Youssef Ziedan [ Egypt ]

History  of philosophy and religion happen to be Youssef Ziedan’s fields  both in work and literature. Born in Upper Egypt in 1958, Youssef Ziedan grew up, for family reasons, with his grandfather in Alexandria. He studied philosophy in the city and became interested in Sufism, which became the subject of his doctorate in 1989. He has for a long time been especially interested in Hayy Ibn Jaqzân, a figure who has been repeatedly examined in Islamic philosophy: living alone on an island, fed by a gazelle, he gradually develops spiritual maturity and intelligence, tackles the big philosophical and religious issues and thus arrives solely through his intelligence and reflections at the insights which others are granted by means of revelations.

Currently, Youssef Ziedan is the Director of the Manuscript Centre and Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Naturally, the majority of Ziedan’s published works are scientific and archival. Exceptions include the book »Iltiqâ’ al-Bahrain« (tr: The Meeting of the Seas), a collection of articles that deal intensively with Arab and Islamic cultural tradition.

Recently, Ziedan has turned his attention to literary endeavours. In 2006 his first novel was published, »Zill al-Af’â« (tr: The Shadow of the Serpent). It is an attempt, in one hundred and thirty pages and a one night’s slice of married life, to examine the position of women over the past three thousand years. By introducing numerous mythical women as well as the letters of a female anthropologist he describes the transformation of the serpent from a positive to a thoroughly negative symbol.

Ziedan made his real literary breakthrough in 2008 with the publication of the novel »Azâzîl« (tr: Satan), not due to the scandal which some people claimed to find in the book, but thanks to the ›Arabic Booker Prize‹ which the novel won in March 2009. »Azâzîl« is structured as the autobiography of a Coptic monk in the first half of the fifth century CE, and portrays the monk’s internal and external religious life. It describes the monk’s battle for God and against evil, and recounts the struggle of an emerging church or religious community for its authority. This is not merely a historical novel, but a novel about people in light of religion as an institution and ›Numinosum‹.

Ziedan lives in Alexandria.

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