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Tayeb Salih ( ar, الطيب صالح, aṭ-Ṭayyib Ṣāliḥ; 12 July 1929 – 18 February 2009)
was a Sudanese writer, cultural journalist for the BBC Arabic programme as well as for Arabic journals, and a staff member of
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
. He is best known for his novel ''
Season of Migration to the North
''Season of Migration to the North'' ( ar, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال ) is a classic postcolonial Arabic novel by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, published in 1966; it is the novel for which he is best known. It was first publi ...
'', considered to be one of the most important novels in
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
. His novels and short stories have been translated into English and more than a dozen other languages.
Biography
Born in Karmakol, a village on the Nile near
Al Dabbah
Al Dabbah (also known as ''Ed Debba'', ''El Debba'', ''El Debbah'' or ''Ed Debbah'') is a town on the river banks of the Nile, which is served by the Al Dabbah Airport. It has an estimated population of 52,000.
The town is antipodal to Tahiti
...
, Sudan, in the
Northern Province of Sudan, he graduated from
University of Khartoum
The University of Khartoum (U of K) ( ar, جامعة الخرطوم) is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 195 ...
with a Bachelor of Science, before leaving for the University of London in the United Kingdom. Coming from a background of small farmers and religious teachers, his original intention was to work in agriculture. However, excluding a brief spell as a schoolmaster before moving to England, he worked in journalism and the promotion of international cultural exchange.
For more than ten years, Salih wrote a weekly column for the London-based Arabic language newspaper ''
al Majalla'', in which he explored various literary themes. He worked for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's Arabic Service and later became director general of the Ministry of Information in Doha,
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
. The last ten years of his working career, he spent at
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
headquarters in Paris, where he held various posts and was UNESCO's representative for the
Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Literary career
Salih's writing draws important inspiration from his youth in a Sudanese village; life that is centered on rural people and their complex relationships. "At various levels and with varying degrees of psychoanalytic emphasis, he deals with themes of reality and illusion, the
cultural dissonance In sociology and cultural studies, cultural dissonance is a sense of discord, disharmony, confusion, or conflict experienced by people in the midst of change in their cultural environment. The changes are often unexpected, unexplained or not unders ...
between the West and the exotic Orient, the harmony and conflict of brotherhood, and the individual's responsibility to find a fusion between his or her contradictions."
Furthermore, the motifs of his books are derived from his religious experience as a
Muslim in 20th-century Sudan, both pre- and post-colonial.
Another, more general subject of Salih's writing is the confrontation of the
Arab Muslim
Arab Muslims ( ar, العرب المسلمون) are adherents of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Arabs. Arab Muslims greatly outnumber other ethnoreligious groups in the Middle East and North Africa. Arab Mu ...
and the Western European world.
In 1966, Salih published his novel ''Mawsim al-Hijrah ilâ al-Shimâl (
Season of Migration to the North
''Season of Migration to the North'' ( ar, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال ) is a classic postcolonial Arabic novel by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, published in 1966; it is the novel for which he is best known. It was first publi ...
)'', for which he is best known. It was first published in the Beirut journal ''
Hiwâr''. The main concern of the novel is with the impact of
British colonialism
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts est ...
and European modernity on rural African societies in general, and on Sudanese culture and identity in particular. His novel reflects the conflicts of modern Sudan and depicts the brutal history of
European colonialism as shaping the reality of contemporary Sudanese society. ''
Season of Migration to the North
''Season of Migration to the North'' ( ar, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال ) is a classic postcolonial Arabic novel by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, published in 1966; it is the novel for which he is best known. It was first publi ...
'' is a story told to an unspecified audience by the unnamed narrator, a “traveled man” and an African who has returned after having spent years abroad. He returns to his Sudanese village of Wad Hamid on the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
in the 1950s after having written a
PhD thesis on ‘the life of an obscure English poet’. Mustafa Sa'eed, the main protagonist of the novel, is a child of British colonialism, and a fruit of colonial education.
In his essay "The New Novel in Sudan", published in
Banipal
''Banipal'' is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three ti ...
magazine's issue of spring 1966 on ''Sudanese Literature today'', Sudanese writer Emad Blake remarked that Salih "confronted the crucial issues of his time, such as the clash of Eastern and Western civilizations, as well as boldly employing sex and a style of writing we might term the 'impossible easy'."
The Damascus-based Arab Literary Academy named it one of the best novels in Arabic of the twentieth century. Upon its publication, it was banned in Salih's native Sudan for several years, because of its partly sexual content and despite the fact that it won him prominence and international fame.
The novel was also adapted into a theatre production in Israel.
''Urs' al-Zayn'' (published in English as
The Wedding of Zein) is a novella, published in 1966, centering on the unlikely nuptials of the town eccentric Zein. Tall and odd-looking, with just two teeth in his mouth, Zein has made a reputation for himself as the man who falls in love over and over with girls who promptly marry other men, – to the point where mothers seek him out in hopes that he will draw the eye of available suitors to their eligible daughters.
