With profound sorrow and searing pain, Yemen bade farewell to the fine poet and man of letters, Karim Salim al‑Hanaki al‑Awlaqi, on Friday, 8 August 2025, in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. The cities of Sana’a and Aden saw him off with copious, flowing tears, for they were the two stations that knew his companionship and his familiar, abiding love for them—his outpouring gifts in poetry and prose—and his enduring human stances. These two cities, which he loved to the point of intoxication, know well what this sudden, premature departure means for a rising, venerable intellectual stature.
For my part, I was deeply pained by this shattering, thunderous parting at his eternal farewell, for he is a dear friend whom I came to know decades ago in the halls and corridors of the University of Aden. When my friend, Mr. Salih al‑Raqqi al‑‘Azani—“Abu Nizar”—informed me of the devastating news of his passing, I felt as though the entire globe had spun me around completely before I could absorb that resounding report. Yet it is the will of God, Mighty and Majestic—a divine wisdom that fixes the hour of one’s term, of life and of death. In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: “For every nation there is a term; and when their term comes, they can neither delay it by an hour nor advance it.” Truthful is God, the Most High, the Most Great.
I came to know our dear departed, Karim al‑Hanaki, as I noted, through his contributions to the University of Aden’s creative activities in poetry, prose, and oratory, and through the translation work in which he immersed himself within the university’s scientific centers and colleges. I also got to know him through our fraternal ties with a number of members of his honorable family, and by virtue of our shared partisan political activity in the city of Aden in the first half of the 1980s. Through that milieu I came to know his two brothers: the martyred, gallant, intellectual Ahmed Salim al‑Hanaki, head of the al‑Hamdani Foundation for Printing, Publishing, and Distribution; and his other brother, His Excellency Ambassador Abdullah Salim al‑Hanaki—may God grant him health and bless his life. Both dear brothers have had a long and distinguished hand in Yemeni thought and culture, with a great and honorable history of struggle.
Our beloved departed, Karim al‑Hanaki, was raised and nurtured in that environment that embraced culture and intellect. He drank deeply from its rich national, militant school. From that fertile and bountiful soil, the young Karim ascended the rungs of cultural, poetic, and prose renown. I remember that, despite his young age at the time, he kept the intimate company of the giants of thought, culture, language, and history in Aden—the cradle of culture and creativity. He sat closely with Aden’s greats of the day—among them Professor Ja‘far al‑Dhafari, Professor Abdullah Fadil Fari‘, Professor Salim Abdulaziz al‑Hadrami, Professor Abdullah al‑Qurashi, Professor Ahmed Saleh Munassar, our dear friend Salih al‑Raqqi al‑‘Azani, his brother His Excellency Ambassador Abdullah Salim al‑Hanaki, and the Adeni polymath, Ustadh Hamed Jami‘—and with many other pillars of knowledge, thought, and learning.
Such was the beautiful poet, Karim al‑Hanaki—“Abu Salim.” From the earliest years of his youth, he was in warm, intimate proximity to the leading figures in great Yemen across the fields of thought, science, culture, translation, poetry, and philosophy.
Our dear departed was distinguished by many praiseworthy traits and dispositions. He was pleasant in company, with refined taste in his choice of words in conversation, in his writings, and in his poetry. For that reason his companions never tired of his presence, and readers never tired of reading his work. The great poet and man of letters, Omar al‑Har Basrida, elegized him in a fine, well‑wrought, metrically precise poem of depth and cadence, entitled “Karim, Prophet of Letters,” published on a number of websites. Yes—he was indeed a prophet and messenger of the letter, the word, and creativity. May God receive him into the vastness of His Gardens, and may He grant patience and solace to his family, his household, his lovers, and his admirers.
Indeed, we belong to God, and to Him we return. In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful: “O tranquil soul, return to your Lord, well‑pleased and well‑pleasing. Enter among My servants, and enter My Garden.” God Almighty has spoken the truth.
“And above every possessor of knowledge is One All‑Knowing.”
Prof. Dr. Abdul_aziz Saleh bin Habtoor
Member of the Supreme Political Council of the Republic of Yemen, Sana’a Member of the General Committee of the General People’s Congress
