Juan Goytisolo Gay, the Spanish orientalist who defended Arab causes

CAIRO – 5 June 2022: Juan Goytisolo Gay was a Spanish thinker, writer and orientalist, known for his love of Arabic language and culture.

He had many positive stances towards some Arab issues. Many intellectuals considered him the greatest Spanish writer in the modern era, and others considered him one of the greatest writers in Spanish history since its inception.

Juan Goytisolo Gay enrolled in law school but soon dropped out. He left his wealthy family to choose to settle in Paris. He worked in Paris in several magazines and worked as a literary consultant in a printing press and as a professor at Jolla Universities in California. Through his writings, he dealt with issues of defense of Islam and Muslims. He was also a defender of the Palestinian cause.

He defended the Algerians to the extent of hiding them in his house and providing them with protection against French colonialism at the time.

Moreover, Gay considered himself one of the Arabists and gave several examples of this, as there are about 4000 Arabic words in the Spanish language thanks to the efforts of the Spanish Arabists who learned Arabic and spoke it during the time of the Arab-Islamic civilization in Andalusia.

Through his books, he dealt with his militant positions, as he was famous for his struggle against General Franco, President of Spain from 1936 to 1975. He supported the Bosnian Muslim resistance in Sarajevo in all his books and articles.

He was sentenced in absentia to imprisonment and was forbidden from returning to his country until after the departure of General Franco.

Gay passed away on June 4, 2017.