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Born in 1950 in Koilandy, a village in Kozhikode (Calicut), he descends from families with ancestral ties to Palestine and Yemen, through his paternal Qudsi and maternal Afeef lineages. He grew up in the historic port city of Calicut, long associated with the Zamorian (Samudiri) dynasty and the rich legacy of Persian–Arab maritime trade. After completing his college education, he migrated to Abu Dhabi in 1975 and went on to serve for more than 33 years at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the largest sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East. During his years in Abu Dhabi, he nurtured his creative pursuits—beginning as a short story writer and eventually dedicating himself fully to literary translation. He has since become a distinguished translator, introducing over 120 writers from various Middle eastern countries, including Gulf and Arab countries, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as from Indonesia, to Malayalam readers. He has published 26 books.
Over the years, he has built and sustained a wide network of relationships with prominent Arab and Iranian writers, thinkers, and scholars. His engagement with the region’s intellectual and cultural landscape also includes active links with several cultural institutions across the Middle East and North Africa, reinforcing his role as a bridge between these literary worlds and Malayalam literature.
He is the Authorized Literary Translator of the following writers:
Sudan: Laila Aboulela; Egypt: Tawfiq Al Hakim, Dr.Nawal El Saadawi, Salwa Bakr, Sahar Tawfik, Miral El Tahawy, Hala El Badry, Somaya Ramadan, Sahar El Mougy; Lebanon: Venus Khoury-Ghata, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Najwa Al Barakat, Emily Nasrallah, Hadia Sa'id; Iraq: Salima Saleh; Aliya Al Mamdouh; Mahmoud Saeed, Hassan Blasim, Maysaloon Hadi; Palestine: Liana Badr, Sahar Khalifeh, Mahmoud Shukair, Emily Habibi, Mahmoud al Rimawi, Mahmoud Ahmed Shaheen, Osama alesay, Abdullah al Tayeh, Tawfiq Fayyad, Isra Kalesh, Mays Daggas, Raji Bathish, Yusri al Ghoul, Ahlam Bsharat, May Kaloti & Laila Halabi; Syria: Zakaria Tamer, Ghada Al Samman, Nadia Ghazzi, Ghali a Qabbani, Osama Alomar, Shahla Ujayli Jordan: Leila Al-Athrash, Samiya At'ut'; UAE: Dr. Shihab Ghanem, Hareb Al Dhaheri, Nassir Al Dhaheri, Dhabiya Khamis, Asma Al Katbi, Mariam Al Saedi; Bahrain: Mahdi Abdulla; Qatar: Dr. Ahmed Abdul Malik; Oman: Yehia Salem Al Mandhari, Azhaar Ahmed; Arab-American: Diana Abu-Jaber; Algeria: Yasmina Khadra; Tunisia: Inas Abbasi; Morocco: Karima Ahdad; Saudi Arabia: Dr.Umaima Khamis; Mohammad Hassan Alwan; Kuwait: Muna Al Shafie, Bader Al Otaibi, Taleb Alrefai; Yemen: Wajdi Al-Ahdal; Libya: Najwa BenShatwan; Iran: Shahrnush Parsipur, Dr.Simin Daneswer, Sadegh Hedayat; Indonesia: Pramoedya Ananta Toer; UK: Julia Casterton; Italy: Giovanna Iorio .
Interview & a feature by Al-Bayan Newspaper (U.A.E):
http://www.albayan.ae/books/author-book/2016-12-13-1.2793521
Write-up column appeared in the Al Itihad Newspaper (U.A.E):
http://www.alittihad.ae/columnsdetails.php?category=78&column=24&id=53283&y=2016
Interview by a senior Arab-American Journalist:
https://arablit.org/2013/12/17/arabic-literature-malayalam-readers/
Feature: 40 Arabic stories by Arab Women. Expatriate community made it an event. They celebrated in Abu Dhabi.
Article in Mathrubhumi: Daiwa Namathil (In the Name of God) by Yasmina Khadra
Review in the Hindu: Kurudan Kooman (Blind Owl) by Sadegh Hedayath: Metaphors of life and death: in the Hindu.
Review in The Hindu: Anungal Illatha Pennungal (Women without Men) by Shahrnush Parsipur
Review in Malayalam: Kurudan Kooman (Blind Owl) by Sadegh Hedayath
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