“Ladies and gentlemen, at the Academy, when we have the honor of entering into the heart of a family like yours, we do not come with empty hands. And if the invitee is from the East, as I am, he comes with full hands. I bring with me everything that these countries have given me, my roots, my languages, my dialect, My condemnations, my doubts, and most of all, my dream of harmony, progress, and coexistence. My dreams today are being abused. A wall is rising in the countries of the Middle East in the face of the cultural worlds that I demand. This wall, I did not intend to cross it to cross from one side to the other. This wall of hatred, The wall of hatred between Europeans and Africans, between the West and Islam, and between Jews and Arabs. My ambition is to demolish it, remove it, erase it. This has always been the reason for my life, the reason for my writing. This is my concern and I will pursue it within your institution.”
These were the words in which the Lebanese-French writer and novelist, Amin Maalouf, became a member of the French Academy in 2011, where he occupied seat No. 29 in it. He was the first Lebanese to obtain this membership and the second Arab after the Algerian writer and director, Assia Djebar (2005).
With that brief word, Maalouf summed up his long literary career, summarizing through it his ultimate goal, which his writings had always revolved around, and transported it with him to the French Academy, to immortalize him among the “immortals,” which is the description used for the members and trustees of the French Academy.
This was before Maalouf was elected, on Thursday, as Permanent Secretary of the French Academy, succeeding the French historian Hélène Carrière Dancos, who died last August, with a majority of 24 votes compared to 8 for his rival and friend, the writer Jean-Christophe Rouvin.
The French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf was elected permanent secretary of the French Academy
The French-Lebanese writer, Amin Maalouf, was elected, on Thursday, as permanent secretary of the French Academy, succeeding Eileen Carrière Dancos, who died in August, in an expected result following a competition with his friend, the writer Jean-Christophe Rouvin.
“different” beginning
Everyone who knew Maalouf agrees that his childhood and family played a prominent role in shaping his personality and establishing his open-mindedness toward others. He was born in 1949, to a family whose Lebanese origins go back to the mountainous village of Ain al-Qabou in the northern Matn region, with parents belonging to two different Christian sects. The father, the writer The journalist and poet, Rushdi Maalouf, was from the Greek Melkite Catholic sect, while his mother, Adele Ghossein, who had a Turkish mother, was from the Maronite sect. They met and married in Egypt, in 1945.
He began his school career at Our Lady of the Jamhour School, a French Catholic Jesuit school, and continued his university education at the Francophone Saint Joseph University in Beirut, where he studied sociology before moving after his graduation to work with the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar.
The Lebanese writer and journalist, Samir Atallah, witnessed the various stages of Maalouf’s life, starting with his childhood, where he met him when he was 10 years old in the office of his uncle, who was ambassador to Cyprus, when he was writing for “Al-Safaa” newspaper, which was owned by Maalouf’s father.
Atallah sees in Amin Maalouf’s family “a mosaic that reaches a ridiculous extent. Amin’s identity was complex, like a ‘puzzle’, and this had a profound impact on his ideas.”
After about 12 years, Maalouf arrived at Al-Nahar newspaper, and he was 22 years old. According to Atallah narrates to Al-Hurra website, “Our offices were opposite each other, and he was young, as I was 8 years older than him. However, we were able to build a strong friendship relationship and we started together.” We do our journalistic work from one office.”
At that time, Maalouf was newly married to his current wife, Andre Maalouf, with whom he has three children. He worked at the time in the economic attaché of the Lebanese newspaper, as well as on international political events, and he was a main correspondent who moved in his journalistic assignments between more than 60 countries around the world, and covered global events. Major ones, such as the Vietnam War, the fall of the Ethiopian monarchy, in addition to the Battle of Saigon, and others.
The funniest thing Atallah remembers about Amin Maalouf, the journalist during that period, was his car, “an old, worn-out Volkswagen. It was the subject of laughter from all his companions and the subject of many jokes at the time,” and the best thing he would invite his friends to was “gloomy eaters in his village of Ain al-Qoub.” “.
