Amin Maalouf was born in Lebanon on February 25, 1949, into a family of teachers. After studying economics and sociology, he worked as a reporter, covering many events around the world, such as the fall of the Ethiopian monarchy in September 1974 and the last battle of Saigon in the spring of 1975.
When the war broke out in his native country, he left for France with his wife and their three sons. He resumed his journalist activities, most notably at Jeune Afrique, where he became editor-in-chief and editorialist.
From 1984, he devoted himself to writing, publishing novels, essays, opera librettos. In 1993, he won the Prix Goncourt for The Rock de Tanios, in 1998 the European prize for the essay Les Identités meurtrières, and in 2010 Spanish the Prince of Asturias award for Literature for all of his work. In 2007-2008, at the invitation of the European Commission, he chaired a think tank on multilingualism, which published a report entitled A salutary challenge: How the multiplicity of languages could consolidate Europe. He was also elected to the Académie française to fill sit the Claude Lévi-Strauss chair on June 23, 2011.
Mr. Maalouf has previously been awarded honorary doctorates from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), the University of Tarragona (Spain), the University of Évora (Portugal) and the American University of Beirut (Lebanon).