Lebanese novelist and journalist. Amin Maalouf is well known for his works that offer a sensitive view of the values and attitudes of different cultures in the Middle East, Africa and Mediterranean world. After studying sociology and economics, Maalouf continued the long family tradition and became a journalist, working at the age of twenty-two for the leading Beirut daily an-Nahar. He travelled in India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, and Algeria, often covering wars and other conflicts before emigrating to France where he continued to work as a journalist and writer.