Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; born 25 February 1949) is a Lebanese-born French<ref name=ModernArabWriters>"Amin Maalouf" Template:Webarchive, Modern Arab writers.</ref> author who has lived in France since 1976.<ref name=About>"About the author", with Amin Maalouf.</ref> 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.<ref name="ModernArabWriters" /> He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios, as well as the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He is a member of the Académie française<ref name="DailyStar" /><ref name=":0">"Amin MAALOUF." Académie Française.</ref> and was elected its Perpetual Secretary<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on 28 September 2023.

Background

Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and grew up in the Badaro cosmopolitan neighbourhood,<ref>Battah, Habib. 11 November 2012. "Amin Maalouf: a writer’s bedroom." Beirut Report.</ref> the second of four children. His mother, of Turkish ancestry, was from Egypt, and his father was a Melkite Catholic<ref name="Esposito">Template:Citation</ref> from the village of Machrah.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He is the uncle of trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Maalouf worked as the director of An-Nahar, a Beirut-based daily newspaper, until the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when he moved to Paris, which became his permanent home. Maalouf's first book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1983), examines the period based on contemporaneous Arabic sources.<ref name="DailyStar" />

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.<ref>Un fauteuil sur la Seine : Quatre siècles d'histoire de France, Grasset, 2016 (Template:ISBN)</ref><ref name=":0" />

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).<ref name="About" />

In 1993, Maalouf was awarded the Prix Goncourt for his novel The Rock of Tanios (French: Le rocher de Tanios), set in 19th-century Lebanon.<ref>Dia, Hamidou (1995). "Amin Maalouf, écrivain libanais, Prix Goncourt 1993." Nuit Blanche (59):76–80.</ref><ref>Reuters (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf wins top French book award." Template:Webarchive Toronto Star.</ref><ref>Coppermann, Annie (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf, lauréat attendu du prix Goncourt" (in French). Les Echos.</ref> In 2004, the original, French edition of his Origins: A Memoir (Origines, 2004) won the Prix Méditerranée.<ref name="Prix Awards">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2010 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 2011 to fill seat 29, left vacant by the death of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Maalouf is the first person of Lebanese heritage to receive that honour.<ref name=DailyStar>"Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy", The Daily Star, 15 June 2012.</ref>

In 2016, 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$272,000).<ref name="cultural personality 2016">Template:Cite news</ref> In the same year, the University of Venice Ca' Foscari awarded him the Bauer-Incroci di civiltà prize for fostering cultural dialogue between civilizations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2020, he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government. He was given the honour by President Emmanuel Macron.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2021, Maalouf was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Honours and decorations

Ribbon bar	Country	Honour
File:FIN Order of the Lion of Finland 4Class BAR.png	Template:Flag	Knight First class of the Order of the Lion of Finland<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
File:Legion Honneur Officier ribbon.svg	Template:Flag	Officier of the Legion of Honour<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Ordre national du Merite GO ribbon	Template:Flag	Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
File:Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commandeur ribbon.svg	Template:Flag	Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
File:LBN National Order of the Cedar - Grand Cordon BAR.png	Template:Flag	Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
File:MON Ordre du Merite Culturel Officier BAR.svg	Template:Flag	Officier of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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
1986	Léon l'Africain	1992	Leo Africanus, translated by Peter Sluglett. Template:ISBN
1988	Samarcande	1994	Samarkand, trans. Russell Harris. Template:ISBN.
1991	Les jardins de lumière	1996	The Gardens of Light, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. Template:ISBN.
1992	Le Premier siècle après Béatrice	1993	The First Century after Beatrice, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. Template:ISBN.
1993	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	1994	The Rock of Tanios, trans. Dorothy S. Blair Template:ISBN.
1996	Les Échelles du Levant	1996	Ports of Call, trans. Alberto Manguel. Template:ISBN.
2000	Le Périple de Baldassare	2002	Balthasar's Odyssey, trans. Barbara Bray. Template:ISBN.
2012	Les Désorientés	2020	The Disoriented, trans. Frank Wynne. Template:ISBN.
2020	Nos frères inattendus	2023	On the Isle of Antioch, trans. Natasha Lehrer. Template:ISBN.

Non-fiction

Original		English translation
1983	Les Croisades vues par les Arabes	1986	The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Template:ISBN
1998	Les Identités meurtrières	2000	In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, translated by Barbara Bray. Template:ISBN.<ref>Maalouf, Amin. [1998] 1998. "Deadly Identities," translated by B. Caland. Al Jadid 4(25).</ref>
2004	Origines	2008.	Origins: A Memoir, translated by Catherine Temerson. Template:ISBN.<ref>Maalouf, Amin. [2004] 2008. Origins: A Memoir, translated by C. Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Template:ISBN. Preview via Google Books.</ref>
2009	Le Dérèglement du monde	2011	Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-First Century, translated by George Miller. Template:ISBN
2019	Le Naufrage des civilisations	2020	Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way, translated by Frank Wynne. Template:ISBN
2023	Le Labyrinthe des égarés. L’Occident et ses adversaires	-	Template:ISBN

Librettos

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

• 2000. L'Amour de loin ('Love from Afar'), opera
• 2003. Adriana Mater, opera
• 2006. La Passion de Simone, oratorio
• 2010. Émilie, monodrama

External links

• Amin Maalouf blog
• Template:Cite news