Muhammad Salim Barakat

Muhammad Salim Barakat (Arabic: محمد سليم بركات) is an Arab writer, translator and teacher of Arabic language. He has trained outstanding French university teachers of Arabic and Orientalist scholars at the end of the 20th century such as Jean-Yves L'hopital, George Bohas, Lidia Bettini, Anne Regourd, and Thierry Bianquis. He was born in Damascus in 1930 and died in it in 1999. He is not to be confused with his homonym, the Kurdish-Syrian novelist and poet Salim Barakat.

He comes from a religious background. His father, Muhammad ibn Jaafar al-Kassar, was the imam and preacher of al-Innaba mosque in Bab Sarija in old Damascus, and was Shafii Muslim. 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

Muhammad Salim Barakat grew up in Damascus. 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.

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. He returned to Damascus and worked as a teacher of Arabic language. He was a member of research and studies association. He worked in the French Institute for Arabic Studies in Damascus (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.
• 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.
• He was a member of the Arab Writer's Union, headquartered in Damascus

• "IN MEMORIAM: SALIM MOHAMMED BARAKAT (1930 - 1999) on JSTOR". JSTOR 41608456. 
• "اتحاد الكتاب العرب في سورية | محمد سليم بركات". www.awu.sy. Retrieved 2015-12-23. 
• "اتحاد الكتاب العرب في سورية | محمد سليم بركات". www.awu.sy. Retrieved 2015-12-23. 
• "" LE DÉSIR FOU DE LA PASSION NOUS ENIVRE " ou Description d'une ḥaḍra mystique à Damas on JSTOR". p. 68. JSTOR 41604721. 
• "WorldCat". 
• "VIAF". 
• Sinclair, Susan (2012-04-03). Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World (2 Vol. Set). BRILL. ISBN 9004170588. 
• "BULLETIN D'ÉTUDES ORIENTALES" (PDF). 
• "اتحاد الكتاب العرب في سورية | محمد سليم بركات". www.awu.sy. Retrieved 2015-12-23. 
• "اتحاد الكتاب العرب في سورية". www.awu.sy. Retrieved 2015-12-23. 

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. Dominique Mallet also, a French scholar, wrote from Cairo an obituary "In memoriam of Salim Mohammed Barakat".

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.

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.