Christian Jacq

Christian Jacq (born April 28, 1947, Paris, France) is a French Egyptologist and writer known as the author of popular novels set in ancient Egypt.

Jacq became fascinated with Egyptology as a teenager after reading Jacques Pirenne’s Histoire de la civilisation de l’Egypte ancienne (1961–63; History of Ancient Egyptian Civilization). After earning a doctorate in Egyptian studies from the Sorbonne, Jacq pursued a scholarly career. His first published works were serious, straightforward histories that earned him recognition from the French Academy. His fictional works did not receive much critical attention at first, and when they did they were often dismissed as romantic potboilers. Jacq persevered, however, determined to share the enthusiasm and awe he felt for Egypt with as wide an audience as possible.

His first successful novel was Champollion l’Egyptien (1987; Champollion the Egyptian). He created a literary sensation in France with the publication in 1995–96 of his five-volume biographical epic about Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 bce. The Ramses books are filled with stories of battles, magic, sex, and adventure. Enthralled fans lined up outside bookstores as each new volume was released, and Jacq was given much of the credit for a significant increase in the number of French tourists traveling to Egypt in the late 1990s.

The prolific writer produced a number of other series, including La Pierre de lumière (2000; The Stone of Light series, consisting of four books set in ancient Dayr al-Madinah), Reine liberté (2002–03; the Queen of Freedom trilogy, which tells the story of Queen Ahhotep, who with her son Ahmose I routed the Hyksos rulers of Egypt), Juge d’Egypte (2004; Judge of Egypt trilogy, a further examination of the age of Ramses), Les Mystères d’Osiris (2005; The Mysteries of Osiris series), and La Vengeance des dieux (2007–08; The Vengeance of the Gods series).

Besides promoting Egypt’s grandeur, Jacq was dedicated to preserving the physical record of Egypt’s past. To meet that challenge, he founded the Ramses Institute in Paris to register and photograph Egypt’s endangered archaeological sites. He also produced several works of nonfiction, such as La Sagesse vivante de l’Égypte ancienne (1998; The Living Wisdom of Ancient Egypt), Les Maximes de Ptah-Hotep: l’enseignement d’un sage au temps des pyramides (2006; The Wisdom of Ptah-Hotep: Spiritual Treasures from the Age of the Pyramids), and Egypt (2009; with Philip Plisson), a photographic exploration of Egypt’s splendours.