article about
Karbala Karbala is a major city in central Iraq. It is the capital of Karbala Governorate. With an estimated population of 691,100 people in 2024, Karbala is the second largest city in central Iraq, after Baghdad. The city is located about southwest ...
entitled ''Karbala, Memories and Glimpses'' and referred to his epic ''Processions of the Ages'' and mentioned a small excerpt from it. Among what was stated in his article: "Karbala was and still is an Islamic cultural centre" then he talked about the events that it went through such as the Wahhabi incident, the Najib Pasha incident, and the Revolution of the Twenties. He also wrote a review of the seventh century collection of poems in the Husayni Encyclopedia entitled (Painful Human Literature), in which he said: "This Husayni Encyclopedia was interested in Husayni literature in one aspect, which is a sad human literature that immortalizes the tragedy of Karbala, which has been mentioned throughout the ages as a symbol of freedom and redemption. We rarely find in world literature an example of this literature whose voices have risen from pulpits and whose verses have been enshrined in books, and which has remained alive. in the hearts and on the tongues of hundreds of generations, stirring up emotions and making eyes weep."


References


Mir Basri
by Shmuel Moreh, Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, 2010, p 3 - 5


See also

*
Anwar Shaul Anwar Shaul (; ; 1904–1984) was an Iraqi-Israeli journalist, publisher, author, translator, and poet. Early life and education Shaul was born in Hillah to a family of Iraqi Jews. He was of Mizrahi descent on his father's side (Iraqi-Jewis ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basri, Mir 1911 births 2006 deaths University of Baghdad alumni Iraqi Jews Iraqi biographers 20th-century Iraqi poets Jewish poets Translators to Hebrew Hebrew-language writers 20th-century Iraqi writers Iraqi memoirists Writers from Baghdad Iraqi economists Iraqi emigrants to the United Kingdom Iraqi emigrants to the Netherlands 20th-century Iraqi historians Iraqi economics writers 20th-century memoirists 20th-century Iraqi translators