Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya

Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya (Arabic: محمد فناطل الحجايا; born 3 August 1955) is a Bedouin poet from Jordan. He writes poetry on international relations and has published five books of poetry. Hajaya has been loosely attached to Jordan's Hashemite Court and often reads his poetry on national and ceremonial occasions. Though he lived a nomadic desert life as a young man, he now lives in the village of Sadd al-Sultani.

Life Hajaya was born in Jordan's Karak Governorate. He received a formal education until the age of 10, worked as a shepherd until the age of 15 and served in the Jordanian army.

Throughout his career as a poet, Hajaya has been “loosely attached to the Hashemite Court, where his talents as a vernacular poet have been put to good use on ceremonial and other national occasions."

Hajaya's poetic language is more accessible than that of many contemporary Bedouin poets because of its "subject matter and the more 'educated' language that goes with it, though quite a lot of the phraseology, stock metaphors, and compositional elements survive from the older model.” In Ya Kundaliza Rays! (“Oh Condoleezza Rice!”), published in 2004, Hajaya writes from George W. Bush’s perspective as Bush celebrates the US invasion of Iraq.

Hajaya's recent poems on Muath al-Kasasbeh and the state of the Arab world have been translated by William Tamplin.