Amin Maalouf

Lebanese-born French author (born 1949)

Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf in 2013

Born|  (1949-02-25) 25 February 1949 (age 75)
Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation| Writer, scholar and novelist, Perpetual Secretary of the Académie Française (elected 28 September 2023)
Language| French
Notable works| Leo Africanus, The Rock of Tanios, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Samarkand

Amin Maalouf (French: [maluf]; Arabic: أمين معلوف Arabic pronunciation: [maʕˈluːf]; born 25 February 1949) is a Lebanese-born French[1] author who has lived in France since 1976.[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 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[3][4] and was elected its Perpetual Secretary[5] on 28 September 2023.

## Background

[edit]

Baskinta, next to the village of Machrah where Maalouf's father came from.

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 Greek of the Melkite Catholic community[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 2021 at the age of 100 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

[edit]

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.[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

[edit]

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]

Maalouf, 16 February 2016

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.[11][12][13] In 2004, the original, French edition of his Origins: A Memoir (Origines, 2004) won the Prix Méditerranée.[14]

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.[4][15] Maalouf is the first person of Lebanese heritage to receive that honour.[3]

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).[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 2020, he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government. He was given the honour by President Emmanuel Macron.[18]

In 2021, Maalouf was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer.[19]

## Honours and decorations

[edit]

Ribbon bar | Country | Honour

|
|

|  Finland | Knight First class of the Order of the Lion of Finland[20]
|  France | Officier of the Legion of Honour[21]
|  France | Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit[22]
|  France | Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres[23]
|  Lebanon | Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar[24]
|  Monaco | Officier of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco)[25]

## Works

[edit]

### Fiction

[edit]

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. ISBN 1-56131-022-0
1988  | Samarcande | 1994  | Samarkand, trans. Russell Harris. ISBN 1-56656-293-7.
1991  | Les jardins de lumière | 1996  | The Gardens of Light, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. ISBN 1-56656-248-1.
1992  | Le Premier siècle après Béatrice | 1993  | The First Century after Beatrice, trans. Dorothy S. Blair. ISBN 0-7043-7051-4.
1993  | Le Rocher de Tanios[26] | 1994  | The Rock of Tanios, trans. Dorothy S. Blair ISBN 0-8076-1365-7.
1996  | Les Échelles du Levant | 1996  | Ports of Call, trans. Alberto Manguel. ISBN 1-86046-890-X.
2000  | Le Périple de Baldassare | 2002  | Balthasar's Odyssey, trans. Barbara Bray. ISBN 1-55970-702-X.
2012  | Les Désorientés | 2020  | The Disoriented, trans. Frank Wynne. ISBN 978-1-64286-058-0.
2020  | Nos frères inattendus | 2023  | On the Isle of Antioch, trans. Natasha Lehrer. ISBN 978-1-64286-134-1.

### Non-fiction

[edit]

Original  | English translation

|

1983  | Les Croisades vues par les Arabes | 1986  | The Crusades Through Arab Eyes. ISBN 0-8052-0898-4
1998  | Les Identités meurtrières | 2000  | In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, translated by Barbara Bray. ISBN 0-14-200257-7.[27]
2004  | Origines | 2008\.  | Origins: A Memoir, translated by Catherine Temerson. ISBN 978-0-374-22732-6.[28]
2009  | Le Dérèglement du monde | 2011  | Disordered World: Setting a New Course for the Twenty-First Century, translated by George Miller. ISBN 978-1-60819-584-8
2019  | Le Naufrage des civilisations | 2020  | Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way, translated by Frank Wynne. ISBN 978-1-64286-075-7
2023  | Le Labyrinthe des égarés. L’Occident et ses adversaires | \-  | ISBN 9782246830436

### Librettos

[edit]

