ABSTRACT
Nadir, Chams b. 1949, Tunisia novelist and short story writer The Tunisian writer Mohammed Aziza publishes his fiction under the name
Chams Nadir, Arabic for “radiant sun.” His best-known work is a widely translated collection of short stories entitled The Astrolabe of the Sea (L’Astrolabe de la mer) (1980) and prefaced by Léopold Senghor. It uses the framing device of an astrolabe, an ancient navigational instrument in this case endowed with speech, which tells a series of stories criticizing Western materialist values. Nadir is also the author of Silence des sémaphores (Silence of the Semaphores) (1979), Le Livre des celebrations (The Book of Celebrations) (1983), and Les Portiques de la mer (The Portals of the Sea) (1990). Under his given name, Aziza has also published a number of works on Arab theater and, in conjunction with his work in public affairs for the Organization of African Unity and Unesco, several books on African and Islamic art.
