ABU MADI, ILIYA

born c. 1890, , al-Muhaydithah, Lebanon died 1957 Arab poet and journalist who spent much of his life in the United States. When he was 11 years old, Abu Madi moved with his family from their mountain village in Lebanon to Alexandria, Egypt. As a young man he earned money selling cigarettes. He published his first collection of poetry in Alexandria in 1911. The following year he migrated to the United States, settling in Cincinnati, where he worked with his brother. In 1916 he moved to New York City and began editing several Arabic newspapers and magazines, which were supported by New York City's Arab community. He worked for 10 years with the magazine Mir 'at al-gharb ("Mirror of the West") and married the owner's daughter. In 1929 he started his own bimonthly magazine, as-Samir ("The Companion"), which he expanded into a daily newspaper in 1936 and continued to publish until his death. Abu Madi published a collection of poetry in 1916 and a second, al-Jadawil ("Streams"), in 1927. Al-Khama'il (1946; "Thickets") was printed in Beirut, as was the posthumous Tibr wa-turab (1960; "Ore and Dust"). The popularity of his poetry was based on his expressive use of language, his mastery of the traditional patterns of Arabic poetry, and the relevance of his ideas to contemporary Arab readers.