Salim Barakat
Salim Barakat (Arabic: سليم بركات, Kurdish: Selîm Berekat; born 1 September 1951 in Qamishli) is a Kurdish-Syrian novelist and poet. He is considered one of the innovative poets and novelists writing in Arabic. Since the 1970s, he has published numerous novels, poetry collections, biographies and children's books.
Also recorded as Salīm Barakāt
Salim Barakat

Hassanzdf · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1951. · Qamishli.
- Nationality
- Kurdistan, Sweden and Syria.
- Occupation
- poet and writer.
- Honours
- Kurt Tucholsky Prize.
- Languages
- Arabic.
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wikidata · Q621086 · wikipedia · Salim Barakat
In this article
Life and career
Life and career
Several of his works have been translated into Kurdish, English, French, German, Swedish and other languages.
He wrote about Kurdish culture, as well as Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Circassian and Yazidi culture. His earliest major prose work, Al-Jundub al-Hadidi (The Iron Grasshopper), is an autobiography of his childhood in Qamishli. Stefan G. Meyer said "Barakat's style is probably the closest by any Arab writer's to that of Latin American magical realism" and has called Barakat "perhaps the master prose stylist writing in Arabic today". In the 2006 anthology Literature from the "Axis of Evil", an excerpt from his novel Jurists of Darkness (1985) in English was published by Words Without Borders. According to online magazine Literary hub, Barakat had been one of the official candidates for the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature.
in English
in English
An excerpt from his novel Jurists of Darkness. In: Literature from the Axis of Evil: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations: A Words Without Borders Anthology. 2006. New York: New Press. Salīm Barakāt, Huda J. Fakhreddine and Jayson Iwen. 2021. Come, Take a Gentle Stab: Selected Poems. London: Seagull Books, ISBN 9781803091952. Salīm Barakāt and Huda J. Fakhreddine. 2024. The Universe, All at Once: Selected Poems. London: Seagull Books, ISBN 9781803094038.
in Arabic
in Arabic
I
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1951
Salim Barakat born at Qamishli.
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- 6 Salim Barakat: Poetry as Linguistic Conquest, The Arabic Prose Poem, 2021
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2021
- Salim Barakat: Poetry as Linguistic Conquest, The Arabic Prose Poem, 2021
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2021
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q621086: Salim Barakat
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Salim Barakat”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
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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 Salim Barakat, revision 1371555822 (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.
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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.Nassar, Hala Khamis. Mahmoud Darwish, exile's poet: critical essays. Interlink Books. 342. 2008. 978-1-56656-664-3.
- 2.Banipal (UK). Contributor's Profile - Salim Barakat.
- 3.Meyer, Stefan G. The experimental Arabic novel: postcolonial literary modernism in the Levant. SUNY Press. 87–88. 2001. 0-7914-4733-2.
- 4.Literature from the Axis of Evil – Telegraph Blogs. News - Telegraph Blogs. 2012-03-10.
- 5.Some Predictions For Who (Should) Win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature. Literary Hub. 2022-09-30.
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Citizenship
1- SwedenPlace
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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
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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- Salima Sultan BegumAuthor
- Salimbene di AdamAuthor
- Salimullah KhanAuthor
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