Early life

Born in Karmakol, near the village of Al Dabbah

Al Dabbah, Sudan

Al Dabbah is a town on the river banks of the Nile, which is served by the Al Dabbah Airport.Its population is about 52,000.....

 in the Northern Province

Northern, Sudan

Northern is one of the 15 wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 348,765 km² and an estimated population of 833,743 . Dongola is the capital of the state. The town of Wadi Halfa, a headquarters of the British in the late nineteenth century, is located in the north of the province....

 of Sudan, he studied at the University of Khartoum

University of Khartoum

The University of Khartoum ia a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Khartoum. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 1956 when Sudan gained independence...

 before leaving for the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Coming from a background of small farmers and religious teachers, his original intention was to work in agriculture. However, excluding a brief spell as a schoolmaster before coming to England, his working life was in broadcasting

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

.

For more than ten years, Salih wrote a weekly column for the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

-based Arabic language newspaper al Majalla in which he explored various literary themes. He worked for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Arabic Service and later became director general of the Ministry of Information

Ministry of Information

The term Ministry of Information may refer to the following:* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Egypt* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Equatorial Guinea...

 in Doha

Doha

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...

, Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

. He spent the last 10 years of his working career with UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he held various posts and was UNESCO's representative in the Gulf States

Arab states of the Persian Gulf

"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....

.

Literary career

Salih achieved immediate acclaim when his novel Season of Migration to the North

Season of Migration to the North

Season of Migration to the North is a classic post-colonial Sudanese novel by the late novelist Tayeb Salih...

was first published in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 in 1966. In 2001, the book was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Arab Literary Academy. His works have been translated from Arabic into more than 20 languages.

Salih completed three other novels and a collection of short stories. His novella “The Wedding of Zein

The Wedding of Zein

The Wedding of Zein is a contemporary Arabic novel written in 1969 by late Sudanese author Tayeb Salih. Within the realm of Arab literature, the book is considered a classic....

” was made into a drama in Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 and a Cannes Festival prize-winning film by the Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

i filmmaker Khalid Siddiq in the late 1970s.

Theater

• Season of Migration to the North, adapted and directed by Ouriel Zohar
  Ouriel Zohar
  Ouriel Zohar , is an Israeli and French theater director, playwright and translator from French to Hebrew. He created the Technion theater in 1986 and has been visiting Professor at the University of Paris VIII and HEC Paris since 1995....
  
  . Actor Mohammed Bakri received the Best Actor award at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre
  Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre
  The Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre is a four-day performing arts festival held annually in the city of Acre, Israel during the Intermediate Days of the Sukkot holiday in early autumn...
  
   in 1993.

External links

• Tayeb Salih (Alain Mourgue)
• http://collegerelations.vassar.edu/2001/677/
• http://maduba.free.fr/mawsim.htm -"Lire Saison de la migration vers le Nord de Tayeb Sâlih", by Salah NATIJ, in Website: Maduba/Invitation à l'adab