Muhammad Salim Barakat

Muhammad Salim Barakat came from a religious background. His father, Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kassar, a Shafii Muslim, served as the imam and preacher of al-Innaba mosque in Bab Sarija in old Damascus, [9] He belongs to an old Damascene family, as cited in the encyclopaedia of Damascene families 1/222, according to Al-Babiteen Dictionary of Arab Poets[10]

Barakat grew up in Damascus.[11] He moved to Cairo in Egypt and graduated from the Department of Philosophy and Oriental Languages in the College of Arabic Language in Ain Shams University, then obtained two post-graduate diplomas in pedagogy and psychology from the High Institute of Pedagogy at the same university.[12]

When in Egypt, he met with Taha Hussein, Tawfiq al-Hakim and Abbas Mahmoud al-Akkad, and was influenced by their literature, and also by Nasserism.[13] He returned to Damascus and worked as a teacher of Arabic language.[14] He was a member of research and studies association.[15] He worked in the French Institute for Arabic Studies in Damascus[16] (IFEAD: Institut Francais d’Etudes Arabes de Damas, later known as IFPO: Institut Français du Proche Orient) from 1970-1999. He was sent as a professor of Arabic literature and Orientalism to the INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris, which is a Sorbonne institution, from 1991-1994.

His most notable contribution include:

• His translation of "Le voile du nom : essai sur le nom propre arabe", by Jacqueline Sublet, from French into Arabic, which was published by the IFPO.[17][18]
• His article, "Les inscriptions de la maison Sibai", in collaboration with French scholar Jean-Yves L'Hopital, and Nabil Al-Lao was published by the Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales in 2001.[19][20]
• He was a member of the Arab Writer's Union,[21] headquartered in Damascus[22]

Upon his death in 1999, a hall was named after him in the INALCO, and another in the IFPO in Damascus. He was also mourned by the French newspaper Le Monde in its issue of 9 June 1999.[23] Dominique Mallet also, a French scholar, wrote from Cairo an obituary "In memoriam of Salim Mohammed Barakat".[24]

He was married to Farideh Al-Fawakhiri (1941–2011), and a father of Nouar (F 1968), Maha (F 1969), Mouhammad (M 1970), Charif (M 1972), Ahmad (M 1976), and Reem (F 1985). A street has been allocated to carry his name in central Damascus in Al-Mouhajireen quarter (his own quarter), but is still pending because of the civil war that has erupted in March 2011.

• Sublet, Jacqueline, and Salīm M. Barakāt. Ḥiṣn Al-Ism : Qirāʹāt Fī Al-Asmāʹ Al-ʻarabiyya =: Le Voile Du Nom : Essai Sur Le Nom Propre Arabe. Damas: Institut français de Damas, 1999[25][26]
• BARAKĀT, Salīm Muḥammad, Nabīl AL-LAO, and Jean-Yves L'HÔPITAL. 2001. “LES INSCRIPTIONS DE LA MAISON SIBĀ'Ī”. Bulletin D'études Orientales 53/54. Institut Francais du Proche-Orient:[27][28][29] 181–227. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41608508.

In 1978, he was awarded the "Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Académiques", and in 1995, the "Officier dans l'ordre de Palmes Académiques" by the French Ministry of Education.