Amin Maalouf

[saliotthomas]

www.aminmaalouf.org (http://www.aminmaalouf.org/english/)

Amin Maalouf was my favorite author until Andrei Makine came along to challenge his position.Funny is they both are foreigner who choose to write in French,lived in Paris and they both have the same initial !,(and i sure they both do plenty of thing likewise but so do i).
Amin Maalouf write beautifully,there is in his prose something of the arabian saying dug is this poetry(that i know very little of,a guess)and the mastery of an Europeen scholar.It maybe as to see with the particular statue of Libanon,this middle east country with so strong Europeen ties.Some of his sentences are so musical,so true in the images that they come to you a unburied evindence of the world beauty.He give to poetry the dicretion of prose,and to prose the magificence fo poetry(sorry for this one,got carried away)

He is very well known in France,and the last of his book i bought in a aerport(that hard proof).He won the Goncourt price for the rock of Tanios in 1993

The best of his book is Leo the african.Base one the carnet de voyage of the original Hasan al-Wazzan.In the 16th century the odysse of an Arabe from Grenade,exile because of the reconquista to Fez in Morocco,then Egytpe,Constatinople,Rome.This story of a peregrination of this man of letters around the mediterranean is made wonderfull by the epoque.The 16th century been so rich in changes,birth of the ottoman empire,fall of arabian dominance in Spain and north african,Italian renaissance,fall of Rome,luther...One of the most instructive book i ever read and with a tone so light that it felt like a walk.I read it 6 or 7 times.

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crusades_Through_Arab_Eyes) is a non fiction and also a favorite of mine.Read it 8 or 9 times.I had it in audio,gave it to my father who was staying in his car before work waiting for the end of a particular story.Fascinating.(did you know that the crusaders,our ancestors,where cannibals?)


The First Century after Beatrice (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_First_Century_after_Beatrice&action=edit&redlink=1) ISBN 0-7043-7051-4 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0704370514)
Leo Africanus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Africanus_%28novel%29) ISBN 1-56131-022-0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1561310220)
Rock of Tanios (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rock_of_Tanios&action=edit&redlink=1) (Prix Goncourt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prix_Goncourt) 1993) ISBN 0-8076-1365-7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0807613657)
Samarkand (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samarkand_%28novel%29&action=edit&redlink=1) (first published 1988 titled 'Samarcande') ISBN 1-56656-293-7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1566562937)
Gardens of Light (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gardens_of_Light&action=edit&redlink=1) ISBN 1-56656-248-1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1566562481)
Ports of Call (first published 1996 titled 'Les ?chelles du Levant') ISBN 1-86046-890-X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/186046890X)
Balthasar's Odyssey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balthasar%27s_Odyssey) ISBN 1-55970-702-X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/155970702X)


Maybe Obooki read the Rock of Tanios been part of his Goncourt project?

Amin Maalouf - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_Maalouf)

[titania7]

Thomas,
Remembering your love for Maalouf, I ordered his book, The First
Century After Beatrice, from the library. Was this a good choice?

I don't remember them having a copy of Leo The African, which is
clearly your favorite of Maalouf's novels.

Currently, I don't have time to read The First Century After Beatrice--
at least not for a few weeks. However, your opinion of it (if, that is,
you've read it) would be very much appreciated and valued.

Thanks.

Best wishes,
Titania


"The supreme value is not the future but the present.
The future is a deceitful time that always says to
us, 'Not yet,' and thus denies us. The future is
not the time of love; what man truly wants he
wants now. Whoever builds a house for future
happiness builds a prison for the present."
~Octavio Paz

[Stewart]

In tribute to Amin Malouf scooping the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/news-discussion/33202-prince-asturias-awards-2010-a.html), let's bump the thread on him...

...if only to quote the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_Malouf) which provides a bit of a biographical introduction to him:

Amin Maalouf, born 25 February 1949 in Beirut, is a Lebanese author. Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into many languages. He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios (English translation of, Le Rocher de Tanios).

