22 Facts About Husayn Muruwwa

Husayn Muruwwa spent the second half of his life in between Beirut and Moscow.

Husayn Muruwwa played a key role in the Lebanese Communist Party and many of its administrative branches.

Husayn Muruwwa was born in the southern Lebanese village of Haddatha, which was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire.

Husayn Muruwwa's mother, referred to as Om Husayn, was a kind woman, who despite having Husayn as her only child, raised him strictly just like her husband, who brought up Husayn in the hope that he would succeed him in his work as a religious cleric.

Husayn Muruwwa described his father's upbringing as depriving him of his childhood; he was forced to wear the traditional robe of a Shi'i scholar at the age of eight, which his classmates constantly ridiculed him for.

Ali Muruwwa died when Husayn was 12 and Om Husayn died in his arms when Husayn was 20.

On his trip to Najaf, Husayn Muruwwa recalled his first visit to Beirut at the time.

However, when he was seen reading the book by his colleagues and professors, Husayn Muruwwa was met with harsh criticism and resistance.

Husayn Muruwwa was chosen to take part in a campaign to diminish the influence of the Protestant church in Al-Amarah by running a library in the area.

Husayn Muruwwa took his new job as an opportunity to cope with his struggles.

Husayn Muruwwa started teaching in several schools, first in Baghdad and Damascus, then back in Lebanon where he married his wife Fatima Bazzi in 1929, but after due consideration and persuasion from his peers in addition to receiving financial support from family in Argentina, he decided to commence his studies in 1934 and after 4 gruelling years, he completed his education in 1938, officially becoming a mujtahid.

However, Husayn Muruwwa's proper transition into communist thought began in 1948 after observing the essential role of the ICP in the success of the Al-Wathbah uprising which was an uprising against the Portsmouth Treaty in Iraq.

However, one year after the success of Al-Wathbah uprising, the pro-British government in Iraq took back power and executed many members and associates of the ICP, consequently, Muruwwa was expelled from Iraq and stripped of his nationality.

For 7 years Husayn Muruwwa wrote regularly for both Al-Hauat and Al-Thaqafah al-Wataniyyah until 1957, when he quit his job at Al-Hayat after the assassination of Nasib Al Matni.

In December 1954, Husayn Muruwwa attended the Second Congress of Soviet Writers in Moscow as a representative of the Lebanese branch of the Arab Writers' Association.

Husayn Muruwwa returned to Moscow again in 1971 with his wife and spent 3 more years finishing up his thesis in the USSR which he would complete in 1974.

Husayn Muruwwa reluctantly told them he was ill in bed and led them to his room where one of the men sat him up, put a silenced pistol to his head, and shot; Muruwwa died instantly.

Husayn Muruwwa argues that the genesis of Islam has to be seen in the sociopolitical developments of the Arabian Peninsula during the period of Muhammad's revelation.

Husayn Muruwwa is critical of orientalist scholarship in that he rejects the notion that Islam is solely emerging from Christian and Jewish thought.

Husayn Muruwwa argues that looking for the origins of Islam is a flawed pursuit that will lead to nowhere.

Husayn Muruwwa argues that Islam was not the victory of "one man against all odds," but that the Islamic event is not merely the accumulation of historical developments.

Socialist Realism, according to Husayn Muruwwa, was only applicable in a socialist society whereas his New Realism allowed for the incorporation of thinkers that were not explicitly socialist, yet did reflect its principles.