Safa Khulusi
Iraqi writer and poet
Safa Abdul-Aziz Khulusi (Arabic: صفاء عبد العزيز خلوصي; 1917–1995) was an Iraqi historian, novelist, poet, journalist and broadcaster. He is known for mediating between Arabic- and English-language cultures, and for his scholarship of modern Iraqi literature.
Apart from his literary output, he is now mainly remembered for his theories on the Shakespeare authorship question, which involved the view that Shakespeare either was an Arab or was heavily influenced by Arabic literature.
Background and career
Khulusi was born in Baghdad, the son of a lawyer. His mother died when he was four years old. His family originates from Khanaqin. His grandfather resettled the family in Baghdad where he served as an officer in the Ottoman army, but was killed during the military withdrawal from Mesopotamia at the end of World War I.
Khulusi was inspired to pursue a literary career from an early age by his uncle, the novelist and poet Abdul-Majid Lutfi. Khulusi travelled to London in 1935 on an academic scholarship, living there until the latter stages of World War II and insisting on staying in the city during The Blitz. He returned to Iraq late in the war.
An Arab nationalist, Khulusi turned down an offer of a ministerial position in the post-war British administration of Iraq.
The public source identifies “Safa Khulusi” as iraqi writer and poet. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Safa, Khulusi and Iraqi.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6809158. VIAF identifies the subject as 2443866. The Library of Congress control number is n83198536. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1995 and 1935.
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This entry incorporates text from “Safa Khulusi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.