Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud
عبد الرحيم محمود
1913–1948
Anabta, Tulkarm district
The 'martyr poet' — a schoolteacher who wrote of carrying his soul in his palm and was killed in battle at al-Shajara in July 1948.
Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud was born in 1913 in Anabta, in the Tulkarm district. He studied at the National Najah School in Nablus, where Ibrahim Tuqan taught, and afterwards taught Arabic at the same school — a line of descent that runs through most of the political poetry of Mandate Palestine.
In 1937, during the Arab revolt, he joined the ranks of the fighters. British pursuit forced him out of the country: first to Damascus, then to Baghdad, where he entered the Iraqi Military Academy in 1939–40 and was commissioned as a lieutenant. It is an unusual biography for a poet — the training was not metaphorical, and he returned to use it.
He was killed on 13 July 1948 in an attack on the colony of al-Sajara, next to the Arab village of al-Shajara in the Galilee, and became known as the martyr poet. His most famous poem, “The Martyr,” had described exactly that end years before it happened. The novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra called him the first knight-poet of modern Arabic poetry, the one who followed his words with action. Because he died in 1948, his work has long since passed into the public domain in most jurisdictions, and it circulates freely in Arabic.
Sources
Read more
Explore selected poems, essays, and biographical material on the linked source.
Explore Abd al-Rahim MahmoudConnected in the archive
15 connected records15 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
written by them — 1 record
- The Martyr
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "abd-al-rahim-mahmoud" → Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud
named in this record — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Ibrahim Tuqanإبراهيم طوقان
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He studied at the National Najah School in Nablus, where Ibrahim Tuqan taught, and afterwards taught Arabic at the same school — a line of descent that runs through most of the political poetry of Mandate Palestine.
- Nablusنابلس
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He studied at the National Najah School in Nablus, where Ibrahim Tuqan taught, and afterwards taught Arabic at the same school — a line of descent that runs through most of the political poetry of Mandate Palestine.
- Al-Shajaraالشجرة، طبرياmapped, not yet written up
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He was killed on 13 July 1948 in an attack on the colony of al-Sajara, next to the Arab village of al-Shajara in the Galilee, and became known as the martyr poet.
names this person — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Red Tuesday and the Songs of the Prison
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Tuqan taught at An-Najah in Nablus; Mahmoud studied there, then taught there. The political poetry of the Mandate runs down a single corridor.
on a related subject — 10 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "1948".
- Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "resistance".
- Jeninجنين
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "resistance".
- Keffiyeh
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "resistance".
- Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "1948".
- Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "resistance".
- and 4 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/poetry/abd-al-rahim-mahmoud.- MLA
“Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/poetry/abd-al-rahim-mahmoud. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-abd-al-rahim-mahmoud, title = {Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/poetry/abd-al-rahim-mahmoud}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }