Name Fouad al-Tikerly Role Novelist | Education University of Baghdad | |
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Died February 11, 2008, Amman, Jordan | ||
Fouad al-Tikerly (August 22, 1927 – February 11, 2008) was a prominent Iraqi novelist and writer, who was, perhaps, best known for his groundbreaking novel, al-Rajea al-Baeed, which is translated to The Long Way Back. Al-Tikerly was one of the last surviving members of a group of well known Iraqi novelists from the 1970s era.
Al-Tikerly was born in Baghdad in 1927. In school, he was friends with Abdul-Wahab al-Bayati. He graduated from the University of Baghdad's law school in 1949. He was employed at the Ministry of Justice of Iraq for 35 years. He became an Iraqi judge in 1956 before later becoming the head judge of the city of Baghdad's Court of Appeals. Al-Tikerly developed a reputation for fairness as a judge.
Al-Tikerly moved to Paris, France, in 1964 in order to attend postgraduate law school. He later returned to France briefly during the 1980s. Al-Tikerly retired from the law in 1983 in order to devote more time to his novels.
Al-Tikerly published his most noted novel, al-Rajea al-Baeed (The Long Way Back), during the 1970s. The novel depicted the suffering and trials afflicting four generations of a Baghdad family under several oppressive Iraqi government regimes in the years after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy, including that of Saddam Hussein. Al-Tikerly's novel was one of the few to openly criticize the Iraqi government without punishment. Al-Tikerly had no political affiliation, and was not connected to the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party or the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Al-Tikerly moved to Tunisia in 1990 after the death of his wife. He later remarried to a Tunisian woman.
The government of the United Arab Emirates awarded al-Tikerly with the Owais Prize for Arabic-language novels and literature in 2000.
Death
Fouad al-Tikerly died of pancreatic cancer at a hospital in Amman, Jordan, on February 11, 2008, at the age of 81. He and his family had been living in Jordan for the previous three years in order to escape the violence which swept Iraq following the 2003 Iraq War. He was survived by his Tunisian wife, a novelist as well, 'Rachida Turki' and their son and three daughters from an earlier marriage.
President Jalal Talabani praised al-Tikerly "as an author and judge as well a president's adviser after the tyrant regime was ousted."