Gamal al-Ghitany (9 May 1945 – 18 October 2015)
Al-ghitani was a member of Arab World Books board of trustees since 2004 and has been a great supporter until his passing.
Gamal al-Ghitani - also spelt Gamal Elghitany was a novelist, short story writer and journalist, born in Sohag, upper Egypt, in 1945. He wrote his first story in 1959 at the age of 14. Born into a poor family, Ghitani was apprenticed as a child with a carpet maker, and later worked in one of the Khan el-Khalili factories. In 1969 he moved to the news desk of Akhbar el-Yawm, a leading Egyptian daily.
He was one of the founders of "Gallery 68", the literary magazine which soon became the mouthpiece of the writers of his generation.
His work is diffuse and historical, as opposed to Mahfouz's linearity and social realism. His work is a search for man's place in the universe and in the continuum of time. His fascination with Medieval Arabic writing, especially the work of Ibn Iyas, the Egyptian historian, was reflected in his great historical novel Zayni Barakat.
Zayni Barakat (Penguin, 1988) is a post-modern historical novel of the first order which doubles as an allegory of Nasser's police state. Like the Gulf writer Abdelrahman Munif's Cities of Salt trilogy, al-Ghitani is a fly in the Arab nationalist ointment. Such literary output is firm evidence that the Arab world does contain the seeds for its own renaissance.
He founded Akhbar al-Adab, a leading literary magazine, in 1993 and was its editor until 2011. He wrote more than a dozen novels, including “The Zafarani Files,” “Pyramid Texts,” “The Book of Epiphanies” and “The Book of Revelations,” as well as short story collections.
He also published “The Mahfouz Dialogs,” a collection of recorded conversations that the novelist Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel laureate, had with friends over a half-century.
In 2013, he was a visiting professor at the Mellon Islamic Studies Initiative at the University of Chicago.
Awards:
In 1980, he was awarded with the Egyptian National Prize for Literature, and in 1987, the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2005, he won a French Award for translated literature "Laure Bataillon", one of the highest French awards to be bestowed upon non-French writers. He was entitled for this award due to his giant work "Kitâb al-Tagalliyyât" or "Book of Illuminations". In 2009, he was awarded the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Ren, the award is worth about $200,000 and is one of the world's richest literary awards. In 2015 he received the Nile Award, Egypt’s top literary state honor.
Gamal El-Ghitani was married to the Egyptian journalist Magda El-Guindy, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram's children's magazine "Alaaeddin". He has a son, Mohammad, and a daughter, Magda.
A selection of his works are :
Literary work
Short Story collections:
Awraq Shab ‘Asha mundhu Alf ‘Am Cairo dar el-Tali’a 1969
Jerusalem Dar Salah el-Din 1975
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Cairo G.E.B.O 1991
Ard .. Ard Cairo G.E.B.O 1972 and 1991
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Al-Hisar min Thalath Jihat
Damascus Itihad el-Kuttab el-'Arab 1975
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Cairo G.E.B.O 1991
Hikayat el-Gharib Cairo Dar Mijallat el-Itha'a wal Telvision 1976, 1980
Dhikr ma Jara Cairo Madbuli 1978
Beirut: Dar al-Masira, 1980
Cairo: G.E. B. 0., 1991
Ithaf aI-Zaman bi-Hikayat Jalbi al-Sultan Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1985
Thimar al Waqt 1990
Min Daftar al-'Ishq wal-Ghurba Cairo: G.E. B. 0., 1993. Series: Mukhtarat Fusul,
Naftha Masdur Kuwait: Dar Su'ad al-Sabah, 1993
Shatf al-Nar Cairo: aI-ilay'at al-'Amma li-Qusur al-Thaqafa, 1996
Short Story Selections
Muntasaf Layl al-Ghurba Cairo: G.E. B. 0., 1984. Series: Mukhtarat Fusul
Ahrash al-Madina Cairo: Mu' assassat Akhbar al-Yawm, 1985
Novellas
al-Zuwayl
Baghdad: Wizarat al-I'lam, 1975
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Cairo: Maktabat Madbuli, 1987
Novels
Al- Zayni Barakat Damascus: Wizarat al-Thaqafa wal Irshad al-Qawmi, 1974
Cairo: Madbuli 1975
Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1985
Dar al-Shuruq, 1989
Tunis: Dar al-Junub, 1991
Baghdad: Dar al-Shu'un al-Thaqifiyya, 1991
Shath al-Madina Cairo: Dar al-Hilal , 1990. Series: Riwayat al-Hilal
Cairo: Dar alShuruq 1991
Waqi'i' Harat al-Za'farani Cairo: Dar al-Thaqafat al-Jadida, 1976
Madbuli 1986 and 1991
Baghdad: : Dar al-Shu'un al-Thaqifiyya 1987
al-Rifai Cairo: G.E. B. 0., 1977
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Cairo G.E.B.O 1991
Khitat al-ghitani
Bierut dar el-Muassira 1980
Cairo G.E.B.O 1991
Risala min al-Sababa wal Wajd (Cairo: : Dar al-Hilal , 1988 Maduli , 1990
Risilat al-Basi'ir fi al-Masi'ir Cairo: Dir al-Hilal, 1989 Cairo: Madbuli, 1991
Ha-tif al-Maghib Cairo: Dir al-Hilal 1992.
Mutun al-Ahram Cairo: Dar Sharqiyyat, 1994
Other Literary Writings
Kitab al-Tajaliyyat 3 Volumes
Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabi, 1983-6
vol1: Beirut: Dar al-Wihdat al-'Arabiyya
3 Vols. together: Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1990
Asfar al-Asfar Kuwait: Dar Su' ad al-Sabah, 1992. Series: Rahlat
Asfar al-Mushtaq Kuwait: Dar Su' ad al-Sabah, 1992
In Translation
The Mahfouz Diaries (AUC Press, 2007) and the Zafarani Files (Arabia Books, 2009).
Zayni Barakat (London: Viking, 1988) Translated by Faruq 'Abd al-Wahab. This novel has also been translated into 10 languages and was the first Arabic novel to be published by Penguin Books.
Waqi'i' Harat al-Za 'farani has also been translated into English (Cairo: G.E. B. 0) and German.
Risilat al-Basi'ir fi al-Masa'ir has been translated into French as Epitre des Destinees (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1993) Translated by Edwige Lambert.
Several of his short stories have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Hebrew.
His short story Tanin (originally in al-Ithaa wal television, 1970) was included in Egyptian Tales and Short Stories of the 1970s and 1980s, edited by W. M. Hutchins (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1987)
His complete works up to 1980 were published in Beirut by Dar el-Masira.
His collected works were published in Cairo in 6 volumes by the G.E.B.O, 1990-6.
