When the Lebanese Civil War broke out, he refused to fight: Who is Amin Maalouf?

Amin Maalouf was born on February 25, 1949, in Beirut. His father was a Catholic Arab, journalist Ruchdi Maalof, and his mother, Odette, was an Egyptian of Turkish origin. Maalouf was born as the second of four children, three of whom were girls.

“My grandmother was born in Istanbul. My mother used to say that she spoke Turkish. My father was born in 1915, that is, he was born as an Ottoman subject. I am the first non-Ottoman generation in my family.”

His great-great-uncle was a translator who introduced Moliere to Arabic, and his family roots include other literary figures such as David Maalouf, a novelist in Australia, or Fawzi Maalouf, known for his poetry in Brazil.

Amin Maalouf (born 25 February 1949) is a Lebanese-born French author who has lived in France since 1976. Although his native language is Arabic, he writes in French, and his works have been translated into over 40 languages.

After completing his primary and secondary education in French Jesuit schools in Beirut, he studied sociology and economics at the French University in Beirut. Like his father, he is interested in journalism. At the age of 22, he started writing and managing the daily newspaper An-Nahar, founded by his father. Due to this duty, he has the opportunity to travel to many countries such as India, Bangladesh, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Algeria. In his articles, he usually tries to find solutions by focusing on the wars and conflicts in these places. Again in these years, he met with Indira Gandhi, witnessed the revolution in Ethiopia, and wrote about the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Amin marries Andreé in 1971, who teaches at an institute for deaf children; All three sons were born in Lebanon. When the Lebanese Civil War begins, refusing to fight, Maalouf flees to the mountain village where his parents were born. Saying that he never forgot that day and that he saw the bodies of around 20 people on the street after a clash in front of their house, Maalouf spent nights in the basement with his pregnant wife and young son. The shock he experienced causes him to come face to face with the fact that if he had a gun that day, he could be a murderer. Saying "Ethnic tension can create a murderer for anyone", the author is forced to leave his homeland.

Although he had a hard time accepting the idea of emigrating from Lebanon, he moved to France, where he knew the language and culture well through the schools he studied, as his grandparents emigrated to America, Egypt, Australia, and even Cuba in 1976. sets off and has been living in Paris ever since.

Maalouf first makes his name known with a history book. He says that he did not anticipate that his book, Crusades Through the Eyes of the Arabs, would attract so much attention when it was published in 1983, 7 years after settling in France. Written in French, this work was translated into other languages in a short time. The success of the book is that it focuses on how the Crusades, which have been told through the eyes of the Westerners, were seen and experienced by the Arabs. The entire content of the book consists of the testimonies of Arab historians and chroniclers.

In an interview with him, Maalouf states that his first novel, written exactly in his own style, was African Leo from 1986; because he was encouraged by a friend, who was a publisher, to write his first work, The Crusades Through the Eyes of the Arabs. Maalouf will say that his first novel, Leo the African, will determine whether he will continue as a writer or even return to his country. He received the Franco-Arab Friendship Award for this work.

While his novel Samarkand, which he published in 1988, was translated into many languages, he won the Goncourt Award with his book Tanios Kayası published in 1993. Although it was a great source of joy for Maalouf to have this award, which Proust received in 1919; As he himself stated, he also puts a heavy burden on his shoulders as a writer.

As a sociologist, the author, who especially goes to various Eastern countries and observes the social structures there, and presents these observations by blending them with fiction, is seen to focus on the problems of the East and the solution to these problems in his works. Known as the spokesperson of the Near East in Europe, Maalouf's works are published one after the other, telling historical events like a fairy tale and blending the real and the unreal.

Maalouf writes in different genres such as novels, historical books, autobiographical works, librettos, and essays. In 2010, Maalouf was awarded the Prince des Asturies award for all his works, and in 2011 he was eligible to enter the French Academy.