Farouk Abdel Wahab Mustafa (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, 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 ...

: عبد الوهاب، فاروق; – 3 April 2013), pen name Farouk Abdel Wahab, was an Egyptian academic and translator based in the USA. He was born in

Tanta Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area and 658,798 inhabitants as of 2018. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia ...

and studied at the

University of Cairo Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

. He received a BA degree in 1962 and an MA in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in 1969.

Early life and education

He pursued doctoral studies at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, obtaining a PhD in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

in 1977. He taught at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

from 1975 until his death. He was the first occupant of the university's Ibn Rushd Professorial Lectureship in Modern Arabic Language, and was also the Associate Director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Translations

He was also a noted translator of contemporary

Arabic literature Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...

. Among his translations are the following: * ''A Certain Woman'' by Hala el Badry * ''The Other Place'' by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid * ''No One Sleeps in Alexandria'' by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid * ''Birds of Amber'' by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid * ''Chicago'' by Alaa el Aswany * ''Love in Exile'' by Bahaa Tahir * ''The Lodging House'' by

Khairy Shalaby Khairy Shalaby (خيري شلبي) (January 31, 1938 – 9 September 2011)Gamal al-Ghitani Gamal al-Ghitani, ( ar, جمال الغيطانى, ; 9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015) was an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical ''Akhba ...

* ''The Zafarani Files'' by

Gamal al-Ghitani Gamal al-Ghitani, ( ar, جمال الغيطانى, ; 9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015) was an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical ''Akhba ...

* ''The Book of Epiphanies'' by

* ''Al-A'mal al-Kamila'' (''Complete Works'') of Mikhail Roman He also translated works by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and Pirandello into Arabic.

Awards and recognition

* Mustafa won the 2007

Banipal Prize The Banipal Prize, whose full name is the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, is an annual prize awarded to a translator (or translators) for the published English translation of a full-length literary work in the Arab ...

for his translation of Khairy Shalaby's ''The Lodging House''.

Association

* Mustafa was a member of the

Middle East Studies Association Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encoura ...

and the Arab Cultural Council of America.

Tribute

Mustafa died on April 3, 2013."In Memoriam: Farouk Abdel Wahab Mustafa, Prolific Translator of Arabic Fiction and Teacher".Transcultural Islam Research Network.
2013-04-05. Retrieved 2013-04-10.

References