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Pierre Bernard (publisher)

Pierre Bernard was a French publisher who had a passion for Islam and mysticism. Biography The work of Pierre Bernard (1940-1995), founder of the publishing house Sindbad, dedicated to Arabic literature, is now continued by Actes-Sud. Born in 1940 into an artistic family, the son of a painter and a pianist, and a relative of the sculptor Joseph Bernard (1866-1931) and the painter Emile Bernard (1868-1941), both of whom are now exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, Pierre Bernard received early training as a typesetter. In 1972, he founded Sindbad, the first and only French publishing house exclusively dedicated to Arab-Muslim literature. Among his contemporaries, his cousin Jean-Louis Bernard, also a writer, also devotes himself to Sufism, publishing notably the novel "Mehdi: l'initiation d'un soufi" (Mehdi: The Initiation of a Sufi), with Editions du Rocher and in pocket format with Pocket, which features the Andalusian mystic Ibn al-Arabi Publisher Pierre Bernard in front of the Sindbad editions at 1 & 3 Feutrier Street, 18th arrondissement of Paris, around 1980. Algeria and Egypt Pierre Bernard is called to Algeria to fulfill his military service while the country is in the midst of the war for independence. He works at Radio-Alger alongside the Algerian publisher Edmond Charlot, the discoverer of Albert Camus. Fascinated by Arab culture, Pierre Bernard settles in the Casbah. In 1968, he travels to Cairo where he meets Nasser, the writers Tewfiq al-Hakim, Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Hussein, and others. Publisher In 1970, Pierre Bernard creates a collection dedicated to the Arab world with the publisher Jérôme Martineau, in which he publishes "Passage des miracles" by Mahfouz, as well as a book by the architect Hassan Fathy. While very few modern Arab authors were translated into French, Pierre Bernard decided to establish his own publishing house, Sindbad, in 1972... Sponsored by orientalists Jacques Berque and André Miquel, assisted by Abdelwahab Meddeb and Claudine Rouleau, Pierre Bernard published great classics: Abu Nuwas, Omar Khayyam, Ibn Arabi, Majnûn, as well as poets like Sayyâb and Bayâtî from Iraq, and Adonis from Syria. He had Tayeb Salih's "Season of Migration to the North," one of the greatest works in world literature, translated. During the 1970s, he published the father of the Arabic novel, Mahfouz, and the master of the short story, Youssef Idris, who were previously unknown in the West. From the 1980s onward, he introduced the "generation of the 1960s" to the literary scene, offering them a space of freedom during the Nasserist era: Sonallah Ibrahim, Gamal Ghitany, and others. Sindbad also ventured into translating the monumental ten-volume series, "The Romance of Baybars." Its books, with their colorful covers, stylish typography, large format, and thick paper, became sought-after items among bibliophiles. Through his "Arab Library," Pierre Bernard initiated a movement: following Sindbad, other publishers began to take an interest in Arabic literature Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize in Literature Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize in Literature. 1988, it was a moment of recognition for Bernard when Sheikh Al-Djazaïri nicknamed him "the free imam without a mosque in Barbès," as the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Mahfouz, his author and friend. In 1990, Bernard successfully created the first Euro-Arab Book Fair. The passing of Pierre Bernard Since the riots of 1988, Algeria has plunged into an economic and political crisis. One of Sindbad's main clients, the Algerian Ministry of Culture, which used to purchase from one thousand to fifteen hundred copies of each published work to distribute them in Algerian schools and libraries, can no longer fulfill its orders. Starting in 1992, Sindbad goes into a dormant state. Despite its notable publication of Jacques Berque's "enlightened" translation of the Quran, the publishing house goes bankrupt, while in 1995, Pierre Bernard falls seriously ill. Sindbad taken over by Actes Sud After Pierre Bernard's passing, the Arles-based publisher Actes Sud acquires his publishing house, Sindbad. The out-of-print books are reissued, and the existing collections are continued. Since 1995, over a hundred new titles have been released under the Sindbad-Actes Sud label. Each one bears the mention "Pierre Bernard, founder" as a tribute. Farouk Mardam-Bey, the director of Sindbad and the person in charge of "Mondes arabes" at Actes Sud, continues the publication of contemporary Arab writers, including the Egyptian political columnist Sonallah Ibrahim - since "Les Années de Zeth" in 1993 - and the Lebanese writer Elias Khoury with "La Porte du soleil," which addresses the Palestinian question. The new generation of female writers, such as Hanan Al-Cheikh and Hoda Barakat from Lebanon, are also honored. Today, although other publishing houses have followed suit, Actes Sud, under the editorial direction of Bertrand Py, remains the main publisher and translator of Arabic literature works published in France. Jean-Louis Bernard, a writer and relative of Pierre Bernard, who has authored books on esotericism and Sufism, works to preserve the memory of this great publisher and talent discoverer.