Naguib Mahfouz

Vocation

Notable

Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films. The appearance of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses stirred controversy about Mahfouz's novel Children of Gebelawi. Death threats against Mahfouz followed, and he was given police protection, but in 1994 Islamic extremists almost succeeded in assassinating the 82-year-old novelist by stabbing him in the neck outside his Cairo home. He survived, permanently affected by damage to nerves in his right hand. After the incident Mahfouz was unable to write for more than a few minutes a day and consequently produced fewer and fewer works. Subsequently, he lived under constant bodyguard protection. Finally, in the beginning of 2006, the novel was published in Egypt. Mahfouz remained a bachelor until the age of 43. In 1954, he married an Egyptian woman, Atiya, with whom he had two daughters. He died on 30 August 2006. Link to Wikipedia biography