ISBN 9789954885185
Pages 888
Dimensions 205mm x 140mm
Published 2010
Publisher Senso Unico Editions, Morocco
Format Paperback

Anthologie

by Elisa Chimenti

Elisa Chimenti lived in Tangier for sixty years. Daughter of the personal doctor of Sultan Hassan I, she has been a teacher as founder of the first Italian school in Tangier, a journalist and a writer. She is considered to have been a pioneer among “Francophone women writers of the Maghreb”. Her literary work, which includes the most varied genres, shows how deep was her understanding and love for the Tangerine society of her time, a fascinating melting pot of Muslim Arabic, Berber, Christian and Jewish cultures. In her collection of tales and legends and of poetic songs, as well as in her novels and stories, she shows a passionate care for the life of people coming from a modest background. She paints living pictures of them, and today these portraits acquire a remarkable socio-historical dimension. On the fortieth anniversary of her death, Elisa Chimenti’s works are gathered together for the first time and reissued in this Anthology, which pays homage to the moving humanism of this “donna mediterranea”.

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About the Author

Elisa Chimenti

Italian by birth, Elisa Chimenti was raised in Morocco. She travelled around frequently with her father, personal doctor to Sultan Mawlay Hassan, and was often the guest of Berber tribesmen from whom she collected many tales and stories. After finishing her education in Europe, she returned to Tangier, where she studied Semitic languages and acquired a sound knowledge of the Koran. She was the only European ever invited to teach in an Arabic University, and established the first Italian school in Tangier. She was awarded the Italian Government Order of Merit in 1959. “Mauritania”, an important Spanish periodical said of Mrs Chimenti: “Her works can be compared to brilliantly polished stones… she is without question one of the greatest figures in Moroccan folklore literature.”

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