Kurban Said

Kurban Said is a pseudonym chiefly associated with the writer and publicist Lev Nussimbaum (1905–1942); Elfriede von Ehrenfels (1894–1982) has also been identified as a co-author or namesake. Nussimbaum was born in Kyiv, grew up in Baku, and fled the Bolsheviks in 1920. In Berlin in 1922, he converted to Islam and adopted the name Essad Bey. He published around 16 books. From 1937, he wrote under the name Kurban Said, apparently to circumvent a sales ban on his books in the German Reich. He died in Positano in 1942.