The day before yesterday, the Syrian novelist, writer, and poet who won Arab and international awards, Khaled Khalifa, died at the age of 59, following a sudden heart attack.
His friend, journalist Yaarub Al-Issa, who accompanied him during the last days, told Agence France-Presse: “He died inside his house alone in Damascus. We called him many times and he did not answer, and we came to his house and found him dead on the couch.”
Doctors at the Abbasid Hospital in Damascus stated that the death was diagnosed as a heart attack.
Khaled Khalifa was born in Aleppo in 1964. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1988 and was a member of the university’s Literary Forum. He wrote television dramas, some documentaries, and short and feature films.
Khalifa, who comes from the town of Maryamin in the Afrin countryside, north of the city of Aleppo, was known in Syrian cultural circles after several Syrian series he wrote in the early nineties that became widely popular.
He became famous after writing his novel “Praise of Hatred,” which was translated into six languages. It attracted attention and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in its first session in 2008.
In 2013, the novel “No Knives in the Kitchens of This City” won the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Novel, one of the most prominent Arab literary honors, and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Among his well-known novels are “No One Prayed for them” in 2019, “Death is Hard Work” in 2016, “The Notebooks of the Qarbat” in 2000, and “The Deception Guardian” in 1993.
Among the most famous series he wrote are “Rainbow,” “Biography of the Al-Jalali Family,” which conveyed the social and cultural details of the city of Aleppo, “The Godfather” series, and others.
Syrian and Arab artists, intellectuals, and journalists mourned Khaled Khalifa on social media, along with political activists inside and outside Syria.
The Syrian writer and academic, Salam Kawakibi, mourned with the words: “Farewell, good man,” and the novelist Khalil Sweileh wrote: “What a tragedy for us, we will bear his hard death alone.” Egyptian director Khairy Bishara mourned him in a blog post on the “X” website, saying: “The news falls like a thunderbolt. Khaled Khalifa was one of the most beautiful friends. The concerns of life separated us, as did distance and war. A short time ago, I was very happy when we started exchanging our sweet memories, hoping to renew… The relationship and the revival of old friendship… May you rest in peace, you most beautiful beings.”
Kuwaiti writer Talib Al-Rifai also mourned him, saying: “It is as if death selects its loved ones. Shocking news, my dear friend Khaled Khalifa… There is no consolation for the arena of the Arabic novel… for your pure soul, whose forgiveness and mercy are wide.”
