Paul Balta was born in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1929. He has been a qualified specialist in the Arab, Muslim and Mediterranean worlds since his time as a correspondent for Le Monde in the Middle East and the Maghreb. Between 1988 and 1994 he was director of the Centre détudes de lOrient contemporain of the University Paris III (New Sorbonne), of which he is now honorary director. He has collaborated in important international magazines such as Middle East Journal (Washington) and in the newspapers El País (Madrid) and Le Libéral (Casablanca). He is the author of twenty works, including Iran-Iraq, a war of 5000 years (1988), The Great Maghreb. From independence to the year 2000 (Siglo XXI de España Editores, 1994), Islam (1998), Mediterráneo (2000) and Beber y comer en el Mediterráneo (2004). Member of the board of directors of the René Seydoux Foundation for the Mediterranean World, of Confluences / Méditerranée, he chairs FEMEC, Euro-Mediterranean Forum of Cultures and SELEFA, Society of French and Arabic lexicographic and etymological studies.