Riyad al-Rayyes

Riyad al-Rayyes was a Syrian-Lebanese journalist and publisher who founded the Riad El-Rayyes Books publishing house in London in 1986 and moved it to Beirut in the early 1990s. He was the son of the late journalist and politician Najib al-Rayyes (1898-1952). He started his career as a journalist covering conflicts in Vietnam, Greece, Cyprus, and Lebanon. He wrote about 37 books, including the "Winds of Change" series, which chronicled the political and social transformations in the Arab world. He also published books by prominent Arab authors such as Mahmoud Darwish, Fawaz Traboulsi, Zakaria Tamer, Rachid Daif, May Menassa, and Yahya Hasan Jabir. He died of Covid-19 in Beirut on September 26, 2020, at the age of 83. He was widely respected and admired for his contributions to Arab culture and literature.