Emilio García Gómez

Emilio García Gómez, 1st Count of Alixares (4 June 1905 – 31 May 1995) was a Spanish Arabist, literary historian and critic, whose talent as a poet enriched his many translations from Arabic.

[1] While living in Granada he had become friends with Manuel de Falla the classical music composer and with Federico García Lorca the poet, both aficionados of Flamenco.

[7] His many translations of Arabic poetry were received with acclaim by the literary public, as well as by many Spanish poets, including Federico García Lorca,[8] and artists, e.g., Manuel de Falla.

[9] García Gómez also published a collection of his literary essays, Silla del Moro y nuevas escenas andaluzas, which drew on his experiences while living in Granada during the early thirties.

[13] After returning from his travels to the Middle East in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he published (under the title Los Días) his translation of the Egyptian writer Taha Husayn's recent autobiographical work Al-Ayyam.

García Gómez collaborated with the French historian Évariste Lévi-Provençal in editing and translating an anonymous chronicle written in medieval Córdoba when under the rule of the Caliph 'Abd al-Rahman III.

[17] In his later years García Gómez labored on the various facets of the literary events surrounding the Alhambra, an architectural gem, site of the government offices and the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada, where the Islamic presence lingered the longest.