Atallah’s memory is full of funny situations and the professional cooperation that brought him together with Amin Maalouf, to the extent that he exchanged “columns, sections, and jobs” between them, and what comes to mind most at Atallah was the article that Maalouf wrote about Atallah’s transfer from working in the “An-Nahar” newspaper to “The Week.” Al-Arabi,” Atallah says: “I still remember this article. It was one of the most wonderful things.”
Maalouf, the “colleague,” according to Atallah, was “extremely modest, polite, and peaceful to the utmost,” adding, “We used to joke with him about his always hiding a book under the desk that he read in secret, while he did his journalistic work at the desk, because he was so ashamed to appear to be wasting time, so I used to tell him “Your future is below the desk, not above it.”
From journalism to literature
Maalouf’s work continued in “An-Nahar” newspaper until 1975, when the civil war that broke out in Lebanon prompted him to move, in 1976, to France, which remains his place of residence to this day. That war constituted a pivotal stage in the life of the Lebanese novelist, and left a remarkable impact on him. His literary works were a main topic in many of them.
The civil war also played a role in the death of Amin Maalouf’s father. According to anecdotal accounts, he died as a result of the sound of a strong explosion that occurred near him at the beginning of the war.
France was Maalouf’s introduction to journalistic writing in the French language, and his first experiences were with the economic magazine “Economia”. He later assumed the editorship of the magazine “Jeune Afrique” (Young Africa), while his work in An-Nahar newspaper continued as editor-in-chief of “An-Nahar Arab and International”.
“Amin was a tremendous asset wherever he went in his journalistic work, and his writings in French were no less beautiful, creative, and focused than they were in Arabic,” says Atallah, who had also moved to France at the same time.
But at the same time, Maalouf’s move to France brought about a shift on the professional side, after he decided to enter the literary world with his first work, “The Crusades as the Arabs Saw them,” which achieved great success and spread for him with its publication in 1983, by the publishing house “Lattice.” Which became the approved publishing house for his works.
Maalouf later, in a surprising move to his surroundings, abandoned the profession of journalism permanently, to devote himself to literary works, as he no longer found himself in this profession, which was “unstable,” according to Atallah. “The experience of his father, whose newspaper was eventually closed, played a role in this conviction that Maalouf reached.” Although his choice at the time required great boldness as a father of three children, his global success was achieved from his first book.”
This success was reinforced with the second book, “Leon the African,” which “put Amin on the global map, not just the French one,” according to Atallah.
This novel was credited with bringing the Lebanese writer into the French Academy for the first time as an honor, to receive the Paul Flatt Prize in 1986. He was 37 years old at the time, 25 years before he returned to it as a member (2011).
“Identities” are his hobby
As Maalouf expressed in his words before the French Academy, the “identity sorting” that the world is experiencing was the subject of constant criticism in most of Maalouf’s literary works, whose main subject was the issues of ethnic, sectarian, and religious identities around the world. He did not hesitate to express his call, passing through his works, for reconciliation between those identities. , theorizing the idea of “hybrid identity” and the reverence of “cultural diversity” and coexistence.
These ideas were clearly demonstrated in his book “Fatal Identities,” in which he presented a counter-vision of the conflicts existing between cultural identities and different nations.
The most prominent feature of the Lebanese-French writer was his presentation of historical facts in both narrative and narrative form, without neglecting the documented historical facts within which the heroes of his novels moved, as is the case, for example, with the novel “Samarkand” and “The Rock of Tanios.”
Al-Farabi House is unique in Lebanon and the Arab countries in printing and publishing all of Amin Maalouf’s books in the Arabic language, as the increasing demand for Maalouf’s books, the best-selling and most requested, in Lebanon and the Arab countries does not stop, according to what the Chairman of the House’s Board of Directors, Hassan Khalil, confirms to the “Al-Hurra” website. .
He added, “Despite the passage of decades, many of his books are still in high demand. Amin Maalouf’s books are like flowing water, they do not stop.”
Maalouf’s narrative template often revolved around controversial issues surrounding peoples and causing conflicts and fanaticism among them, such as immigration, wars, the clash of nationalities and religions, the meeting of civilizations, and the differences in languages.
He recently moved from historical narratives to anticipating the human future by addressing global issues such as nuclear weapons, the health pandemic, economic wars, globalization, popular uprisings, and environmental and technological threats.
