Thurayya Qabil
Thurayya Mohammed Qabil (1940 –2026), a Saudi journalist and lyric poet, is considered one of the earliest founders of the modern Saudi lyric poem. She published her literary texts in a number of newspapers inside and outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and was nicknamed the “Khansāʾ of the twentieth century”.
Biography
Thurayya Qabil was born in the city of Jeddah in the west of Saudi Arabia, and received a traditional education at the hands of a number of women and teachers. Early in her life, she published her literary output, including poetry, under her real name, at a time when some writers documented their literary works under pseudonyms.
Thurayya later moved to Lebanon with her family for her father to receive treatment. In Beirut she continued her university education at the National College, then moved to Cairo. She published a number of her literary texts on family issues—especially the child and women—in Saudi newspapers such as Al-Bilad, Al-Madinah and Okaz, and in Iqra’ magazine, as well as in newspapers outside Saudi Arabia. She is considered one of the earliest Saudi women who contributed to establishing the modern Saudi lyric poem.
During her professional career, she served as editor-in-chief of Zīnah magazine in 1986, and supervised the presidential supplement of Al-Bilad newspaper. She also oversaw the women’s page in Okaz newspaper during the period 1969–1971, then returned to supervise the page under a new title, “Our Small Society”, until 1973. She presented a one-act play on the stage of Dar Al-Hanan schools in Jeddah, and her poems were sung in a number of Saudi musical works, including “Min Ba‘d Mazh wa La‘b” and “Jāni Al-Asmar”.
Her works
Thurayya Qabil published a poetry collection entitled “The Weeping Metres”, for which she received encouragement from King Faisal Bin Abdulaziz, who welcomed the entry of her collection into Saudi Arabia. She was among the first Saudi women poets to publish her collection under her real name. She also published another book containing selected poems entitled “These Are My Shadows”.
Her death
Thurayya Qabil died in the city of Jeddah on 4 February 2026, at the age of eighty-five.
Sources
Dictionary of Literature and Writers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. King Abdulaziz Foundation. 2013 CE.
Al-Mūjaz fī Tārīkh al-Adab al-Sa‘ūdī (The Concise Book on the History of Saudi Literature). Omar Al-Tayyib Al-Sasi. 1995.