Abdallah Laroui honoured as Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s Cultural Personality of the Year

Moroccan historian and novelist Abdallah Laroui has been named as the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s Cultural Personality of the Year, an annual honour which recognises individuals for their contributions to the advancement of Arabic culture, and for works promoting tolerance and peace.

The award’s secretary general Dr Ali Bin Tamim praised Laroui’s “well-founded thought movement and cultural momentum spanning the entire Arab World”.

Now aged 83, Professor Laroui’s long and storied writing career has spanned across the intellectual, literary and artistic disciplines, taking in the fields of philosophy, history, narrative arts and cinema.

Born in Azemmour, Morocco 1933 and later educated at the Paris-Sorbonne University, Laroui began publishing scholarly studies, literary works and translations in the 1960s. His L’Idéologie arabe contemporaine (The Contemporary Arabic Ideology) was published in French in 1967 with a preface by celebrated French historian Maxime Rodinson. It was the Arabic translation of this book, published three years later, which cemented Laroui’s status as one of the eminent thinkers of the Arab world.

“His valuable contribution to academic institutes and scientific bodies has profoundly influenced Arab political thinking and inspired numerous cultural and literary practices,” added Dr Ali Bin Tamim.

The honour will be presented at the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s annual ceremony, which takes place Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on April 30, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

rgarratt@thenational.ae