Omar Abu Risha
Omar Abu-Riche was an influential Syrian poet known for his pioneering works.
Abu-Riche was born into a wealthy literary family in Manbij, near Aleppo. He received his educational upbringing in Syria and continued his tertiary studies at the University of Damascus. He also studied at the American University in Beirut in 1931 and later read chemistry at the University of Manchester but returned to Syria in 1932. While initially a fan of Abbasid poetry, he later looked for more independent voices in poetry and considered Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis to be the greatest love poem ever written. His favorite poets were Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe.
He wrote the poem, "Khatam-ul-Hub" and produced literary works and attended to his duties as Librarian of Aleppo, Syria. In 1949, the Syrian government appointed him ambassador to Brazil. As a diplomat until 1964, he was ambassador to Argentina, Chile, India, Austria, and finally the United States.
His works included several volumes of poetry and poetic dramas.
