Malba Tahan

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Malba Tahan, full name Ali Iezid Izz-Edim ibn-Salim Hanak Malba Tahan, was a fictitious Persian scholar. He was the creation and frequent pen name of Brazilian author Júlio César de Mello e Souza.

[edit] Biography

According to the dedication and introductory chapters of The Man Who Counted (ostensibly written in the month of Ramadan in the year of the Hijrah 1321, corresponding to November 1903), Malba Tahan was a native and well-connected resident of Baghdad, a sharif (a descendant of Caliph Ali Ibn Abi Talib), and a hajji (a Muslim who made the pilgrimage to Mecca).

In the year of the Hijrah 1255 1839, Malba Tahan moved to Constantinople with his lifelong friend Beremiz Samir, the namesake of Malba's book The Man Who Counted.

[edit] Alternate biography

In other works by Julio Cesar, however, Malba Tahan was born in 1885 in Muzalit, near Mecca. Still a young man, he was named mayor of Meddinah by emir Abd el-Azziz. Malba sudied in Cairo and Constantinople; at the age of 27 he received a large inheritance from his father, which allowed him to travel by Japan, Russia and India. He died in 1921, fighting for the freedom of a tribe in Central Arabia.

[edit] Origin of the name

Malba Tahan is said to mean "the miller from the oasis" in Arabic. But Tahan was in fact the surname of one of Julio César's students, Maria Zechsuk Tahan.