is a well-known Moroccan novelist, literary critic and translator. Born in 1939 in Rabat, and growing up in Fez, he graduated in Arabic Literature from Cairo University, and has a PhD from the Sorbonne.

He was a founder member of the Union of Moroccan Writers and three times its president. Currently Professor of Arabic Literature at Mohammad V University, Rabat, he has written many works on Arabic literature and literary criticism, in addition to short stories and several novels, two of which are in English translation – The Game of Forgetting (Quartet, 1987) and (Al-Daw’ al-Harib) Fugitive Light (Syracuse UP, 2002).

His latest novel, Far from Clamour, Close to Silence, excerpted in Banipal 54 – ECHOES, was longlisted for the 2015 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.


Contributor's Issues

Banipal 3 - October 1998

Banipal 54 - ECHOES (Autumn/Winter 2015)

Banipal 68 - Short Stories (Summer 2020)

Banipal 64 - A Rebel named Hanan al-Shaykh (2019)

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