Τεύχος 1ο
Απριλιοσ 2009
Amin�������� Maalouf ������� by Giota Gatsi A short biography
Amin Maalouf was born on 25th February 1949, in a small village in Lebanon, of a Christian Orthodox family, which converted to Catholicism. He attended a Jesuit school, where he learnt French, ancient Greek and Latin. He studied Sociology and Economics at the French University and then moved on to the field of journalism, in which he had been working for 12 years, carrying out important assignments in more than 60 countries. He worked as a director of An-Nahar Newspaper and as a chief editor of Jeune Afrique, until the start of the Civil war in 1975, when he settled in France as a refugee. Since then he has had the stigma of a minority (ιtat minoritaire), which has drastically affected the formation of his perception of identity and his attitude towards the world. Since 1983, after the great success of his first book the Crusades Through Arab Eyes, he has devoted himself to his literary work. His works have been translated from French into many languages. Having a restless and creative spirit he plays an active role in the cultural arena, constantly giving interviews, always writing and expressing the need to fight against every form of discrimination and build a pluralistic and multicultural world. Writing is his refuge, as he states in his own words: One day I decided that I’d go to leave my luggage to writing, that this was my field. In this field we don’t want to feel as writers of minority or majority. We only wish to be writers. [..] (La presse, Οκτώβριος 2000) At present, Amin Maalouf chairs the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue,������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������ (ec.europa.eu/education/languages/pdf/com/2008_0566_el.pdf) which has been set up at the initiative of the European Commission to advise and to make proposals and recommendations on how languages can foster intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding by creating clear connections between diversity and European integration. Key parts of the essay which has been submitted by the committee and translated into more than 20 languages are: 1) Bilateral relations between the EU countries should be conducted in the
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