Amin Maalouf (; ar, أمين معلوف; born 25 February 1949) is a Lebanese-born French"Amin Maalouf"
, Modern Arab writers. author who has lived in France since 1976."About the author"
with Amin Maalouf. Although his native language is

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, 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 ''The Crusades Through Arab Eyes'' (french: Les Croisades vues par les Arabes) is a French language historical essay by Lebanese author Amin Maalouf. As the name suggests, the book is a narrative retelling of primary sources drawn from various A ...

'' is probably the best known. He received the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

in 1993 for his novel ''

The Rock of Tanios ''The Rock of Tanios'' (french: Le Rocher de Tanios) is a 1993 novel by the French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf. It received the Prix Goncourt. See also * 1993 in literature * Contemporary French literature This article is about French literatur ...

'', as well as the 2010

Prince of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...

for Literature. He is a member of the Académie française.Amin MAALOUF
" '' Académie Française''.

Background

Maalouf was born in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Lebanon, and grew up in the

Badaro Badaro is a well-known residential neighborhood and business hub in the heart of Beirut. The neighborhood is roughly bounded by the Pierre Gemayel avenue on the north, the Hippodrome on the west, Sami el Solh avenue on the east, Beirut's pine ...

cosmopolitan neighborhood, the second of four children. His parents had different cultural backgrounds. His father was from the

Melkite Catholic el, Μελχιτική Ελληνική Καθολική Εκκλησία , image = Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Damascus, Syria.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = , abbreviatio ...

community near the village of

Baskinta Baskinta ( ar, بسكنتا) is a Lebanese village situated at an altitude ranging from 1250 metres above sea level and climbs up to approximately 1800 meters of height at Qanat Bakish, making it one of the highest villages of Lebanon. It is loca ...

Ain el Qabou Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where i ...

. His mother, Odette Ghossein, is Lebanese from the

Metn Matn ( ar, قضاء المتن, '), sometimes spelled Metn (or preceded by the article El, as in El Matn), is a district ('' qadaa'') in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut. The district capital is ...

Village of Ain el Kabou. She was born in Egypt and lived there for many years before coming back to Lebanon; she lived in France until her passing in 2021 at the age of 100 years. Maalouf's mother was a staunch

Maronite Catholic The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The current head of the ...

who insisted on sending him to

Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour , nickname = , logo = Coat_of_arms_of_Collège_Notre_Dame_de_Jamhour.gif , logo_size = 140px , image = , alt = , caption = , motto ...

, a French Jesuit school. He studied sociology at the Francophone

Université Saint-Joseph Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jes ...

in Beirut. He is the uncle of trumpeter

Ibrahim Maalouf Ibrahim Maalouf ( ar, ابراهيم معلوف, ; born 5 November 1980 in Beirut) is a French-Lebanese trumpeter, producer, arranger, and composer. In 2022, he became the first Lebanese instrumentalist nominated at the Grammy Awards for his albu ...

Career

Maalouf worked as the director of ''

An-Nahar ''An-Nahar'' ( ar, النهار, lit=The Day or The Morning) is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper published in Lebanon. In the 1980s, ''An-Nahar'' was described by the ''New York Times'' and ''Time Magazine'' as the newspaper of record ...

'', a Beirut-based daily newspaper, until the start of the

Lebanese civil war The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

in 1975, when he moved to Paris, which became his permanent home. Maalouf's first book, ''

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes ''The Crusades Through Arab Eyes'' (french: Les Croisades vues par les Arabes) is a French language historical essay by Lebanese author Amin Maalouf. As the name suggests, the book is a narrative retelling of primary sources drawn from various A ...

'' (1983), examines the period on the basis of contemporaneous Arabic sources. 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.

Awards

Maalouf has been awarded

honorary doctorates An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

by the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(Belgium), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), the Rovira i Virgili University (Spain), the

University of Évora The University of Évora (''Universidade de Évora'') is a public university in Évora, Portugal. It is the second oldest university in the country, established in 1559 by the cardinal Henry, and receiving University status in April of the same ...

(Portugal), and the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

(Canada).

In 1993, Maalouf was awarded the

for his novel ''

'' (French: ''Le rocher de Tanios)'', set in 19th-century Lebanon. In 2004, the original, French edition of his ''Origins: A Memoir'' (''Origines'', 2004) won the

Prix Méditerranée The Prix Méditerranée (Mediterranean Prize) is a French literary award. It was created in 1984 in Perpignan by the Mediterranean Centre of Literature (CML) in order to promote cultural interaction among the numerous countries surrounding the Med ...

. In 2010 he received the Spanish

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 Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social An ...

. Maalouf is the first person of Lebanese heritage to receive that honor."Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy"
''The Daily Star'', 15 June 2012. In 2016, he won the

Sheikh Zayed Book Award The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is a literary award begun in the UAE. It is presented yearly to "Arab writers, intellectuals, publishers as well as young talent whose writings and translations of humanities have scholarly and objectively enriched Arab ...

for "Cultural Personality of the Year", the premier category with a prize of 1 million

dirhams The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...

(approx.

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

272,000). In 2020, he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government. He was given the honor by President Emmanuel Macron. In 2021, he was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer.

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."

Non-fiction

Librettos

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

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Inte ...

. * 2000. ''

L'Amour de loin ' (''Love from Afar'') is an opera in five acts with music by Kaija Saariaho and a French-language libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera received its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival. Saariaho, living in Paris si ...

'' ('Love from Afar'), opera * 2003. ''

Adriana Mater ''Adriana Mater'' is the second opera by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, with a libretto in French by her frequent collaborator, Amin Maalouf. The Opéra National de Paris and the Finnish National Opera jointly commissioned the opera. It rec ...

'', opera * 2006. '' La Passion de Simone'', oratorio * 2010. '' Émilie'',

monodrama A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character. In opera In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Pygmalion'', which w ...

References

External links

Amin Maalouf blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maalouf, Amin Writers from Beirut 1949 births Exophonic writers Living people Members of the Académie Française Prix Goncourt winners Prix Maison de la Presse winners Lebanese historical novelists Lebanese non-fiction writers French historical novelists French opera librettists 20th-century Lebanese writers 21st-century Lebanese writers 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French male writers French male novelists French male non-fiction writers Lebanese male writers Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour alumni Saint Joseph University alumni Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Knights First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland Officers of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco) Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite Grand Cordons of the National Order of the Cedar Lebanese Melkite Greek Catholics French Eastern Catholics Lebanese emigrants to France Lebanese people of Egyptian descent Lebanese people of Turkish descent French people of Egyptian descent French people of Turkish descent Lebanese memoirists