Sasson Somekh

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Sasson Somekh
Hebrew University
Academic work
Main interestsModern Arab literature

Sasson Somekh (

professor emeritus of Modern Arab Literature at Tel Aviv University
.

Biography

Sasson Somekh was born in

Judah Magnes.[1]

Academic career

Somekh earned a Bachelor's degree in Hebrew Language and History from Tel Aviv University,

Ben Gurion University
.

He is among the founders of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel, established in December 2007 in collaboration with several former students.[3]

He wrote ten books, many translations from Arabic to Hebrew, among which are four anthologies of modern Arabic poetry, and about 90 articles in academic journals. Over the past 50 years Somekh published hundreds of articles in literary magazines and supplements such as Iton 77, Halikon and Moznayim. His articles deal mainly with modern Arabic literature and writers, connections between Arabic and Hebrew literature and the Cairo Geniza. He was a regular contributor to the newspaper Haaretz.

Awards and recognition

In 2005, Somekh was awarded the Israel Prize, for Middle Eastern studies.[4]

Autobiography

At the age of 70, Somekh wrote the first volume of his autobiography, Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jew.[5] The book was published in Hebrew and has been translated into Arabic, English and Turkish. In the book he describes his life as a Jewish child and teenager in Baghdad during the first 17 years of his life. He speaks of being a secular Jewish child from a secular Jewish home. He shows that the educated middle class that achieved prominence in the 1930s and '40s was the main influence on the norms of life in the Jewish community. Also, he depicts the Jews of Iraq enjoying neighborly relations with their Muslim neighbors - perhaps not idyllic but of mutual respect.

The second volume, Yamim Hazuyim ("Call it Dreaming")

Israel Academic Center
.

Published works in English

Books

Articles

  • "The Sad Millenarian: An Examination of Awlad Haratina", Middle Eastern Studies 7, 49-61, 1971
  • "Two Versions of Dialogue in Mahmud Taymur's Drama", Princeton Near East Paper No. 21, Princeton, 1975
  • "Language and Theme in the Short Stories of Yusuf Idris", Journal of Arabic Literature 4, 89-100, 1975
  • "The Transformation of 'Ghalwa", Journal of Arabic Literature 6 (1976), 101-119
  • " The Diglotic Dilemma in the Drama of Tawfiq al-Hakim", Israel Oriental Studies 9, 392-403, 1983
  • "The Function of Sound in the Stories of Yusuf Idris", Journal of Arabic Literature 16, 95-104, 1985
  • "The Participation of Egyptian Jews in Modern Arabic Culture", The Jews of Egypt in Modern Times, Shimon Shamir (ed.), Boulder: Westview, 130-140, 1986
  • "A Minute to Midnight: War and Peace in the Novels of Naguib Mahfouz", Middle East Review 20:2, 7-19, 1987
  • "Shelley in Neoclassical Arabic", Edebiyat, NS, Vol. I, No.2, 89-100, 1989
  • "Modern Arabic Poetry and its Medieval Palimpsest", Edebiyat, NS, 3:1, 105-118, 1989
  • "Cold, Tall Houses: The Jewish Neighbor in the Works of Arab Authors", Jerusalem Quarterly 52, 26-35, 1989
  • "Lost Voices: Jewish Authors in Modern Arabic Literature", in Jews Among Arabs: Contact and Boundaries, Mark R. Cohen and Abraham L. Udovitch (eds.), Princeton: Darwin Press, 9-20, 1989
  • "The Essence of Naguib Mahfouz", The Tel-Aviv Review 2, 244-257, 1990
  • (with Mark R. Cohen), "In the Court of Ya'qub Ibn Killis: A Fragment from the Cairo Geniza", Jewish Quarterly Review 80, 283-314, 1990
  • "The Neo-Classical Arabic Poets", in Modern Arabic Literature, Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, M.M. Badawi (ed.), Cambridge: CUP, 26-81, 1992
  • "Colloquialized Fusha in Modern Arabic Prose Fiction", Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 16, 176-194, 1993
  • "Structure of Silence: A Reading of Yusuf's Idris's 'Bayt Min Lahm'", Writer, Culture, Text: Studies in Modern Arabic Literature, Ami Elad (ed.) Frediction: York Press, 56-61, 1993
  • "Biblical Echoes in Modern Arabic Literature", Journal of Arabic Literature 26, 186-200, 1995
  • "Vestiges of Saadia's Tafsir in Modern Arabic Bibles", Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Communication and Interaction: Essays in Honor of William M. Brinner, B. Hary, F. Aster, J. Hayes (eds.), Leiden: Brill, 227-236, 2000

See also

References

  1. ^ Ihud
  2. ^ Life After Baghdad, Sasson Somekh
  3. ^ Nahmias, Roee (December 23, 2007). "Arabic language academy inaugurated". Ynetnews.
  4. ^ "Israel Prize Judges' Rationale for the Award (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010.
  5. ^ Review of The Making of an Arab Jew
  6. ^ Arab Poetry for Jews: Sasson Somekh, Haim Watzman, December 2, 2008, Jewcy
  7. S2CID 164289294. p. 208

External links
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