In memoriam: Al-Tayeb Salih: 1929-2009.

PositionIn memoriam

AL-TAYEB SALIH WAS BORN on 12 July 1929 in Karmokol, near al-Debba and Merowe in Northern Sudan and died at dawn in London on 18 February 2009. Although he spent most of his adult life outside the Sudan, he remains one of its greatest symbols of traditional Northern Sudanese culture. Tolerant, compassionate, and at its core Sufi, AL-Tayeb Salih studied at the former Gordon Memorial College--after independence, the University of Khartoum--and made his own "migration to the North" in 1952 when he traveled to London where he would spend most of his life. He joined the BBC Arabic Service, eventually becoming the head of its Drama section. He later worked for the Qatari Ministry of Information before joining UNESCO in Paris. In 1965 he married, Julia Maclean, of Scottish origins and together they had three daughters--Zainab, Sara, and Samira.

Al-Tayeb Salih's best known and most translated work, Season of Migration to the North, (Mawsim al-Hijra ila Shimaal) was acclaimed as "the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century" in 2001 by the Damascus-based Arab Literary Academy. It was ranked as "among the world's best 100 works of fiction" in 2002 by the Norwegian Books Clubs. Gamal al-Ghitani, editor in chief of Akhbar el-Adab described Al-Tayeb Salih as "irreplaceable" and "one of the world's top novelists who was modest, wise and brave, and carried the essence of Sudanese culture outside of its borders."

The central character in Season of Migration to the North is a young Northern Sudanese from Wad Hamad who travels to Europe-Spain where his 'Arab' soul is awakened by memories of Andalusia-and the colonial...

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