Ibrahim Farghali

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Ibrahim Farghali (Arabic: إبراهيم فرغلي) was born on September 19, 1967, in Mansoura, Egypt. He is an Egyptian writer and critic who grew up in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. He earned a BA in Business Administration from Mansoura University in 1992 and began his career as a journalist, working for Rose al Yousef weekly and then Nizwa magazine in Muscat, Oman. He later moved back to Cairo to work as a cultural editor at Al Ahram newspaper and, since 1997, has been an editor at Al Arabi magazine in Kuwait.

Farghali is considered part of Egypt’s Nineties Generation. He is known for a restrained, principled writing style that challenges social and religious taboos. His work often uses fantasy elements to highlight moral issues in social relationships. He once faced pressure from a state-run publisher to remove sexual overtones from a manuscript, but he refused.

Published works include:
- Bettejah Al Ma’aqi (Toward the Eyes), 1997
- Kahf Al Farashat (Cave of Butterflies), 1998
- Ashbah Al Hawas (The Ghosts of Feelings), a short-story collection
- The Smiles of the Saints (Ibtisamat Al Qideiseen), 2004–2006 (translated into English by Andy Smart and Nadya Fouda Smart; published by AUC Press in 2007)
- Jennie in a Bottle (Jenneya Fi Qarora), a novel, 2007–2009
- Midad Al Hewar (Dialogues Ink), a travel book about Stuttgart, Germany, 2006
- Abnaa’ Al Gabalawi (Sons of Gabalawi), a novel, 2009–2010
- The Temple of Silken Fingers, nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and won the Sawiris Cultural Award for Egyptian Literature in 2016

Farghali’s work is marked by a willingness to tackle difficult topics and to blend realism with imaginative elements to explore human relationships.