Born in Gaza, Youssef Shahda Muhammad al-Kahlout is a professor and lecturer of literature and criticism at the Islamic University. He is the author of many literary and poetic works, most notably Critical Readings, Islamic Ethics in Andalusian Poetry in the Age of the Taifa Kings, and he collected the poems that were recited after the Al-Aqsa Intifada in the volume "Selections from the Poetry of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Intifada" (Al-Aqsa Intifada).