Iraqi writer brings Persian literature to Arab world

Ghassan Hamdan was born in Iraq, raised in Iran and has spent part of his life in Syria. He considers both Iran and Iraq equally his homeland. He began his career by translating Persian poetry, but in the past few years, he has been translating and publishing Iranian novels for the Arab world, specifically Egypt. He has published translations of more than a dozen novels by some of Iran's most famous writers.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Hamdan talked about his work and the gap that has widened between Iran and the Arab world and how it might be narrowed through cultural activities such as his translations of Persian works into Arabic. His top priority, he said, “is introducing famous Iranian Sufis to Arab readers.”

Al-Monitor:  You were born in Baghdad, but you were raised in Iran, and now you translate famous Persian novels and publish them in Cairo. How did this start?

Hamdan:  I was born in Baghdad, but my family moved to Iran before the revolution, when relations were good between the two countries. After Saddam [Hussein] came to power in Iraq and the war with Iran started, we were expelled from Iraq under the pretext of being Iranian.