Background
Ilyās Farhāt was born to a poor family in Kafarshima, Lebanon in 1893.
Ilyās Farhāt was born to a poor family in Kafarshima, Lebanon in 1893.
Though he hardly completed elementary education and went to work at an early age, he started writing folk poetry in colloquial Lebanese Arabic.
He subsequently wrote formal poetry, gaining recognition for his first collection in 1925.