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The Magic Lamp

Rafik Schami , born in 1946 into a middle-class Christian-Aramaic family in Damascus, Syria, is one of a number of writers from Arabic-speaking countries who came to the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s and early 1980s after having spent their childhood and youth in their home countries. In Damascus, he was a member of a religious minority Early on, Schami showed an interest in storytelling and began telling tales in the streets of Damascus, which is the setting for many of his narratives. Thus, previous to his moving to the Federal Republic of Germany, he had been active in literary culture. Even before he began writing fairy tales in 1965, he had written shorter prose texts, songs, and theater pieces. He credits the stories of the Arabian Nights, which he had heard as a child on radio, as having had a significant influence on his narrative style. From 1965 to 1970 he served as editor of a local newspaper (Al Muntalek) that was posted for public reading in the old city of Damascus. Because of the threat of censorship, his pacifist stance against war and military service, and his desire for more freedom of expression, he felt a need to leave Syria. Lacking the financial means necessary to receive a student visa for France, Schami applied in 1971 for a stipend to study in the Federal Republic of Germany. He received three offers to study there and decided to accept the scholarship to study chemistry in Heidelberg. After having completed his doctorate in chemistry in 1979, he worked for a number of years in industry and used his free time to pursue his literary interest. Torn between his interest in chemistry and his desire to write, Schami gave up the profession as a chemist totally in 1982, and since that time he has devoted himself full-time to his career as a freelance writer. Between the years 1 981 and 1 996, Schami gave more than