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Amin Maalouf" Archived 27 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Modern Arab writers.
2. ^ a b "About the author", with Amin Maalouf.
3. ^ a b c "Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy", The Daily Star, 15 June 2012.
4. ^ a b c "Amin MAALOUF." Académie Française.
5. ^ "Amin Maalouf élu secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie française". L'Orient-Le Jour. 28 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
6. ^ Battah, Habib. 11 November 2012. "Amin Maalouf: a writer’s bedroom." Beirut Report.
7. ^ Esposito, Claudia (2013), "Of Chronological Others and Alternative Histories: Amin Maalouf and Fawzi Mellah", The Narrative Mediterranean: Beyond France and the Maghreb, Lexington Books, p. 36, ISBN 978-0739168226, "born into a culturally composite family - his mother was Egyptian of Turkish origin, his father a Greek Catholic in 1949 in Lebanon..."
8. ^ Jean-Claude Raspiengeas (20 April 2019). "Amin Maalouf, un Levantin désorienté". La Croix (in French).
9. ^ Olivier Nuc; Valérie Sasportas (3 March 2017). "Qui est Ibrahim Maalouf trompettiste dans la tourmente?". Le Figaro.
10. ^ Un fauteuil sur la Seine : Quatre siècles d'histoire de France, Grasset, 2016 (ISBN 978-2-246-86167-6)
11. ^ Dia, Hamidou (1995). "Amin Maalouf, écrivain libanais, Prix Goncourt 1993." Nuit Blanche (59):76–80.
12. ^ Reuters (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf wins top French book award." Archived 16 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine Toronto Star.
13. ^ Coppermann, Annie (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf, lauréat attendu du prix Goncourt" (in French). Les Echos.
14. ^ "Prix Méditerranée". Prix. Archived from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
15. ^ "Amin Maalouf entre à l'Académie française". Le Monde. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
16. ^ Ghazal, Rym (2 May 2016). "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". www.ilgazzettino.it (in Italian). 26 March 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
18. ^ McFarlane, Nyree (March 2020). "Lebanese author Amin Maalouf awarded National Order of Merit in France". The National. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
19. ^ "Inaugural RSL International Writers Announced". Royal Society of Literature. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
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 2009. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
27. ^ Maalouf, Amin. [1998] 1998. "Deadly Identities," translated by B. Caland. Al Jadid 4(25).
28. ^ Maalouf, Amin. [2004] 2008. Origins: A Memoir, translated by C. Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-22732-6. Preview via Google Books.

## External links

[edit]

* Amin Maalouf blog
* Jaggi, Maya (16 November 2002). "Profile: A Son of the Road". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 November 2009.

* v
* t
* e

Amin Maalouf

Novels|

* Leo Africanus (1986)
* Samarkand (1988)
* The Gardens of Light (1991)
* The First Century after Beatrice (1992)
* The Rock of Tanios (1993)
* Ports of Call (1996)
* Balthasar's Odyssey (2000)
* On the Isle of Antioch (2020)

Non-fiction|

* The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1983)
* In the Name of Identity (1998)
* Adrift: How Our World Lost Its Way (2019)

Librettos|

* L'Amour de loin (2000)
* Adriana Mater (2006)
* La Passion de Simone (2006)
* Émilie (2010)

* v
* t
* e

Académie française seat 29

* Pierre Bardin (1634)
* Nicholas Bourbon (1637)
* François-Henri Salomon de Virelade (1644)
* Philippe Quinault (1670)
* François de Callières (1688)
* André-Hercule de Fleury (1717)
* Paul d'Albert de Luynes (1743)
* Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1788)
* Jean-François Cailhava (1803)
* Joseph François Michaud (1813)
* Jean Pierre Flourens (1840)
* Claude Bernard (1868)
* Ernest Renan (1878)
* Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour (1893)
* Gabriel Hanotaux (1897)
* André Siegfried (1944)
* Henry de Montherlant (1960)
* Claude Lévi-Strauss (1973)
* Amin Maalouf (2011)

* v
* t
* e

Current members of the Académie française

1. Dagens
2. Laferrière
3. vacant
4. Marion
5. Makine
6. Jambet
7. Hoffmann
8. Rondeau
9. Grainville
10. Delay
11. de Broglie
12. Thomas
13. Serra
14. vacant
15. Vitoux
16. Gaillard
17. Orsenna
18. Vargas Llosa
19. Agacinski
20. Rinaldi
21. Finkielkraut
22. vacant
23. Rosenberg
24. Sureau
25. Fernandez
26. Rouart
27. Nora
28. Rufin
29. Maalouf
30. Sallenave
31. Edwards
32. Ory
33. Bona
34. Cheng
35. Compagnon
36. Cassin
37. Zink
38. Lambron
39. Clair
40. Darcos

