Bensalem Himmich

Bensalem Himmich (Arabic:بنسالم حميش) (born in 1948 in Meknes) is a novelist, poet and philosopher who teaches at the Mohammed V University, Rabat in Morocco.

He has published 26 books, both literary and scientific works, in Arabic and French. As a liberal philosopher, Himmich is concerned with matters including ideological education in Islam. He advocates the division of church and state.

His work deals with the problems and conflicts with which Morocco is faced today.

Books

• De la formation idéologique en Islam
• Le Calife de l'épouvante (Le serpent à plumes)
• The Polymath, ed.: American University in Cairo
• Au pays de nos crises

Awards

• Bensalem Himmich won the prize of the critics (1990) for his novel le fou du pouvoir, a book elected by the Arab union of writers as one of the hundred best books of the 20th century.
• He won the prize Charika of the Arab culture of jury composed of UNESCO and well known literary personalities.
• Ben Salem Himmich won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his book Al-'Allamah (2001; The Polymath, a book about the great Arab writer Ibn Khaldoun) (The award was established in 1996 and awarded for the best contemporary novel published in Arabic. The winning work is translated into English and published in Cairo, London, and New York.)