ABU DHABI, 17th April, 2016 (WAM) — The Sheikh Zayed Book Award
announced today the decision of its board of trustees and scientific
committee naming Lebanese-born French novelist Amin Maalouf winner of
this year’s Cultural Personality of the Year Award in recognition of his
achievement as a novelist who has conveyed in French some key moments
in the history of Arab and other Eastern peoples to the entire world.
He shed light on distinguished personalities dedicated to promoting
harmony and dialogue between the East and the West. The award is given
in recognition of Maalouf’s ability to recreate unique experiences and
adventures in an extraordinary literary style that amalgamates
distinctly Arabic narrative and modernist Western styles in creative
works and intellectual research.
Born in Lebanon in 1949, Amin Maalouf holds a degree in economics and
sociology from Beirut University. He worked in the Beirut-based daily
Al-Nahar newspaper, reporting on international and political affairs. He
had firsthand experience of the Lebanese civil war, and then moved to
Paris with his wife and children, where he worked for the weekly
newspaper Al-Nahar Al-Arabi and then at the French Jeune Afrique.
Maalouf’s first book in French, The Crusades through Arab Eyes (1983),
revealed his fundamental interests: history on the one hand, and
narrative writing on the other. Back then, the Crusades were a central
theme in French historical studies and literary texts based on history,
but they were rarely presented from an Arab perspective. Maalouf‘s book
presented the Crusades as experienced by the Arab community in its
various segments and affiliations. He followed a strictly objective
approach founded on a humanism that pervades all his work.
The Crusades
were not merely wars of religion as they are sometimes taken to be; they
were cultural clashes whose impact can still be witnessed today.
Amin Maalouf continued to make use of history in his fiction and to
employ his narrative skill in his historical studies. He has published a
number of novels based on history, including Leon Africanus (1986),
Samarkand (1988), The Gardens of Light (1991), The Rock of Tanios
(1993), etc. His works are characterised by a consistent array of themes
ranging from his civil war experience, constant search for identity,
cultural tolerance, and world citizenship.
The central themes of
Maalouf’s narratives are embodied in his characters, most of whom speak
several languages, master more than one talent, and enjoy multiple
citizenships. Several characters in his novels are victims of
circumstances (migration, war, and unremitting suffering); nevertheless,
they are able to reinvent their own destinies, relying on their talent
and belief in their high human values.
Maalouf’s background and vivid personal experiences led him to realise
that a singular, self-contained identity that arrogantly observes other
cultures and identities out of fear or narrow-mindedness, is a sort of
imprisonment that damages the collective betterment of humanity and
leads to the impoverishment of life.
Maalouf’s treatment of themes that touch upon modern-day fears and
concerns, in intricate poetic and narrative forms, secured his
indisputable position within the literary world. Hence the decision by
the Sheikh Zayed Book Award to name him Cultural Personality of the
Year.
The award ceremony will take place on May 1st, 2016, at ADNEC, coinciding with the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2016.
