Abbas Khalili

• Name — Abbas Khalili • Native Name — عباس الخليلي • Other Names — Abbas al-Khalili, Abbas Khalīlī, Abbās Khalili, Ali Fatiy-al-Eslām, Ḵalili-e Arab • Birth Name — Abbas ibn Asadullah bin Ali al-Khalili al-Najaf • Born — c. • Birthplace — Najaf, Ottoman Empire (present-day Najaf, Iraq) • Died — 10 February 1972 1895 • Place of death — Tehran, Imperial State of Iran • Burial Place — Behesht-e Zahra • Occupation — diplomat, newspaper publisher, poet, novelist • Political Party — National Front (Iran) • Spouse — * Fakhr-Ozma Arghun, • Māhmoneer Moeini-Azad • Children — 6, including Simin Behbahani Mahyār Khalili

Abbas Khalili was born in Najaf, Iraq on either 1895 or 1896. His family was religious and his father was Islamic cleric Sheikh Asad-Allāh. His brother was poet جعفر الخليلي. His uncle was Islamic scholar Mirza Hossein Khalili Tehrani. During World War I (in 1918), the British occupied Iraq, which eventually lead to a resistance movement. Khalili was one of the twelve leaders of the Siege of Najaf (1918) in a group called the Society for Islamic Movement (Farsi: Jamʿiyat-e nahżat-e eslāmi; also known as The League of the Islamic Awakening in British publications). After the defeat of this uprising, he was sentenced to death by the British occupying forces, but after an adventurous trip, he managed to escape to Iran. For three years he was living in Rasht, and using the pseudonym Ali Fatiy-al-Eslām. Because of his accent speaking Farsi, he was nicknamed by locals Ḵalili-e Arab (English: Kalili the Arab).

From 1922 until 1929, Ḵalili worked as a translator in the Iranian Legal Office of the Ministry of Justice (Edāra-ye ḥoquqi-e Wezārat-e ʿadliya). Khalili served several government roles and he was appointed in 1949 as the Iranian Embassy in Yemen and Ethiopian Empire. He was active in the formation of the Iranian political party National Front (during the second front) in November 1958.

He was a newspaper editor and publisher; he worked as an Arabic translator for رعد امروز, and he founded اقدام (روزنامه) newspaper. The Eqdām newspaper was considered an extremist and critical, which upset some and by 1927 the paper was suspended. He was also involved in working for the Iranian Baladiya newspaper, and Bahār monthly literary journal. Khalili wrote poetry in both Persian and Arabic and has translated about 1100 verses of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh into Arabic and also published several novels. His novels all featured narration, often with the narrator being a woman telling a sad story.

Khalili was married four times, his first wife was Fakhr-Ozma Arghun (née Khalatbari) in 1924, which ended in divorce by 1931. His second wife was Māhmoneer Moeini-Azad. He had four sons, Mahyar, Shahyar, Kamyab, Faryar and two daughters, including poet Simin Behbahani in 1927. He died on 25 February 1972 from a stroke in Tehran, Iran.

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