Origins & Early Life

Tahar Ben Jelloun (Arabic: الطاهر بن جلون, romanized: aṭ-Ṭāhir bin Jallūn; born 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer who rose to fame for his 1985 novel L'Enfant de sable (The Sand Child). Although his first language is Darija, his works are written in French. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fes, Morocco, on 1 December 1944.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

As a child, he attended an Arabic-French bilingual elementary school. He then studied in the Lycée Regnault in Tangier, Morocco, until he was 18 years old. He studied philosophy at Mohammed V University in Rabat. After he was a professor of philosophy in Morocco, he joined the group that ran the literary magazine Souffles in the mid-1960s, and he wrote many pieces for the cultural magazine. He later participated in the student rebellion against the repressive and violent acts of the Moroccan police.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

In 1966, he was forced into military service as his punishment. Five years later, his first poems were published in Hommes sous linceul de silence (1971). Shortly thereafter he moved to Paris to study psychology, and in 1972 began writing for Le Monde. He received his doctorate in social...

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