Bahaa Taher


Bahaa Taher , sometimes transliterated as Bahaa Tahir, Baha Taher, or Baha Tahir, is an Egyptian novelist and short story writer who writes in Arabic. He was awarded the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008.

Life

Taher was born in Cairo in 1935. He graduated in literature from the University of Cairo. Upon being banned from writing in 1975, he left Egypt and travelled widely in Africa and Asia seeking work as a translator. During the 1980s and 1990s he lived in Switzerland, where he worked as a translator for the United Nations. Afterwards he returned to Egypt, where he continues to reside.

Novels

East of the Palms
His first novel was published in serialized form.
Qalat Duha
Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery
His third novel, set in Upper Egypt, concerns a blood feud as a result of which a young Muslim man, fleeing vengeance, finds sanctuary in a Coptic monastery.
Love in Exile
His fourth novel deals with the massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982.
The Point of Light
Sunset Oasis
His sixth novel is set in 19th century Egypt at the beginning of the British occupation of the country. The protagonist of the book is a nationalist Egyptian police officer who suffers from an existential crisis.

Translations

In his youth he was involved in left wing causes, and was a supporter of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s development program for Egypt. He feels that Anwar El Sadat’s ending of this policy has been a disaster for Egypt. He calls himself a pan-Arabist, but he says that he does not see much good in the Arab regimes of today. He feels that Westerners want to see exoticism, gender discrimination, and problems between minorities in the works of Arab writers, but he refuses to comply with these stereotypes.