Bahaa Taher

Bahaa Taher (1935-2022) was an Egyptian novelist and short story writer whose work often drew on his family's roots in Upper Egypt. Barred from publishing in Egypt in 1975 under Anwar Sadat, he spent much of the following decade working as a translator for UNESCO in Geneva before returning home.

He is best known for Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery (1991) and Sunset Oasis (2007), the latter winning the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction ("Arabic Booker") in 2008. In 1998 he received Egypt's State Award of Merit in Literature, the country's highest state honor for a writer.