Celebrating the life of Dr. Mohammed Baqir Alwan (Post Mortem)

Professor Emeritus of Arabic Language and Literature, Tufts University, and one of the world's foremost experts on Iraqi and Arabic poetry. 

Mohammed Baqir Hassan Alwan was born at his home in Karrada, Baghdad in 1930.  Baqir, Baq, Khalo, Ustaz as we called him, had with no birth certificate and chose his birthdate, May 6th, many decades ago.  Baqir passed peacefully surrounded by family May 6th, 2024.  This date that was random is now so significant.

Baqir had a sweet childhood, studying hard and playing hard. His family home, a classic sunbaked mud brick courtyard home was just a block or two off the Tigris.  He told stories of fashioning life preservers out of palm fronds, and swimming, fishing, and playing hooky along the riverbanks.  Baqir also often helped with his brothers at their father’s shop and then in 1948 everything changed. 

Baqir was 18 , a  star student and impassioned.  That year, the year of the Nakba, protests broke out across Baghdad as a popular demand against the Iraqi government treaty with the British.  Baqir was picked up at a demonstration and sentenced to years in prison and set on a path that would last his lifetime.  In the end, Baqir spent two years in a stark prison with gallows that were used often.  There, he learned to organize and teach. He and his comrades in prison created a kitchen and a school.  Baqir taught reading, writing, history, and math.  He also taught and learned about communism, working across class to share ideas, food packages, and create a collective kitchen that fed everyone.

Upon release, Baqir fled his beloved Iraq and studied in Manchester England.  Soon after, he lost his Iraqi scholarship due to his activism and was removed from the state roster of Iraq, becoming stateless.  Baqir earned multiple degrees in engineering and comparative literature, eventually studying in the United States.  Baqir married in the U.S. and had two children, Dunya and Rami.  Baqir continued his academic pursuits, earning a PhD in Arabic Literature and conducting research and teaching at Indiana University, American University in Cairo, Georgetown University, Harvard University and Tufts University.

Baqir was interested in many areas of study including the works of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, an Ottoman scholar, writer and journalist who grew up in what is now present-day Lebanon, the Jin and how pantheism evolved towards monotheism in the Arab world and the evolution of language itself. 

Early in his career and soon after arriving in the United States, Baqir saw how colloquial English was being used in American literature and poetry of the day.  This was not something he, an expert in Fusha, classical Arabic, had experienced in the Arab world.  When Baqir first read Langston Hughes, he was so moved by the language, ideas, and artistry in his work that he read every one of his books.  Soon after, he reached out to Mr. Hughes and received the author’s permission to publish a collection of his poems translated into Arabic.  In 1972, in partnership with the Iraqi government, the collection was first published; that collection was re-issued only a few years ago, and a third bilingual re-publication is in the planning stages.

Baqir’s love of Arabic language, culture, and community was boundless.  His home institution was Tufts University where he taught for decades and where he was a professor emeritus.  As a colleague wrote recently, “Put briefly, Professor Alwan established the Arabic program at Tufts and was a beloved teacher to students and a cherished colleague to many faculty during the 25 years he was at Tufts. Aside from his role as a professor, he was also an antiquarian and bibliophile, and amassed a world-class collection of Arabic books, photographs, and related materials.”  Baqir’s 19th Century Middle Eastern photography collection features all facets of daily life, architecture, technology, and so on.  Selected photographs are published under the title Eyes Like Lamps.  Baqir started a treasured Arabic book group decades ago to create space for people to share meals and deeply read Arabic literature together.

Baqir found great joy in his extended family, his Iraqi and Arab communities, his students, a wide network of friends and colleagues, and in the world itself.  He often had a glint in his eye and was always poised to explore ideas.  Though a person who’d experienced some of the ugliness the world has to offer, he was still sanguine and quick to smile.  Baqir continued to publish short books and engage community with ideas, friendship and scholarly works until the day before his passing.  On May 5th, Baqir cooked the food of his homeland and entertained a small group in his home.  He even had a few more writing projects up his sleeve when he passed on his 94th birthday!