Georges Tarabichi

Georges Tarabichi was a Syrian thinker, writer, critic and translator. He was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1939 to a religious Christian family. After graduating from Damascus University, he became a journalist and head of Syrian broadcasting (1963-4) and chief editor of the Journal for Arabic Studies (1972-84) and Unity Magazine (1984-89). He left Lebanon for France during the Lebanese Civil War and settled in Paris until his death. He translated over 200 books into Arabic, including works by Hegel, Freud, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. He also wrote original books on various topics such as Arab thought, culture, democracy, psychoanalysis, literature, and religion. He was known for his critique of the Critique of Arab Reason, a project by Moroccan thinker Mohamed Abed Al-Jabiri, which he challenged in a five-volume book. He was also the chair of judges for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2012. He died on March 16, 2016, in Paris, France at the age of 77.