Takarli, Fu'ad al-

▪ 2009

      Iraqi jurist and writer

born 1927, Baghdad, Iraq

died Feb. 11, 2008, Amman, Jordan

was regarded as one of the best Iraqi writers of his generation. His first short story, “Al-ʿUyun al-khudr” (published 1952) won him attention, as did his first short-story collection, Al-Wajh al-akhar (1960; “The Green Eyes”), which dealt with male-female relations in a patriarchal society. His first novel, Al-Rajʿ al-baʿid (1980; The Long Way Back, 2001), regarded by many as a masterpiece of Arabic literature, described life in Iraq during the last days of the regime of ʿAbd al-Karim Qasim through the eyes of a family in Baghdad. Takarli spent many years working at the Iraqi Ministry of Justice, becoming a judge in 1956 and rising to the head of the Court of Appeals in Baghdad; he later emigrated from the country.

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