One of the most prominent literary figures in the Arab world, the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani has died in London. Mr Qabbani, who was 75, became popular in the fifties after he published a volume of love poetry. He was known throughout the Arab world for his love poems which often focussed on the feelings of Arab women living in male-dominated societies. Mr Qabbani also wrote highly-charged political poetry which mocked dictatorship and lamented Arab defeats at the hands of Israel. The Syrian leader, Hafez al-Assad, has sent a plane to London to bring his body home for burial. One of our Middle East writers, Heba Saleh, takes this look at his work:

Even those in the Arab world who have never read a word of Nizar Qabbani's poetry will still be familiar with his work. His love poems have been turned into immensely-popular songs performed by some of the most famous singers of the region.

Mr Qabbani started out in the Syrian diplomatic service before taking up poetry as a career and moving to Beirut in the 1960s. Often referred to as the poet of love and women, his highly-sensual poems pushed the boundaries of what was considered appropriate in Arabic literature.

Sex was often the underlying theme, and many of his poems were intended to convey the voice of an Arab woman stifling in a restrictive male-dominated society. One such poem is Letter to a Man:

"Sir, I am afraid to say what's inside me/ I am afraid, if I do/ The sky would burn/ For your orient, my dear sir,/ Encircles a woman with spears/ And your orient, my dear sir,/ Makes prophets out of men/ But smothers women under the dust."

But Mr Qabbani's fame was not only based on his love poetry. He was an ardent nationalist who used powerful imagery to express Arab collective feelings of outrage and humiliation at key historical moments such as the 1967 defeat by Israel.