* v
* t
* e

Laureates of the Prince or Princess of Asturias Award for Literature

Prince of Asturias Award for Literature

* 1981: José Hierro
* 1982: Miguel Delibes and Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
* 1983: Juan Rulfo
* 1984: Pablo García Baena
* 1985: Ángel González
* 1986: Mario Vargas Llosa and Rafael Lapesa
* 1987: Camilo José Cela
* 1988: Carmen Martín Gaite and José Ángel Valente
* 1989: Ricardo Gullón
* 1990: Arturo Uslar Pietri
* 1991: The people of Puerto Rico
* 1992: Francisco Nieva
* 1993: Claudio Rodríguez
* 1994: Carlos Fuentes
* 1995: Carlos Bousoño
* 1996: Francisco Umbral
* 1997: Álvaro Mutis
* 1998: Francisco Ayala
* 1999: Günter Grass
* 2000: Augusto Monterroso
* 2001: Doris Lessing
* 2002: Arthur Miller
* 2003: Fatema Mernissi and Susan Sontag
* 2004: Claudio Magris
* 2005: Nélida Piñon
* 2006: Paul Auster
* 2007: Amos Oz
* 2008: Margaret Atwood
* 2009: Ismail Kadare
* 2010: Amin Maalouf
* 2011: Leonard Cohen
* 2012: Philip Roth
* 2013: Antonio Muñoz Molina
* 2014: John Banville

Princess of Asturias Award for Literature

* 2015: Leonardo Padura
* 2016: Richard Ford
* 2017: Adam Zagajewski
* 2018: Fred Vargas
* 2019: Siri Hustvedt
* 2020: Anne Carson
* 2021: Emmanuel Carrère
* 2022: Juan Mayorga
* 2023: Haruki Murakami
* 2024: Ana Blandiana

* v
* t
* e

Prix Méditerranée winners

Prix Méditerranée|

* 1985: Nicolas Saudray
* 1986: Chochana Boukhobza
* 1987: François Fontaine
* 1988: Dominique Fernandez
* 1989: Jules Roy
* 1990: Philippe Le Guillou
* 1991: Tahar Djaout
* 1992: Robert Solé
* 1993: Jean Thuillier
* 1994: Tahar Ben Jelloun
* 1995: André Chouraqui
* 1996: Hector Bianciotti
* 1997: Jean-Christophe Rufin
* 1998: Alain Nadaud
* 1999: Jean Daniel
* 2000: Albert Cossery
* 2001: Edmonde Charles-Roux
* 2002: Jean-Paul Mari
* 2003: François Sureau
* 2004: Amin Maalouf
* 2005: Jean-Pierre Vernant
* 2006: Michel del Castillo
* 2007: Emile Brami
* 2008: Louis Gardel
* 2009: Alexandre Najjar
* 2010: Dominique Baudis
* 2011: Pierre Assouline
* 2012: Jean-Noël Pancrazi
* 2013: Nedim Gürsel
* 2014: Gérard de Cortanze
* 2015: Valérie Zenatti
* 2016: Teresa Cremisi
* 2017: Metin Arditi
* 2018: Kamel Daoud
* 2019: Jérôme Ferrari
* 2020: Mahi Binebine

Prix Méditerranée Étranger|

* 1992: Luis Landero
* 1993: Ismail Kadare
* 1994: Juan Goytisolo
* 1995: Adunis
* 1996: Yaşar Kemal
* 1997: Besnik Mustafaj
* 1998: Boutros Boutros-Ghali
* 1999: Pietro Citati
* 2000: Yoram Kaniuk
* 2001: Arturo Pérez-Reverte
* 2002: Umberto Eco
* 2003: Baltasar Porcel
* 2004: Jaume Cabré
* 2005: Antonio Tabucchi
* 2006: Orhan Pamuk
* 2007: Claudio Magris
* 2008: Sandro Veronesi
* 2009: Almudena Grandes
* 2010: Amos Oz
* 2011: Dimitris Stefanakis
* 2012: Antonio Muñoz Molina
* 2013: José Carlos Llop
* 2014: Javier Cercas
* 2015: Milena Agus
* 2016: Lluís Llach
* 2017: Ersi Sotiropoulou
* 2018: Daniel Mendelsohn
* 2019: Marco Balzano
* 2022: Giosuè Calaciura

