Samih al-Qasim
سميح القاسم
1939–2014
Zarqa, Jordan
A Druze Palestinian poet of resistance, al-Qasim wrote of steadfastness and belonging from his village in the Galilee, refusing both exile and conscription.
Samih al-Qasim was born in 1939 in Zarqa, Jordan, to a Druze family from the village of al-Rama in the Galilee, where he grew up and lived most of his life. He came of age as a Palestinian under Israeli military rule and became one of the leading voices of the resistance poetry movement that emerged among Palestinians who remained inside the 1948 borders.
One of the first members of the Druze community to refuse conscription into the Israeli army, al-Qasim was imprisoned and placed under house arrest several times over his life. He worked as a journalist and editor, published dozens of poetry collections, and maintained a celebrated literary friendship with Mahmoud Darwish, with whom he exchanged letters later published as a book. He died in al-Rama on 19 August 2014.
Selected works
- “Travel Tickets” (Tazakir Safar)
- “End of a Discussion with a Jailer”
- Sadder Than Water: New and Selected Poems (trans. Nazih Kassis, Ibis Editions, 2006)
- All Faces but Mine: The Poetry of Samih Al-Qasim (trans. Abdulwahid Lu’lu’a, Syracuse University Press, 2017)
Sources
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Explore selected poems, essays, and biographical material on the linked source.
Explore Samih al-QasimConnected in the archive
12 connected records12 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
written by them — 2 records
- Enemy of the Sun
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "samih-al-qasim" → Samih al-Qasim
- Travel Tickets
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: poetSlug: "samih-al-qasim" → Samih al-Qasim
names this person — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Rashid Husseinراشد حسين
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He published his first collection in 1957, at twenty-one, and was one of the poets who made that community's literature — alongside Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim, both younger than him and both, at first, in his shadow.
- Red Tuesday and the Songs of the Prison
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Forty years after Acre, Samih al-Qasim, writing as a Palestinian citizen of Israel under a different state and a different set of prisons, was still building verse out of the same arithmetic of confiscation and refusal.
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Mahmoud Darwishمحمود درويش
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: He worked as a journalist and editor, published dozens of poetry collections, and maintained a celebrated literary friendship with Mahmoud Darwish, with whom he exchanged letters later published as a book.
on a related subject — 7 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Adel Mannaعادل مناع
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Galilee", "Palestinians in Israel".
- Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948–1956
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Galilee", "Palestinians in Israel".
- Taha Muhammad Aliطه محمد علي
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "Galilee", "Palestinians in Israel".
- Tawfiq Ziyadتوفيق زيّاد
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "resistance poetry", "sumud".
- Dareen Tatourدارين طاطور
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "Galilee".
- The Sabr
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "sumud".
- and 1 more
Cite this page
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- Chicago
“Samih al-Qasim.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/poetry/samih-al-qasim.- MLA
“Samih al-Qasim.” Poetry, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/poetry/samih-al-qasim. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-samih-al-qasim, title = {Samih al-Qasim}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/poetry/samih-al-qasim}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }