Amin maalouf biography of william hill

Amin Maalouf

Lebanese-born French author (born )

Amin Maalouf (French:[maluf]; Arabic: أمين رشدي بطرس طنّوص معلوفArabic pronunciation:[maʕˈluːf]; born 25 February ) is a Lebanese-born French[1] author who has lived in France since [2] Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into over 40 languages.

Of his several works of nonfiction, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is probably the best known.[1] He received the Prix Goncourt in for his novel The Rock of Tanios, as well as the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He is a member of the Académie française[3][4] and was elected its Perpetual Secretary[5] on 28 September

Background

Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and grew up in the Badaro cosmopolitan neighbourhood,[6] the second of four children. His parents had different cultural backgrounds. His father was a Melkite Catholic[7] of the village of Machrah,[8] near Baskinta in Ain el Qabou. His mother, Odette Ghossein, is Lebanese from the Metn Village of Ain el Kabou, and of Turkish descent. She was born in Egypt and lived there for many years before coming back to Lebanon; she lived in France until her passing in at the age of years.

Maalouf's mother was a staunch Maronite Catholic who insisted on sending him to Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour, a French Jesuit school. He studied sociology at the Francophone Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut.

He is the uncle of trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.[9]

Career

Maalouf worked as the director of An-Nahar, a Beirut-based daily newspaper, until the start of the Lebanese civil war in , when he moved to Paris, which became his permanent home. Maalouf's first book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (), examines the period based on contemporaneous Arabic sources.[3]

Along with his nonfiction work, he has written four texts for musical compositions and numerous novels.

His book Un fauteuil sur la Seine briefly recounts the lives of those who preceded him in seat #29 as a member of the Académie française.[10][4]

Awards

Maalouf has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), the Rovira i Virgili University (Spain), the University of Évora (Portugal), and the University of Ottawa (Canada).[2]

In , Maalouf was awarded the Prix Goncourt for his novel The Rock of Tanios (French: Le rocher de Tanios), set in 19th-century Lebanon.[11][12][13] In , the original, French edition of his Origins: A Memoir (Origines, ) won the Prix Méditerranée.[14]

In he received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Literature for his work, an intense mix of suggestive language, historic affairs in a Mediterranean mosaic of languages, cultures and religions and stories of tolerance and reconciliation. He was elected a member of the Académie française on 23 June to fill seat 29, left vacant by the death of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.[4][15] Maalouf is the first person of Lebanese heritage to receive that honour.[3]

In , he won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for "Cultural Personality of the Year", the premier category with a prize of 1 million dirhams (approx. US$,).[16] In the same year, the University of Venice Ca' Foscari awarded him the Bauer-Incroci di civiltà prize for fostering cultural dialogue between civilizations.[17]

In , he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government. He was given the honour by President Emmanuel Macron.[18]

In , Maalouf was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer.[19]

Honours and decorations

Works

Fiction

Maalouf's novels are marked by his experiences of civil war and migration. Their characters are itinerant voyagers between lands, languages, and religions and he prefers to write about "our past".

Original English translation
Léon l'Africain Leo Africanus, translated by Peter Sluglett. ISBN&#;
Samarcande Samarkand, trans. Russell Harris. ISBN&#;
Les jardins de lumière The Gardens of Light, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. ISBN&#;
Le Premier siècle après Béatrice The First Century after Beatrice, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. ISBN&#;
Le Rocher de Tanios[26] The Rock of Tanios, trans. Dorothy S. Blair ISBN&#;
Les Échelles du Levant Ports of Call, trans. Alberto Manguel. ISBN&#;X.
Le Périple de Baldassare Balthasar's Odyssey, trans. Barbara Bray. ISBN&#;X.
Les Désorientés The Disoriented, trans. Frank Wynne. ISBN&#;
Nos frères inattendus On the Isle of Antioch, trans. Natasha Lehrer. ISBN&#;

Non-fiction

Librettos

All Maalouf's librettos have been written for the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

References

  1. ^ ab"Amin Maalouf"Archived 27 December at the Wayback Machine, Modern Arab writers.
  2. ^ ab"About the author", with Amin Maalouf.
  3. ^ abc"Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy", The Daily Star, 15 June
  4. ^ abc"Amin MAALOUF." Académie Française.
  5. ^"Amin Maalouf élu secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie française". L'Orient-Le Jour. 28 September Retrieved 28 September
  6. ^Battah, Habib. 11 November "Amin Maalouf: a writer’s bedroom." Beirut Report.
  7. ^Esposito, Claudia (), "Of Chronological Others and Alternative Histories: Amin Maalouf and Fawzi Mellah", The Narrative Mediterranean: Beyond France and the Maghreb, Lexington Books, p.&#;36, ISBN&#;,
  8. ^Jean-Claude Raspiengeas (20 April ). "Amin Maalouf, un Levantin désorienté". La Croix (in French).
  9. ^Olivier Nuc; Valérie Sasportas (3 March ). "Qui est Ibrahim Maalouf trompettiste dans la tourmente?". Le Figaro.
  10. ^Un fauteuil sur la Seine&#;: Quatre siècles d'histoire de France, Grasset, (ISBN&#;)
  11. ^Dia, Hamidou (). "Amin Maalouf, écrivain libanais, Prix Goncourt " Nuit Blanche (59)–
  12. ^Reuters (9 November ). "Amin Maalouf wins top French book award." Archived 16 December at the Wayback MachineToronto Star.
  13. ^Coppermann, Annie (9 November ). "Amin Maalouf, lauréat attendu du prix Goncourt" (in French). Les Echos.
  14. ^"Prix Méditerranée". Prix. Archived from the original on 15 April Retrieved 15 January
  15. ^"Amin Maalouf entre à l'Académie française". Le Monde. 14 June Retrieved 10 October
  16. ^Ghazal, Rym (2 May ). "Cultural Personality of the Year Award winner Amin Maalouf: 'I prefer to write about our past'". The National.
  17. ^"Incroci di civiltà, torna il festival di letteratura". (in Italian). 26 March Retrieved 13 February
  18. ^McFarlane, Nyree (March ). "Lebanese author Amin Maalouf awarded National Order of Merit in France". The National. Retrieved 2 March
  19. ^"Inaugural RSL International Writers Announced". Royal Society of Literature. 30 November Retrieved 3 December
  20. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  21. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  22. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  23. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  24. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  25. ^"Amin MAALOUF".
  26. ^"Le palmarès" (in French). Académie Goncourt. Archived from the original on 6 November Retrieved 27 November
  27. ^Maalouf, Amin. [] "Deadly Identities," translated by B. Caland. Al Jadid 4(25).
  28. ^Maalouf, Amin. [] Origins: A Memoir, translated by C. Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN&#; Preview via Google Books.

External links