Nizar Abd al-Sattar

Nizar Abd al-Sattar (Arabic: نزار عبدالستار) is an Iraq storyteller and novelist, born in Baghdad in 1967. His first novel, "Night Angel”, received widespread attention and in 1999 it was awarded the Best Iraqi Novel Award for the Iraqi Writers Union, and the Creativity Award, which is the most prestigious Iraqi official award. In addition, his story collection “The smell of Cinema” achieved great popularity, was reprinted more than once and won the Creativity Prize in 2010. In 2003, he worked in journalism, managing editor of Al-Mada Newspaper, and he established the cultural newspaper “TatooPaper”. Moreover, Yuliana's novel got a lot of attention among readers, critics and newspapers. In addition to Tartar's novel, which impressed many readers, and was even included in the short list of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Literature Branch 2019.
Nizar Abd al-Sattar is one of the most prominent writers of the ninetieth generation in Iraq, his works have attracted critical attention. His collections of stories and fictional works are rich in the human sense and a mix between reality and fantasy proposed in a clear language loaded with knowledge and technology. His texts are also distinguished by their language, their semantic depth, and their sense of the Iraqi reality. He released his first collection of stories, "The Rain and Horses’ Dust" in 1995, followed by "Angel's Night" in 1999. He published his second collection, "The Smell of Cinema" in 2002. He continued his literary career by publishing his second novel, "The Americans in My House" in 2011. Then he published his third story collection "Red Pajamas with White Lace" in 2013. In 2016 he published the third novel " Yuliana'", which simulates the style of magical realism through the story about a small forgotten town and two generations of children. Between the epic, the religious and the mundane, the writer deals with a history and legend, the Iraq of yesterday and today, and specifically the The Christian Community. In 2018, novelist Nizar Abd al-Sattar published "Tartar", which focused on the idea of ​​a scientific and industrial renaissance, and spoke about a generation of European aspirants as the model. Germany could have supported it and proceeded with it if the Berlin-Baghdad railway project had succeeded, and India overland road had been cut off for the English. Tartar's novel was included in the short list of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2019 - Literature Branch.
* "The Rain and Horses’ Dust" – (original title: almatar waghabar alkhuyul) 1995
* "Night angel" – (original title: laylat al-malak) 1999
* "The smell of cinema" – (original title: Rā’iḥat al-sīnimā) 2002
* "The Americans in my house" – (original title: al-Amrīkān fī baytī) 2011
* "Red Pajamas with White Lace" – (original title: Bījāmah ḥamrā’ bi-dāntīllā bayḍā’) 2013
* "Yuliana" 2016
* "Tartar" – (original title: Tirtir) 2018
“Yuliana” is not quite a woman, nor is she just a saint. She’s a city. She’s the conscience.
She is the silent force she talks when she should and carefully chooses who to talk with. It is enough for her to touch her grave, and to caress her specter, it is enough to be a little insane, very excluded according to the narrow laws of mankind, it is enough for you to be a kindhearted, until she comes to you.
Beside Al-Mosul, in a small modest monastery in the village of Karemlash, the spirit of Yuliana fluttering over the city. There, she communicates with her followers, witnessing the changes occurring in the remote. In an isolated village as it opens its doors to the winds of modernization. Yuliana does not fight with the sword of religion as the new intruders do, she does not condemn the transformations that swept the townspeople towards the pleasures and winds of modernity. She is the witness, the absent present, the radiant mass that does not appear much. But if she appears, she lights the world with light.
Yuliana simulates magic realism through the tale of a small forgotten town and two generations of children. Between the epic, the religious and the mundane. The writer deals with a keen eye and a satirical pen waved with history and legend, the Iraq of yesterday and today, and specifically the Christian community in it.
In October 1898, German Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor embarks was on a journey to the East. In Istanbul, Sultan Abdul Hamid II meets and plans to build the Berlin-Baghdad railway with the aim of competing with English trade and cutting the Indian land route. To keep up with the project, it is necessary first of all to introduce German merchants to the province of Mosul and work to establish a textile industry that surpasses that of the English. Who else could do this better than Aynor Hans, who is a daughter of a Germany father and a Turkey mother and works as a tour guide for the Thomas Cook travel agency.
But Aynor Hans, was haunted by dreams and guided by love, goes further, challenging the might of three great powers: England, France and Russia.
* The historical novel died with Jurji Zaydan, in the past it was representing history and conforming to the story of the event is an artistic goal in itself, but this concept has changed with modern creative schools and with the development of novel science. I will not narrate history with its facts and sources. It seeks to create art and convince the reader of my idea and my reading of the course of life. (Nizar Abd al-Sattar in a dialogue with the Egyptian constitution)
* In 'Tartar' I focused on the idea of ​​a scientific and industrial renaissance, and spoke of a generation of European aspirants as a model. Germany could have supported it and proceeded with it if the Berlin-Baghdad railway project had succeeded, and India's overland route had been cut off for the English. The biggest confusion lies in opposing everything new. Sultan Abdul Hamid II himself was afraid of electricity and repeatedly delayed its entry to Istanbul. In the last two decades of the Ottoman Empire, ambiguity was prevalent, because modernization was delayed and this thing happened in our Arab countries as well. In the novel 'Tartar', there is a struggle between modernity and antiquity, and it is at this time specifically 'the time of the novel' that intolerance began to grow hostile to European civilization, just as the Arab intellectual elites have succumbed to radical ignorance. (Nizar Abd al-Sattar in an interview with the London-based Al-Arab newspaper)
* In writing I believe in the hierarchy of construction, and language is one of the most important structures that I worked on with patience. I put a great effort into creating the vocabulary and describing it musically in the sentence. Paying much attention to the tone of the word and its connection with the general texture, and avoid the hard vocabulary. Musical language is important in my work. Successful work is a series of solid and intertwined structures, and language here must work to dazzle and thus be able to attract the reader. I think that a simple and fluid word does not invite relaxation, but rather an unexpected, charming word that attracts attention and creates pleasure. (Nizar Abd al-Sattar in an interview with the London-based Al-Arab newspaper).
{{Section|Nizar Abd al-Sattar interviews}]
# Interview with the writer Nizar Abd al-Sattar with the Happening program on Lebanese MTV Channel. 
# A talk with Nizar Abdul Sattar on the “Khawabi Al Kalam” program on Lebanon TV 
# A report on the novel Tartar by Nizar Abd al-Sattar in the program “bla tool seera” on “Almostaqbal” TV 
# Seminar on the novel of Tartar and honoring the novelist Nizar Abd al-Sattar at the Cultural Association in Tripoli - Lebanon
# Nizar Abd al-Sattar in the “Finjan” program on the Iraqi satellite channel 
Category: Iraqi writers
Category: 1967 births
Category: Iraqi novelists
Category:People from Baghdad