Edmond Amran El Maleh () (30 March 1917 – 15 November 2010) was a Moroccan writer and activist.

Biography

El Maleh was born in

Safi, Morocco Safi () is a city in western Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of Asfi Province. It recorded a population of 308,508 in the 2014 Moroccan census. The city was occupied by the Portuguese Empire from 1488 to 1541, was the center of ...

to a

Jewish Berber Berber Jews are the Jewish communities of the Maghreb, in North Africa, who historically spoke Berber languages. Between 1950 and 1970 most immigrated to France, Israel and the United States. History Antiquity Jews have settled in Maghreb since ...

family. During his youth he joined the

Moroccan Communist Party The Moroccan Communist Party was a political party in Morocco. The party was established in November 1943 on the basis of the individual communist groups that had been active in Morocco since 1920.Great Soviet EncyclopediaМарокканская ...

. He moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1965, working there as a journalist and a teacher of philosophy. He only began writing in 1980, at the age of 63, traveling back and forth between France and Morocco. He stated that, in spite of his long stay in France, he had devoted his entire literary life to Morocco. From 1999 until his death he lived in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

. There is controversy about his political stance; however, nothing has ever been corroborated. He was buried, according to his wishes, in the Jewish cemetery in

Essaouira Essaouira ( ; ), known until the 1960s as Mogador (, or ), is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marrakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014. The foundation of the city of Essaouira was the work of t ...

. He wrote in French.

Works

* ''Parcours immobile'' (Maspero, 1983) * ''Abner, Abnour'' (La Pensée sauvage/Le Fennec, 1996). * ''Le café bleu. Zrirek'' (La pensée sauvage, 1999) * ''Mille ans, un jour'' (Le Fennec, 1990 – André Dimanche, 2002 (1986)) * ''Le Retour d'Abou El Haki'' (La Pensée sauvage, 1990). * ''Jean Genet, Le Captif amoureux et autres essais'' (La Pensée sauvage/Toubkal, 1988 ) * ''Aïlen ou la nuit du récit'' (La Découverte, 1983, réédité par André Dimanche, 2000) * ''Parcours immobile'' (Maspéro, 1980 puis réédité par André Dimanche, 2001) : Roman * ''La maIle de Sidi Maâchou'' (Al Manar 1998) * ''Essaouira Cité heureuse'' * ''Une femme, une mère'' (éditions Lixus, Tanger 2004)

References

External links

The Writer Edmond Amran El Maleh: A Moroccan Jew with Arabo-Berber Roots
Qantara.de
El Maleh's political views

minorities.org report of ''The Independent'' (7 Oct 2005) dubbing El-Maleh the "Moroccan James Joyce"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maleh 1917 births 2010 deaths People from Safi, Morocco Moroccan writers in French Berber writers Jewish writers Jewish communists Anti-Zionist Jews Jewish anti-Zionism in Africa 20th-century Moroccan writers 21st-century Moroccan writers 20th-century Moroccan Jews 21st-century Moroccan Jews Berber Jews Moroccan emigrants to France Moroccan communists Moroccan Communist Party politicians

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links