Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf (French: [maluf]; Arabic: أمين رشدي بطرس طنّوص معلوف Arabic pronunciation: [maʕˈluːf]; born 1949) is a Lebanese French author who has lived in France since 1976. His native language is Arabic, and he writes in French. His works have been translated into over 40 languages.
Amin Maalouf
Dinkley · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Full name
- أمين رشدي معلوف.
- Born
- 1949. · Beirut.
- Nationality
- Lebanon and France.
- Occupation
- journalist, writer, librettist, novelist and historian.
- Fields
- literature, novel and historical novel.
- Education
- Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour and Saint Joseph University of Beirut.
- Known for
- The Rock of Tanios, Leo Africanus, Samarkand, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, The Gardens of Light, In the Name of Identity, Balthasar's Odyssey and The First Century after Beatrice.
- Honours
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland, honorary doctor of the Rovira i Virgili University, Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain, honorary doctorate from the American University of Beirut and Franco-Arabic Friendship Award.
- Languages
- English, French and Arabic.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q115243 · wikipedia · Amin Maalouf
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The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Biography
Biography
He received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios, as well as the 2010 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He is a member of the Académie française and was elected its Perpetual Secretary on 28 September 2023.
Amin Maalouf studied at Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour and Saint Joseph University of Beirut. The recorded working language is English, French and Arabic. The field of work recorded is literature, novel and historical novel. Positions recorded include member of the Académie française and perpetual secretary of the French Academy. Works named in the authority record are The Rock of Tanios, Leo Africanus, Samarkand, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, The Gardens of Light and In the Name of Identity. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland, honorary doctor of the Rovira i Virgili University and Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain.
Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and grew up in the Badaro cosmopolitan neighbourhood, the second of four children. His mother, of Turkish ancestry, was from Egypt, and his father was a Melkite Catholic from the village of Machrah. He studied sociology and economics at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut. He is the uncle of trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.
Documentary record
Amin Maalouf, recorded as a journalist, historian and writer, was born on 25 February 1949 in Beyrouth. The birth is recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Career
Career
Maalouf worked as the director of An-Nahar, a Beirut-based daily newspaper, until the start of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, when he moved to Paris, where he first became a journalist for an economic newspaper. Maalouf's first book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (1983), examines the period based on contemporaneous Arabic sources. Along with his nonfiction work, he has written four texts for musical compositions and numerous novels. His book Un fauteuil sur la Seine briefly recounts the lives of those who preceded him in seat #29 as a member of the Académie française.
Fiction
Fiction
Maalouf's novels are marked by his experiences of civil war and migration. Their characters are itinerant voyagers between lands, languages, and religions and he prefers to write about "our past".
Librettos
Librettos
All Maalouf's librettos have been written for the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. 2000. L'Amour de loin ('Love from Afar'), opera 2003. Adriana Mater, opera 2006. La Passion de Simone, oratorio 2010. Émilie, monodrama
Amin Maalouf, à la Comédie du livre de Montpellier, 23 mai 2009
Amin_Maalouf.jpg: Dinkley derivative work: LPLT · This file was derived from: Amin Maalouf.jpg
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1949
Amin Maalouf born at Beirut.
Awards
Maalouf has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), the Rovira i Virgili University (Spain), the University of Évora (Portugal), and the University of Ottawa (Canada). In 1993, Maalouf was awarded the Prix Goncourt for his novel The Rock of Tanios (French: Le rocher de Tanios), set in 19th-century Lebanon. In 2004, the original, French edition of his Origins: A Memoir (Origines, 2004) won the Prix Méditerranée. In 2010, he received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Literature for his work, an intense mix of suggestive language, historic affairs in a Mediterranean mosaic of languages, cultures and religions and stories of tolerance and reconciliation. He was elected a member of the Académie française on 23 June 2011 to fill seat 29, left vacant by the death of anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Maalouf is the first person of Lebanese heritage to receive that honour. In 2016, he won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for "Cultural Personality of the Year", the premier category with a prize of 1 million dirhams (approx. US$272,000). In the same year, the University of Venice Ca' Foscari awarded him the Bauer-Incroci di civiltà prize for fostering cultural dialogue between civilizations. In 2020, he was awarded the National Order of Merit by the French government. He was given the honour by President Emmanuel Macron. In 2021, Maalouf was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer. In 2025, Maalouf received the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages during the Guadalajara International Book Fair.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Amin Maalouf, revision 1374650945 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Amin Maalouf" , Modern Arab writers.
- 2."About the author", with Amin Maalouf.
- 3."Amin MAALOUF." Académie Française.
- 4.Amin Maalouf élu secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie française. L'Orient-Le Jour. 2023-09-28.
- 5.Battah, Habib. 11 November 2012. "Amin Maalouf: a writer’s bedroom." Beirut Report.
- 6.Esposito, Claudia. The Narrative Mediterranean: Beyond France and the Maghreb. Lexington Books. 36. 2013. 978-0739168226.
- 7.Jean-Claude Raspiengeas. Amin Maalouf, un Levantin désorienté. La Croix. 20 April 2019.
- 8.Qui est Ibrahim Maalouf trompettiste dans la tourmente?. Le Figaro. 3 March 2017.
- 9.Un fauteuil sur la Seine : Quatre siècles d'histoire de France, Grasset, 2016 ( )
- 10.Dia, Hamidou (1995). "Amin Maalouf, écrivain libanais, Prix Goncourt 1993." Nuit Blanche (59):76–80.
- 11.Reuters (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf wins top French book award." Toronto Star.
- 12.Coppermann, Annie (9 November 1993). "Amin Maalouf, lauréat attendu du prix Goncourt" (in French). Les Echos.
- 13.Prix Méditerranée. Prix.
- 14.Amin Maalouf entre à l'Académie française. Le Monde. 14 June 2012.
- 15."Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy", The Daily Star, 15 June 2012.
- 16.Ghazal, Rym. Cultural Personality of the Year Award winner Amin Maalouf: 'I prefer to write about our past'. The National. 2 May 2016.
- 17.Incroci di civiltà, torna il festival di letteratura. www.ilgazzettino.it. 2016-03-26.
- 18.McFarlane, Nyree. Lebanese author Amin Maalouf awarded National Order of Merit in France. The National. March 2020.
- 19.Inaugural RSL International Writers Announced. Royal Society of Literature. 30 November 2021.
- 20.Partida, Juan Carlos G. Amin Maalouf gana el Premio FIL de Literatura en Lenguas Romances. La Jornada. 2025-09-01.
- 21.Maldonado, Carlos S. Amin Maalouf gana el Premio de Literatura en Lenguas Romances con un alegato contra los extremismos: 'La humanidad superará este periodo aterrador'. El País México. 2025-09-01.
- 22.Amin MAALOUF.
- 23.Académie Goncourt. Le palmarès.
- 24.Maalouf, Amin. [1998] 1998. "Deadly Identities," translated by B. Caland. Al Jadid 4(25).
- 25.Maalouf, Amin. [2004] 2008. Origins: A Memoir, translated by C. Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. . Preview via Google Books.
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Born at
1- BeirutPlace
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
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