Khalil believes that Maalouf has always met with his works the concerns of the “human reader,” regardless of his identity, and has touched on many issues that constitute a state of international and global division. “This globally followed writer dared to address these issues from his angle and vision, and this is a great responsibility in his handling of the issues.” “The problem.”
Transgenerational
Maalouf’s books have become part of the literary identity of Al-Farabi House, and “the constants of books alongside the creations of world literature and intellectual productions, and they are at the top in demand.”
Through his work at the publishing house, Khalil notes that Amin Maalouf, through his diversification of his works, addresses different generations. “There is a generation that grew up with Amin Maalouf and a younger generation that today recognizes Maalouf, thanks to his ability to address interests with an enjoyable literary narrative.”
The writer Roger Aouta was among those who followed Maalouf’s works from his childhood until today, and to this day he still retains the impact that resulted from those readings, according to what he tells the Al-Hurra website.
“As a reader of Amin Maalouf, my relationship with his text is tinged with a kind of confusion,” says Aouta, who began his journey with Amin Maalouf through the novel “Samarkand,” and moved on to other novels published in Arabic, which he says made him learn about a history that “can be written by narration and not by presentation.” , to become inhabited by living personalities, well-versed in their time, meaning that they express it, produce its history, and change its course.”
The impact of Maalouf’s writings on Aouta differed when he moved to reading it in French. According to what he narrates, it began with “Beginnings” and “Journey by Baldassare,” then was followed by “Deadly Identities,” and he adds, “This time, a connection was made with his language, with his style, which makes his text a text.” It is very easy to read, with a direct storytelling style, far from the historical presentation of the text.”
Aouta sees Maalouf’s career as “an interesting biography” that contains something of his historical figures, “at least as I received it at the beginning of my reading of Maalouf, that is, it is an adventure, not frozen by obstacles and not terrified by differences.”
As for Roger’s third reading of Maalouf, it was with the books “The Sinking of Civilizations” and “Our Strange Brothers,” in which he sees “a diplomatic function, representing the imagined East over the imagined West, and vice versa,” which he “accomplishes brilliantly,” according to what he said.
Despite these three readings, Aouta expresses an inability to resolve his relationship with Maalouf’s literature, “And perhaps, this is the literature of Amin Maalouf, and such is its importance, that it makes you confused about it.”
Awards and honors
It is noteworthy that, over the years of his literary production, Maalouf won a large number of awards and honors and was honored in several countries and forums, most notably the “Goncourt” Prize, which represents the largest French literary award (1993), for the novel “The Rock of Tanios,” in addition to the Franco-Arab Friendship Prize. 1986 for the novel “African Leon”.
He was awarded the Lebanese National Medal of Merit, rank of officer (2003), the Grand Medal of the Lebanese National Cedar Medal (2013), and the National Medal of Merit, rank of Commander (2014).
Novelist Amin Maalouf wins an international award in France
On Thursday, Lebanese-French writer Amin Maalouf won the award of the Group of Ambassadors of Francophone Countries in France (GAF) for his book “The Sinking of Civilizations,” which deals with the crisis that the Arab world and the West are facing.
In 2010, he won the Spanish Prince of Austria Prize for Literature for all of his works, and in 2016 he won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for “Cultural Personality of the Year.”
In 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded him the French National Order of Merit, in a ceremony held in Paris, in appreciation of his contributions and achievements in the world of literature. Maalouf was elevated to the rank of Grand Officer, which is the second highest degree of merit after the Grand Cross.
Maalouf was also awarded several academic degrees, including: an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, a certificate from the American University of Beirut, from the Spanish Rovira i Virgili University, and from the Portuguese University of Évora.
Among his most famous literary and fictional works are: The Crusades as Told by the Arabs, African Lyon, Samarkand, The Rock of Tanios, Deadly Identities, Gardens of Light, Stairs of the East (expected to be turned into a cinematic work), Baldassare’s Journey, The Lost Ones, The Sinking of Civilizations, Our Strange Brothers, and other literary works. Theatrical plays and political articles.
2023-09-29 20:03:01
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