Idris Ali (1940 – November 30, 2010) was an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

author of Nubian origin.

Early life

He was born in

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

and studied at

Al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

. He published his first story in 1969, and eventually wrote six novels and three short story collections. Among his best-known works are ''Dongola'' and ''Poor'', both of which have been published in English by the

AUC Press The American University in Cairo Press (AUCP, AUC Press) is the leading English-language publisher in the Middle East. The largest translator of Arabic literature in the world, AUC Press has a reputation for carefully selecting and translating t ...

, in translations by

Peter Theroux Peter Christopher Sebastian Theroux (born 1956) is an American translator and writer. The younger brother of writers Alexander Theroux and Paul Theroux, during college Peter studied for a year at the University of Cairo. He became interested in A ...

and

Elliot Colla Elliott Colla is an American scholar of the Middle East, specializing in Arabic literature and culture. He is an associate professor in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and leads the Reading Palestine book club ...

respectively. Theroux’s translation of ''Dongola'' received the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award in 1997.

Career

Idris Ali's work dealt largely with life in his native

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

. He was a strong voice against the poverty and deprivation suffered by the

Nubian people Nubians () ( Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are a Nilo-Saharan speaking ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of th ...

, and he protested against the loss of native land caused by the building of the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. When it was completed, it was the tallest earthen dam in the world, surpassing the Chatug ...

in the 1960s and 70s. He lived in

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

between 1976 and 1980, and his last book ''The Leader Having a Haircut'' (2010) caused considerable controversy when it was banned at the 2010

Cairo International Book Fair The Cairo International Book Fair is the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world, held every year in the last week of January in Cairo, Egypt, at Egypt International Exhibitions Center in New Cairo, it is organised by the General Egyptian ...

due to its critical depiction of the

Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by Libyan rebel forces in 2011. He came to power ...

regime. Also notable is his novel ''The Explosion of the Skull'' which won the Best Egyptian Novel award in 1999 and led to his meeting President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...

. This also improved his financial circumstances somewhat. Ali spent large parts of his life in poverty, as recounted in his autobiography ''Below the Poverty Line''. He worked for a construction company for low wages when the income from his writings proved to be insufficient. He also suffered the loss of his son which led to multiple suicide attempts in his later years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Idris 1940 births People from Aswan 2010 deaths Egyptian male short story writers Egyptian people of Nubian descent Al-Azhar University alumni 20th-century Egyptian novelists 20th-century Egyptian short story writers 20th-century Egyptian male writers