The Qatar Press Center (QPC) hosted the book signing ceremony of Lover of Words, authored by media professional Dr Ahmed Abdulmalik, which deals with the life and times of the late Qatari writer and poet Jassem Safar.

The event was held in the presence of family members of the late writer and a group of writers and media professionals who have interacted with Safar through his illustrious career. The ceremony began with a speech by Prof Abdullah bin Hayi al-Sulaiti, who welcomed the writer Dr Ahmed Abdulmalik, and the attendees. Prof al-Sulaiti paid glowing tributes to the late Jassem Safar who was a prominent figure in the cultural and artistic scene with a prolific contribution in the form of songs, plays and newspaper articles. He also lauded the outstanding effort made by Dr Ahmed Abdulmalik in writing the book that documents the biography of the late writer, which took about a year. Al-Sulaiti discussed the contributions of Safar in the national football song, the most famous of which may be Hail My Team, which is still played in the stadiums with every participation of the national football team.

Media professional Dr Ahmed Abdulmalik said through this book he sought to do justice to the works of Jassim Safar, who did not receive his due in terms of media exposure, despite his rich contributions.

He pointed to the difficulties he faced in collecting information and data about the writer, due to the weakness of archiving, explaining that he relied on the family of the deceased and his personal documents to portray the human side of him.

This is in addition to the records of Qatar Radio, to document his works, especially in the field of song and theatre.

The book also included chapters on the human and social side of Jassim Safar, supported by pictures and documents, the most important of which was a book titled Shudharat (Arabic for pieces of gold mined from metal without melting the stones), which was not published, written by Safar and was dedicated to his wife.

Dr Abdulmalik said: The idea of preparing this book began to mature two months after the author’s death, as I contacted his family, who welcomed the idea and gave me a lot of their time to document the life of Jassim Safar — the father, husband and the human being.

It was important for me to inform the reader about the human side of the Safar’s personality. For example, what were his writing rituals? What made him angry? How did he express his love and affection for near and dear ones? What kind of a father he was? And why was he a mysterious person?! And many such aspects that were not known to those who knew Jassim Safar as the writer and poet. I also gained the family’s trust, so I obtained many rare photos of him, as well as some of his manuscripts that I was keen to publish.

Dr Abdulmalik added: It required me to communicate with Qatar Radio, which ironed out all difficulties for me, by sharing the national songs written by the deceased, and talking with the people who composed the music, and the singers to talk about these contributions that were established in the national and Gulf memory.

I also wanted in this book to inform the reader that Safar was less of a journalist, but rather a playwright, and a writer of series, as he had many contributions in these fields, in addition to the fact that he had wonderful contributions in writing for the Arabic UAE newspaper Al-Ittihad, and for Arabic Zahrat Al-Khaleej magazine.

Dr Abdulmalik concluded his speech by announcing his presentation of an initiative by the Ministry of Culture titled ‘Faces in Memory’ to immortalise Qatari creators in several fields; Artistic, cultural and football, because it is important to document these icons and immortalise their creativity; to be a legacy for future generations.