"The Wedding of Zein" was made into a drama in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
and won
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
i filmmaker Khalid Siddiq an award at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
in the late 1970s.
In his reflections on Salih's literary style, his translator
Denys Johnson-Davies wrote that Salih "exploited to the full the richness of the literary language in his narrative and uses the vivid local dialect for his dialog.
..Tayeb Salih’s work shows his wide reading in the byways of Arabic literature, including poetry, which has helped to fashion a style which is direct and fluent, a style which an Arab critic has described as being closer to dramatic writing than that of the novel."
Awards in honour of Tayeb Salih
In 1998, a group of Salih's friends formed a committee to honour him, and collected $20,000 for his personal use. He chose to use the money to establish the Tayeb Salih Creative Writing Award.
Awarded since 2002, the ''al-Tayeb Salih Prize for Literary Creativity'' is a literary prize for Sudanese novels, presented by the Abdel Karim Mirghani Cultural Center in
Omdurman, and is dedicated to first novels by emerging Sudanese writers.
Since 2010, another award, called the ''al-Tayeb Salih Award'' ''for'' ''Creative Writing'', has been granted to outstanding
modern Arab writers in the fields of novel, short story, and critical studies. The award has been sponsored by telecommunications company Zain Sudan and has been critically seen by some Sudanese intellectuals, calling it “an attempt to control the Sudanese cultural scene” by the Ministry of Culture.
Bibliography
*نخلة على الجدول
akhla 'ala al-jadwal(1953). "A Date Palm by the Stream"
*دومة ود حامد
ouma wad Hamid(1960). "The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid", trans. Denys Johnson-Davies (1962)
* حفنة تمر
afna tamar(1964). "A Handful of Dates", trans. Denys Johnson-Davies (1966)
*عرس الزين
'Urs al-Zayn''(1966). ''
The Wedding of Zein'', trans.
Denys Johnson-Davies (1968)
*موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال
'Mawsim al-Hijra ila ash-Shamal''(1966). ''
Season of Migration to the North
''Season of Migration to the North'' ( ar, موسم الهجرة إلى الشمال ) is a classic postcolonial Arabic novel by the Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih, published in 1966; it is the novel for which he is best known. It was first publi ...
'', trans. Denys Johnson-Davies (1969)
*ضو البيت / بندرشاه
'Bandarshah I: Daw al-Bayt''(1971)
*مريود / بندرشاه
'Bandarshah II: Maryud''(1976)
*1976: "The Cypriot Man", trans. Denys Johnson-Davies (1980)
*''Complete Works'' (1984)
*منسي إنسان نادر على طريقته (2004, memoir). ''Mansi: A Rare Man in His Own Way'', trans. Adil Babikir (2020)
Compilations in English
* ''The Wedding of Zein and Other Stories'' (1968). Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies. Includes: ''The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid'', ''A Handful of Dates'' and ''The Wedding of Zein.''
*''Season of Migration to the North / The Wedding of Zein'' (1980). Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies
*''Bandarshah'' (1996). Trans. Denys Johnson-Davies
Themes of some of his magazine articles, published in Arabic:
* ''The shining stars are like the stars of the Arab and Frankish flags,'' 2005
* ''For cities, uniqueness and modernity - East -'' 2005
* ''Cities have uniqueness and modernity - the West -'' 2005
* ''In the company of Al-Mutanabi and his companions,'' 2005
* ''In Janadriyah and Assilah,'' 2005
* ''My homeland, Sudan,'' 2005
* ''Memories of the seasons'' 2005
* ''Thoughts of travel'' 2005
* ''Introductions'' 2009
Death
Salih died on 18 February 2009 in London. His body was buried on 20 February in Sudan, where the funeral ceremony was attended by a large number of prominent personalities and Arab writers, as well as the then Sudanese President
Omar Al-Bashir, writer and former Prime Minister
Sadiq Al Mahdi
Sadiq is a male name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Ja'far al-Sadiq, the 8th-century Muslim scholar and scientist, considered as an Imam and founder of the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence by Twelver and Isma'ili Shi’as, and a major fi ...
, and Muhammad Othman Al-Mirghani.
Tribute
On July 12, 2017,
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
commemorated Tayeb Salih's 88th birthday.
See also
*
Sudanese literature
*
List of Sudanese writers
This is a list of prominent Sudanese writers.
Novelists and short story writers
* Leila Aboulela (born 1964)
* Fatin Abbas
* Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (born 1963)
* Malkat Ed-Dar Mohamed (1920–1969)
* Bushra Elfadil (born 1952), also poet
* ...
*
Modern Arabic literature
The instance that marked the shift in the whole of Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the Arab World-West contact during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of Cla ...
References
External links
Tayeb Salihat
goodreads
Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and read ...
"Lire Saison de la migration vers le Nord de Tayeb Sâlih", by Salah Natij
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salih, Tayeb
1929 births
2009 deaths
Sudanese male writers
Sudanese novelists
University of Khartoum alumni
Alumni of the University of London