Ahmed Sefrioui ( ar, أحمد صفروي) (January 1, 1915 - February 25, 2004) was a Moroccan novelist and pioneer of

Moroccan literature Moroccan literature is the literature produced by people who lived in or were culturally connected to Morocco and the historical states that have existed partially or entirely within the geographical area that is now Morocco. Apart from the vario ...

in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

Biography

He was born in

Fes Fez or Fes (; ar, فاس, fās; zgh, ⴼⵉⵣⴰⵣ, fizaz; french: Fès) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the second largest city in Morocco, with a population of 1.11 mi ...

in 1915 of

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

parents. Sefrioui was founder of the Dar Batḥa Museum in

, a town that is present in almost all of his writings. After the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

school and the schools of Fes Sefrioui has made French his own. As a young journalist for " ''Action du Peuple''" and as writer of historical articles as a curator for the "Addoha" museum he mastered the language. After 1938 he worked at the government departments of culture, education and tourism in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

. He died in 2004.Simon Gikandi, ''Encyclopedia of African Literature'', ed. Taylor & Francis, 2003, , p. 677

References

Books

* ''Le chapelet d'ambre'' (Le Seuil, 1949) : His first novel centered on

Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

(for this novel he receives "le grand prix littéraire du Maroc") * '' La Boîte à merveilles'' (Le Seuil, 1954) : the city of Fez, as seen through the eyes of the little Mohammed. This novel about traditions and life in the city was a milestone for Moroccan literature. * ''La maison de servitude'' (SNED, Algérie, 1973) * ''Le jardin des sortilèges ou le parfum des légendes'' (L'Harmattan, 1989). Berber writers Moroccan novelists Moroccan male writers Male novelists Moroccan autobiographers 1915 births 2004 deaths 20th-century novelists {{Morocco-writer-stub