Mohammed Mrabet was born on March 8, 1936 in Tangier, in the north of Morocco. His family was from the Rif and moved to Tangier at a time of great famine, as did many other families, in order to survive. Like many Moroccan adolescents, he preferred to live in the freedom of the street rather than staying at home and subordinate to discipline. He never went to school and made his living as a fisherman, worked in European bars and households, and as a boxer traveled through Spain and Mallorca. Out of curiosity and looking for big money, Mrabet went to the United States for the first time in 1960. Two more journeys followed, but the country did not impress him much.

        Back in Tangier in 1960 he met Jane Bowles and her husband Paul Bowles, the expatriate American composer and writer. Through his close friendship with the Bowleses, Mrabet met important writers such as Tennessee Williams, Alfred Chester, William Burroughs and Truman Capote. 

        Although known primarily as a Moroccan storyteller, Mrabet began making ink drawings in 1958, and later paintings, partly inspired by Ahmed Yacoubi. In Tangier he was acquainted with other artists such as Maurice Grosser, Brion Gysin and Claudio Bravo, and he continues painting to this day. Mrabet's paintings and ink drawings have been exhibited in Morocco, Europe and the United States. His drawings and paintings are held in numerous private collections and institutions.

        During his childhood Mrabet listened to traditional story tellers in Tangier´s cafés―a world that fascinated him. Later on he would invent his own stories, and Paul Bowles taped and transcribed his stories. Mrabet´s first novel Love with a Few Hairs was published 1967 in London by Peter Owen, followed two years later with The Lemon. Since then, fifteen of Mohammed Mrabet's books have been published and his works have been translated into twelve languages.

        Henry Miller wrote: "Mrabet sees what it means to work simply and tellingly. His writing is quite unique and an inspiration not only to young writers but to veterans too. He has found the secret of communicating on all levels."

        The language of Mrabet is a maze like the thousand alleys of the Medina―seductive, but dangerous―without a guide one is lost in suggestions and allusions. His culture does not lend itself to our limited rational thought―the only way is by feeling into it, not thinking. Otherwise one remains dazzled by what one sees and does not enter the deeper secrets; hence it would be foolish to tell a story as it was. "A tongue tells a thousand truths, but you always only want to hear one." says Mrabet.

        Again and again in the stories of Mohammed Mrabet, the tensions between two cultures become clear:  they reject themselves like opposite poles and only seldom come together.

Copyright © 2006, Roberto de Hollanda

Love with a Few Hairs, taped and translated from the Moghrebi (London: Peter Owen, 1967; New York: George Braziller, 1968; San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1986; Pour l’amour de quelques cheveux (Paris: Devillez Didier Éditeur, 1997; Fez, Morocco: Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre, 2004, with an introduction by Brian T. Edwards)

The Lemon (London: Peter Owen, 1969; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969, 1972; in French, Le Citron, recorded and translated from the Arabic by Paul Bowles in collaboration with Mrabet (Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1989)

M'Hashish (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1969; London: Peter Owen, 1988; M'haschich, with illustrations by Pascal; translated by Claude Nathalie Thomas  (Paris:  L'Esprit frappeur, 1998)  [stories]

“Abdeslam and Amar” (Omphalos, 1:1, March 1972) [translated by Paul Bowles]

"The Dutiful Son" (San Francisco: Bastard Angel, No. 1. Spring 1972: pp. 39-40)

"Pahloul" (New York: Antaeus, Summer 1972)

The Boy Who Set the Fire and Other Stories (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1974;       San Francisco, City Lights Books, 1988)

"Like the Sahara Only Dirty" (The Transatlantic Review, Autumn-Winter, 1974)

Hadidan Aharam (Sparrow 37, Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, October 1975)

The Beach Cafe & The Voice (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1976); in French, Le café de la plage (Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1989; translated by Claude Nathalie Thomas)

Harmless Poisons, Blameless Sins (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1976)

Look and Move On, autobiography of Mrabet as told to Paul Bowles (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1976; Paris: Devillez Didier, 2000)

"El Fellah", translated by Paul Bowles (Outlaw Visions, Los Angeles: Acrobat Books, 1977)

The Big Mirror (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1977; in French, Le Grand miroir, Le Grand Miroir,  translated from the Arabic by Paul Bowles and Chantal Mairot-Queyras (Paris: Christian  Bourgois Éditeur, 1989)

"Earth", a play translated by Paul Bowles (New York: Conjunctions I, Inaugural Double-Issue, edited by Bradford Morrow, Fall 1981): 120-138

The Chest and The Qaftan (Bolinas, California: Tombouctou Books, 1983)

Three Tales (New York: School of Visual Arts Press, 1983)

Marriage with Papers (Bolinas, California: Tombouctou Books, 1986)

Cinq regards (Paris: Christian Bourgois Éditeur, 1989)

"Doctor Safi" (short story). The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories, edited by Daniel Halpern (New York: Penguin Press, 1989 )

Chocolate Creams and Dollars, with photographs by Philip Taaffe (New York: Inanout Press, 1992)

The Canebrak (short story) by Mohammed ben Chaib el-Hajjan, a pseudonym for Mohammed Mrabet. The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories, edited by Daniel Halpern (New York: Viking Press, 1999)

Collected Stories (Fez, Morocco: Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre, 2004)

Love With a Few Hairs, with an Introduction, "What Happened In Tangier?" by Brian T. Edwards (Fès, Maroc: Moroccan Cultural Studies Centre, 2004) 

Le poisson conteur: Et autres stories de Tanger, translated by Éric Valentin (Paris: Le bec en l'air éditions, 2006)

Audio/Spoken Word Recordings (CD, DVD)

The Storyteller and The Fisherman, translated and read by Paul Bowles; produced by Randall Barnwell (Brussels, Belgium: Sub Rosa, 1990, CD; 2004, DVD)