Edmond Amran El Maleh (Arabic: إدمون عمران المالح) (30 March 1917 – 15 November 2010) was a Moroccan writer and activist.

Edmond Amran El Maleh
Native name
إدمون عمران المالح
Born(1917-03-30)March 30, 1917
Safi, Morocco
DiedNovember 15, 2010(2010-11-15) (aged 93)
OccupationJournalist, Writer
Notable awardsGrand Prix du Maroc

Biography

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El Maleh was born in Safi, Morocco to a Jewish Berber family.[1][2] During his youth he joined the Moroccan Communist Party. He moved to Paris in 1965, working there as a journalist and a teacher of philosophy.

He only began writing in 1980, at the age of 63, traveling back and forth between France and Morocco. He stated that, in spite of his long stay in France, he had devoted his entire literary life to Morocco. From 1999 until his death he lived in Rabat.[3][4]

There is controversy about his political stance; however, nothing has ever been corroborated. He was buried, according to his wishes, in the Jewish cemetery in Essaouira. He wrote in French.

Works

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  • Parcours immobile (Maspero, 1983)
  • Abner, Abnour (La Pensée sauvage/Le Fennec, 1996).
  • Le café bleu. Zrirek (La pensée sauvage, 1999)
  • Mille ans, un jour (Le Fennec, 1990 – André Dimanche, 2002 (1986))
  • Le Retour d'Abou El Haki (La Pensée sauvage, 1990).
  • Jean Genet, Le Captif amoureux et autres essais (La Pensée sauvage/Toubkal, 1988 )
  • Aïlen ou la nuit du récit (La Découverte, 1983, réédité par André Dimanche, 2000)
  • Parcours immobile (Maspéro, 1980 puis réédité par André Dimanche, 2001) : Roman
  • La maIle de Sidi Maâchou (Al Manar 1998)
  • Essaouira Cité heureuse
  • Une femme, une mère (éditions Lixus, Tanger 2004)

References

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  1. ^ "إدمون المالح.. يهودي مغربي مناهض للصهيونية".
  2. ^ Keil-Sagawe, Regina (2011). "The Writer Edmond Amran El Maleh: A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots". Qantara.de. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  3. ^ Salim Jay, Dictionnaire des écrivains marocains, Eddif, 2005, p.176-179
  4. ^ "Petite biographie d'un très grand écrivain" (in French). www.aujourdhui.ma. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2010.

Further reading

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  • Bou'Azza Ben'Achir, Cheminements d'une écriture (1997). 238 pages. ISBN 2-7384-5217-5
  • Vogl, Mary B., 2003, "It Was and It Was Not So: Edmond Amran El Maleh Remembers Morocco," International Journal of Francophone Studies 6.2, 71–85.
  • "Taksiat," short story from the collection Abner Abounour by Edmond Amran El Maleh, reprinted with an English translated by Lucy R. McNair, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies/Sites, April 2007, Vol. 11, Issue 2. In same issue, an interview with Moroccan painter Yamou with reference to El Maleh.
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