Egypt's Revolutionary Poet Ahmed Fouad Negm Dies at 84

Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, renowned for his revolutionary poetry and outspoken criticism of Arab political leaders, died on Tuesday at the age of 84, friends said.

"Ahmed Fouad Negm passed away. He was 84," publisher Mohammed Hashem told Agence France Presse.

Negm spent a total of 18 years in jail for his strident criticism of Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat.

He opposed both the three-decade rule of Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in the Arab Spring of 2011, and the single year in power of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, toppled by the army in July.

He became recognized as a voice of protest in 1967 when he wrote poems on the Arab-Israeli war, which were highly acclaimed.

During the mass protests against Mubarak in January and February 2011, he went to Cairo's Tahrir Square -- epicenter of the 18-day uprising -- where he was cheered by protesters who often recited his revolutionary poems.

Acclaimed as a poet of the people, Negm had a decades-long association with Egyptian composer Sheikh Imam, and was widely regarded as a folk hero.

He was laid to rest later on Tuesday as Muslim tradition requires, after a funeral attended by some 200 family and friends.

Fellow poet Zine El Abidine Fouad lamented Negm's death as an "enormous loss", saying he was an artist who had been "present on the streets since 1968" and was a man "of all struggles in Egypt".

Leading leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, a former presidential candidate, said that through his poems Negm inspired "millions of Egyptians and Arabs" to "love equality and fight injustice".

In 2007, the United Nations appointed Negm "ambassador of the poor".

Earlier this year, he received the Prince Claus award from the Netherlands for his "unwavering advocacy on behalf of the poor".

Son of a police officer and a housewife, Negm was born in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia in 1929 and was one of 17 brothers.