Ibrahim Al-Arrayedh

Ibrahim Al-Arrayedh was born on March 8, 1908, in Bombay, India, to a prominent Bahraini pearl merchant family. Educated in English, Urdu, and Persian in India, he moved to Bahrain in 1927, mastering classical Arabic and emerging as the leader of the Bahraini literary renaissance.

Al-Arrayedh was a bridge between Eastern and Western literary traditions. His poetry collections, including Dhikra and Al-Arais, introduced formal elegance and romantic lyricism to Gulf literature. His 1966 translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat directly from Persian into rhymed Arabic verse is considered a translation masterpiece. In 1973, he presided as Speaker over the Constituent Council that drafted Bahrain's first constitution. His historic home in Gudaibiya is now the House of Poetry Museum.