Amin Maalouf

Born in Lebanon in 1949, Amin Maalouf is a writer and journalist. He served as editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper An Nahar International and the magazine Jeune Afrique. During the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution, he worked as a war correspondent. His first book, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, published in 1983, became a standard work. Maalouf published seven novels, and his works were translated into around 25 languages. In 2000, the opera L’amour de loin, based on his libretto and composed by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, premiered at the Salzburg Festival.