Professor Ahmed Matloob Al-Nasiri

Ahmad Matloob obtained his BA in Arabic Language at the College of Arts and Sciences from Baghdad University in 1956, an MA degree in 1961, and a Ph.D. degree in Arabic Literary Criticism and Rhetoric at Cairo University in 1963. After graduation, he joined the College of Arts in Baghdad University as an assistant professor in 1963, rising to the rank of full professorship nine years later. He became Dean of the College of Arts and a member of the University Council. He also served as a professor of Arabic at Kuwait University, the Cairo-based Arab Research Institute and Wahran University in Algiers, and as a visiting professor at Martin Luther University in Germany.

Apart from these academic positions, Professor Al-Nasiri held several offices in the Iraqi government. He was the Director of the Departments of Extension, Press and Culture, and subsequently Minister of Culture and Extension. He served as a Secretary General of the Iraqi Science Academy, a member of the Iraqi Writers Union, and chief editor or member of editorial boards of several literary and cultural journals in his country.

Professor Al-Nasiri was a prolific writer in different fields of Arabic language, literature, religion and poetry. He authored or co-authored more than 50 books and editions, as well as hundreds of research papers and popular articles, and participated in over 100 national and international conferences and numerous local radio and television sessions. His scholarly studies of the evolution, organization and context of terminology in Arabic rhetoric and literary criticism have been of fundamental importance for research into this subject. His contributions include a 3-volume dictionary of the terminology and development of Arabic rhetoric, a 2-volume dictionary of ancient Arabic literary criticism, and a compilation of research in Arabic linguistics.

Al-Nasiri’s scholarship was recognized by several other prizes, medals, memberships of Arabic Language Academies, and lectureships in many Arab, African and Western universities.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.