* v
* t
* e

Laureates of the Prix Goncourt

1903–1925|

* 1903 John Antoine Nau
* 1904 Léon Frapié
* 1905 Claude Farrère
* 1906 Jérôme Tharaud and Jean Tharaud
* 1907 Émile Moselly
* 1908 Francis de Miomandre
* 1909 Marius-Ary Leblond
* 1910 Louis Pergaud
* 1911 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
* 1912 André Savignon
* 1913 Marc Elder
* 1914 Adrien Bertrand
* 1915 René Benjamin
* 1916 Henri Barbusse
* 1917 Henry Malherbe
* 1918 Georges Duhamel
* 1919 Marcel Proust
* 1920 Ernest Pérochon
* 1921 René Maran
* 1922 Henri Béraud
* 1923 Lucien Fabre
* 1924 Thierry Sandre
* 1925 Maurice Genevoix

1926–1950|

* 1926 Henri Deberly
* 1927 Maurice Bedel
* 1928 Maurice Constantin-Weyer
* 1929 Marcel Arland
* 1930 Henri Fauconnier
* 1931 Jean Fayard
* 1932 Guy Mazeline
* 1933 André Malraux
* 1934 Roger Vercel
* 1935 Joseph Peyré
* 1936 Maxence Van der Meersch
* 1937 Charles Plisnier
* 1938 Henri Troyat
* 1939 Philippe Hériat
* 1940 Francis Ambrière
* 1941 Henri Pourrat
* 1942 Marc Bernard
* 1943 Marius Grout
* 1944 Elsa Triolet
* 1945 Jean-Louis Bory
* 1946 Jean-Jacques Gautier
* 1947 Jean-Louis Curtis
* 1948 Maurice Druon
* 1949 Robert Merle
* 1950 Paul Colin

1951–1975|

* 1951 Julien Gracq
* 1952 Béatrix Beck
* 1953 Pierre Gascar
* 1954 Simone de Beauvoir
* 1955 Roger Ikor
* 1956 Romain Gary
* 1957 Roger Vailland
* 1958 Francis Walder
* 1959 André Schwarz-Bart
* 1960 Vintilă Horia
* 1961 Jean Cau
* 1962 Anna Langfus
* 1963 Armand Lanoux
* 1964 Georges Conchon
* 1965 Jacques Borel
* 1966 Edmonde Charles-Roux
* 1967 André Pieyre de Mandiargues
* 1968 Bernard Clavel
* 1969 Félicien Marceau
* 1970 Michel Tournier
* 1971 Jacques Laurent
* 1972 Jean Carrière
* 1973 Jacques Chessex
* 1974 Pascal Lainé
* 1975 Émile Ajar (Romain Gary)

1976–2000|

* 1976 Patrick Grainville
* 1977 Didier Decoin
* 1978 Patrick Modiano
* 1979 Antonine Maillet
* 1980 Yves Navarre
* 1981 Lucien Bodard
* 1982 Dominique Fernandez
* 1983 Frédérick Tristan
* 1984 Marguerite Duras
* 1985 Yann Queffélec
* 1986 Michel Host
* 1987 Tahar Ben Jelloun
* 1988 Érik Orsenna
* 1989 Jean Vautrin
* 1990 Jean Rouaud
* 1991 Pierre Combescot
* 1992 Patrick Chamoiseau
* 1993 Amin Maalouf
* 1994 Didier Van Cauwelaert
* 1995 Andreï Makine
* 1996 Pascale Roze
* 1997 Patrick Rambaud
* 1998 Paule Constant
* 1999 Jean Echenoz
* 2000 Jean-Jacques Schuhl

2001–present|

* 2001 Jean-Christophe Rufin
* 2002 Pascal Quignard
* 2003 Jacques-Pierre Amette
* 2004 Laurent Gaudé
* 2005 François Weyergans
* 2006 Jonathan Littell
* 2007 Gilles Leroy
* 2008 Atiq Rahimi
* 2009 Marie NDiaye
* 2010 Michel Houellebecq
* 2011 Alexis Jenni
* 2012 Jérôme Ferrari
* 2013 Pierre Lemaitre
* 2014 Lydie Salvayre
* 2015 Mathias Énard
* 2016 Leïla Slimani
* 2017 Éric Vuillard
* 2018 Nicolas Mathieu
* 2019 Jean-Paul Dubois
* 2020 Hervé Le Tellier
* 2021 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
* 2022 Brigitte Giraud
* 2023 Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Portal:

* Lebanon

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* 2
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Italy
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Portugal
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Latvia
* Greece
* Korea
* Sweden
* Poland
* Vatican
* Israel
* Finland
* Catalonia
* Belgium

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

People|

* Trove

Other|

* IdRef

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template