Farouk Abdel Wahab (1943–2013) was the pen-name of Farouk A W Mustafa, an Egyptian academic and translator based in the USA. He was born in Tanta and studied at the University of Cairo. He received a BA degree in 1962 and an MA in English literature in 1969. He pursued doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, obtaining a PhD in comparative literature in 1977. He specialised in Arabic literature – particularly Arabic theatre, in comparative literature, and in popular culture and modern intellectual history.
He taught at the University of Chicago He taught at the University for almost 40 years until his death, and established The Arab Circle, a weekly lecture in Arabic at the University's Centre for Middle East Studies. He was the first occupant of the university's Ibn Rushd Professorial Lectureship in Modern Arabic Language, and was also the Associate Director of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
He was also a noted translator of contemporary Arabic literature. Among his translations are the following:
Rain Over Baghdad by Hala El-Badry (AUC Press, 2014)
The Book of Epiphanies by Gamal al-Ghitani (AUC Press, 2012)
The Zafarani Files by Gamal al-Ghitani (AUC Press, 2009)
Chicago by Alaa el Aswany, New York/Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press, 2007/2008
The Lodging house by Khairy Shalaby, New York/Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press, 2006, which won the 2007 Saif GHobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
Birds of Amber by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, Cairo and New York, American University in Cairo (AUC) Press, 2005
Zayni Barakat by Gamal el-Ghitani, Third edition, AUC Press, 2004
A Certain Woman by Hala el Badry, AUC Press, 2003; first paperback edition 2006
Love in Exile by Bahaa Taher. AUC Press, 2002, first paperback edition 2004
No One Sleeps in Alexandria by Ibrahim Abdel Meguid. Cairo: American University in Cairo (AUC) Press, 1999, first paperback edition 2006
The Other Place by Egyptian author Ibrahim Abdel Meguid. Cairo: American University in Cairo (AUC) Press. 1997. (Winner of the first Naguib Mahfouz Prize in Literature.) First paperback edition 2005
Al-A'mal al-Kamila (Complete Works) of Mikhail Roman
He also translated works by Shakespeare and Pirandello into Arabic.
Awards and recognition
ِHe won the 2007 Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for his translation of The Lodging House, by Khairy Shalaby (AUC Press pbk, 2008).
