Naguib Mahfouz

Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (), ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006), known as Naguib Mahfouz, was an Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.NobelPrize.org, "Naguib Mahfouz"; retrieved 2012-9-18.

He managed to modernize Arabic literature. He is one of the few writers of Arabic literature who explored themes of existentialism.

 Biography 
Naguib Mahfouz was born in the Gamaliya quarter of Cairo and was named after Professor Naguib basha Mahfouz (1882-1974), the renowned Coptic physician who delivered him. In his childhood Mahfouz read extensively. His mother often took him to museums and Egyptian history. later became a major theme in many of his books.

The Egyptian Revolution of 1915 had a strong effect on Mahfouz, although he was at the time only seven years old. From the window he often saw English soldiers firing at the demonstrators, men and women. "You could say," he later noted, "that the one thing which most shook the security of my childhood was the 1919 revolution."

Before the Nobel Prize only a few of his novels had appeared in the West.
Because of his outspoken support for Anwar el Sadat's treaty with Israel, his books were banned in many Arab countries until after he won the Nobel prize.

Like many Egyptian writers and intellectuals, Mahfouz was on a "death list" by Islamic fundamentalists. He defended Salman Rushdie after the Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini condemned him to death, but later he criticized Rushdie's Satanic Verses as "insulting" to Islam.

Before his death, Mahfouz was the oldest living Nobel Literature laureate and the third oldest of all time, only Bertrand Russell and Halldor Laxness were older. At the time of his death, he was the only Arabic-language writer to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

 Works 
 Old Egypt (1932) مصر القديمة
 Whisper of Madness (1938)همس الجنون
 Mockery of the Fates (1939) عبث الأقدار
 Rhadopis of Nubia (1943) رادوبيس
 The Struggle of Tyba (1944) كفاح طيبة
 Modern Cairo (1945) القاهرة الجديدة
 Khan al-Khalili (1945) خان الخليلى
 Midaq Alley (1947) زقاق المدق
 The Mirage (1948) السراب
 The Beginning and The End (1950) بداية ونهاية
 Cairo Trilogy (1956-57) الثلاثية
 Palace Walk (1956) بين القصرين
 Palace of Desire (1957) قصر الشوق
 Sugar Street (1957) السكرية
 Children of Gebelawi (1959) أولاد حارتنا
 The Thief and the Dogs (1961) اللص والكلاب
 Quail and Autumn (1962) السمان والخريف
 God's World (1962) دنيا الله
 Zaabalawi (1963)
 The Search (1964) الطريق
 The Beggar (1965)  الشحاذ
 Adrift on the Nile (1966) ثرثرة فوق النيل
 Miramar (1967) ميرامار The Pub of the Black Cat (1969) خمارة القط الأسود
 A story without a beginning or an ending (1971)حكاية بلا بداية ولا نهاية
 The Honeymoon (1971) شهر العسل
 Mirrors (1972) المرايا
 Love under the rain (1973) الحب تحت المطر
 The Crime (1973) الجريمة
 al-Karnak (1974) الكرنك
 Respected Sir (1975) حضرة المحترم
 The Harafish (1977) ملحمة الحرافيش
 Love above the Pyramid Plateau  (1979) الحب فوق هضبة الهرم
 The Devil Preaches (1979) الشيطان يعظ
 Love and the Veil (1980) عصر الحب
 Arabian Nights and Days (1981) ليالى ألف ليلة
 Wedding Song (1981) أفراح القبة
 One hour remains (1982) الباقي من الزمن ساعة
 The Journey of Ibn Fattouma (1983) رحلة إبن فطومة
 Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (1985) العائش فى الحقيقة
 The Day the Leader was Killed (1985) يوم مقتل الزعيم
 Fountain and Tomb (1988)
 Echoes of an Autobiography (1994)
 Dreams of the Rehabilitation Period (2004) أحلام فترة النقاهة
 The Seventh Heaven (2005)

Related pages
 List of Nobel Prize winners by country

 References 

 Other websites 
 The Paris Review Interview With Naguib Mahfouz
 Naguib Mahfouz on his English publisher's website 
 Nobel Prize press release
 Naguib Mahfouz from Pegasos Author's Calendar 
 Cornell biography
 BBC report of death 30 August 2006
 Article dated 31 August 2006 from The Independent: Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz dies aged 94 
 Associated Press report dated 31 August 2006 on Naguib Mahfouz's funeral
 Biography and bibliography in French 
 -"L'hypothèse naturaliste zolienne dans l'oeuvre de Naguib Mahfouz", by Salah NATIJ - in french, Website Maduba / Invitation àl'adab
 Obituary of Naguib Mahfouz published in Islamica Magazine 
 Fouad Ajami, "The Humanist in the Alleys," The New Republic, September 25, 2006, http://www.sais-jhu.edu/programs/mideast/documents/Recent%20Articles/Articles/The%20Humanist%20in%20the%20Alleys.pdf 

Category:1911 births
Category:2006 deaths
Category:Writers from Cairo
Category:Egyptian Nobel Prize winners
Category:Nobel Prize in Literature winners