Maalouf is the second of four children. His parents' families were from the Lebanese mountain village of Ain el Kabou. His parents married in Cairo in 1945, where Odette, his mother, was born of a Maronite Christian father from the village, who had left to work in Egypt, and a mother born in Turkey. Amin's father, Ruchdi, was from the Melkite Greek Catholic community. One of his ancestors was a priest whose son converted to become a Presbyterian parson. The parson's son (Maalouf's grandfather) was a "rationalist, anticlerical, probably a freemason, and refused to baptise his children". While the Protestant branch of the family sent their children to British or American schools, Maalouf's mother was a staunch Catholic who insisted on sending him to a French JesuitUniversit? Saint-Joseph). school. He studied sociology at the French University in Beirut ( community. One of his ancestors was a priest whose son converted to become a


He worked as the director of the Beirut-based daily newspaper An-Nahar Lebanese civil war in 1975, when he moved to Paris, which became his permanent home. until the start of the

[stujallen]

where is a good place to start with amin maalof ?

[Bjorn]

where is a good place to start with amin maalof ?
I've only read two of his - The Crusades Through Arab Eyes and Leo Africanus - and would very much recommend both.

[Daniel del Real]

Next on the list, The Rock of Tanios

[littératuresansfrontières]

I read most of Amin Maalouf work I was hooked for some time.

I read the following books in this order:

Leo Africanus, Samarkand, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, The Rock of Tanios, The First Century after Beatrice, The Gardens of Light, Ports of Call, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong

From all the previous list, my preference goes to Samarkand, a very good novel based on the life of Omar Khayyam and to The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, a great non-fiction piece which I read twice.

I found his essay In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong pretty long. He could have made the point in few hundred lines...

More recently, I read his opera libretto (a kind of greek tragedy). It seems the opera had a great success since he is writing more librettos.

Adriana Mater

[Daniel del Real]

I'm totally under-read regarding Maalouf's literature. I've ony read Leo Africanus and was delighted with such a magnificent story and the way the author handles it. I've never read his non fiction but I've read and seen some interviews and he's truly eloquent and sharp, specially when he talks about the prolems in Mid East.

Last week he recived the Premio Principe de Asturias de las Letras. There he presented a very short but strong speech about immigration and tolerance that every person in the world should read and comprehend.

Here it is in French dubbed in Spanish. I'll try to find it in English and will post it later:

Discurso ?ntegro de Amin Maalouf, Pr?ncipe de Asturias de las Letras 2010 - RTVE.es (http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20101022/discurso-integro-amin-maalouf-principe-asturias-letras-2010/909534.shtml)

[Daniel del Real]

Maalouf has been elected as a member of the French Academy. He will be replacing Claude Levi-Strauss who died in 2009. Apparently he was considered to this seat back in 2004 and in 2007, last time he retired after the many complains he received by Academy memebrs because of the support he gave to a manifest who claimed the death of franchophones.

[Stiffelio]

....... the support he gave to a manifest who claimed the death of franchophones.

What was this about, could you elaborate?

[Liam]

What was this about, could you elaborate?Yes, I would also like to see a source for this. Since, essentially, I agree that French is on its way out.

[Daniel del Real]

Here's the note, however it only mentions the fact, but doesn't explain much further. It sure would be interesting to how things happened at that time:

http://www.informador.com.mx/cultura/2011/301844/6/amin-maalouf-se-integra-a-la-academia-francesa.htm

[Liam]

Makes me want to read the actual manifesto, :).

[Liam]

Found it.

It seems that the 44 writers who signed the Manifesto were calling for the death of the concept of Francophone literature (that is, "foreign" literature written in French) by arguing that anything written in French, even from the "periphery" should be considered French.

Link (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/world/europe/28iht-entracte.4.5059599.html).

[Daniel del Real]

Thanks for finding the manifesto Liam, it's very interesting and I have to tell I agree with it. It'd be like making a big difference between literature made in Spain and the one from Latin America. In that case, Spanish and English language are way more advanced than the envious French and their language.

[Liam]

In that case, Spanish and English language are way more advanced than the envious French and their language.Wait until Tony gets a wind of this, :). He'll take off his belt and spank us both for disrespecting the beautiful French culture.

[Eric]

As far as I understand, the concept of Francophone literature means that Québecois writers, French writers, authors from Martinique and anyone else who writes in French in Africa or Louisiana or wherever all belong to the great happy family of Francophone literature. Maybe the idea is as dead as the jolly old British Commonwealth, built upon the concept of British colonies mucking in together, or maybe it's a good thing to keep people writing in French together.

Calling for its demise is a far cry from saying that literature written in French is on its last legs - which it isn't. Maalouf will have been one of those who thought that Francophone literature was an old colonial idea that ought to be scrapped. Is he right or not?