Abdallah Laroui


Abdallah Laroui is a Moroccan historian, novelist and philosopher writing in Arabic and French. He is considered one of Morocco's leading intellectuals.

Biography

Laroui was born in 1933 in Azemmour. His mother died when he was two. He studied at the kuttab before entering the public primary school at seven, where he studied from 1941 to 1945. In 1945, he obtained a grant to study at the College Sidi Mohammed in Marrakesh, where he stayed five years. Afterwards he studied at Lycée Lyautey in Casablanca from 1949 to 1951 and at Lycée Gourand in Rabat from 1951 to 1953. He obtained his baccalauréat in 1953, and then studied history and economics, at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris where he studied under and Raymond Aron. In 1958, he obtained a Diplôme d'études supérieures. After receiving his agrégation in Islamic studies in June 1963, he was appointed as an assistant professor of history at the Mohammed V University in Rabat. In 1976, he defended his Doctorat d'Etat with a thesis titled "Les Origines sociales et culturelles du nationalisme marocain, 1830–1912" and published in 1977. Laroui taught at the University Mohammed V until 2000. He has written five novels.

Awards and honors

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