Edwar al-Kharrat

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Edwar al-Kharrat
إدوار الخراط
Born(1926-03-16)16 March 1926
Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt
Died1 December 2015(2015-12-01) (aged 89)
NationalityEgyptian

Edwar al-Kharrat (

Arabic: إدوار الخراط‎; 16 March 1926 – 1 December 2015) was an Egyptian novelist, writer and critic.[1]

Early life

He was born in

Coptic Christian family. He studied law at Alexandria University and worked briefly in banking and insurance. He was also actively engaged in left-wing politics and spent two years in jail from 1948 to 1950. He moved to Cairo in the mid-1950s where he worked for a time as a translator at the Romanian embassy.[2][3]

Writing

Al-Kharrat has been described as "one of Egypt's most influential fiction writers"[4] and "one of the most important writers in the Arab world".[5] He was a leading figure among the group of Egyptian writers known as the Sixties Generation, and founded and edited the literary journal Galerie 68,[6] considered to be the mouthpiece of that generation.[7] In this role, al-Kharrat promoted and disseminated the works of such writers as Sonallah Ibrahim, Bahaa Taher, Ibrahim Aslan, Yahya Taher Abdullah, and Gamal al-Ghitani. He also had a lengthy association with the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) and the Afro-Asian Writers' Association, and edited Lotus, a journal of African and Arabic literature.

As a writer, his first book was a collection of

AUC Press in 2002 after winning the 1999 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.[9][10] The Arab Writers Union ranked Rama at 8th in its list of the 100 best Arabic novels.[11]

Al-Kharrat has also translated a number of foreign literary works into Arabic, including

Naguib Mahfouz Medal. He was invited to St Antony's College, Oxford in 1979 as a visiting scholar and has participated in numerous cultural festivals, including the London Literature Festival in 1999. He died on 1 December 2015, aged 89.[12]

Works

See also

References

  1. ^ Profile in the English PEN World Atlas Archived 6 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Penatlas.org (9 June 2008). Retrieved on 2011-07-13.
  2. ^ Profile in Arab World Books. Arabworldbooks.com. Retrieved on 13 July 2011.
  3. ^ Kortam, Hend (2 December 2015). "Egypt: Novelist Edwar Al-Kharrat Passes Away At 89, Leaving Behind a Literary Legacy". Aswat Masriya (Cairo). Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  4. ^ "Edwar Al-Kharrat: poet of the Arabic novel", Al-Ahram Weekly, 28 Feb-5 Mar 2008 Archived 20 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Weekly.ahram.org.eg (5 March 2008).
  5. ^ "Edwar al-Kharrat and the Modernist Revolution in the Egyptian Novel". Aljadid. (Vol. 2, no. 9, July 1996) Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  6. JSTOR 26191822
    .
  7. ^ "The Arabic Novel" by Hamdi Sakkut, translated by Roger Monroe, AUC Press, Cairo, Egypt, 2000, p.45. Books.google.co.uk.
  8. ^ "Al-Jadid", 1996. Aljadid.com. Retrieved on 13 July 2011.
  9. ^ "Selections – Edwar el-Kharrat". Banipal. Retrieved 21 July 2011. Twenty years later his first novel Ramah wal Tinneen (Ramah and the Dragon) was published. Now considered a classic, it is, according to the author "untranslatable".
  10. ^ "Rama and the Dragon", English translation by AUC Press, 2002 Archived 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Aucpress.com. Retrieved on 13 July 2011.
  11. ^ The Best 100 Arabic Books (According to the Arab Writers Union). Arablit.wordpress.com (23 April 2010). Retrieved on 2011-07-13.
  12. ^ Kortam, Hend (2 December 2015). "Egypt: Novelist Edwar Al-Kharrat Passes Away At 89, Leaving Behind a Literary Legacy". Aswat Masriya (Cairo). Retrieved 5 December 2017.

External links

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