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Naguib Mahfouz _____________________
Egypt (1911- )
Born in Cairo in 1911, Naguib Mahfouz began writing when he was seventeen. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian Revolution of July 1952, when he stopped writing for several years. One novel was republished in 1953, however, and the appearance of the Cairo Triology, Bayn al Qasrayn, Qasr al Shawq, Sukkariya (Between-the-Palaces, Palace of Longing, Sugarhouse) in 1957 made him famous throughout the Arab world as a depictor of traditional urban life.
Until 1972, Mahfouz was employed as a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Mortmain Endowments, then as Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Art, as Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema, and, finally, as consultant on Cultural Affairs to the Ministry of Culture. The years since his retirement from the Egyptian bureaucracy have seen an outburst of further creativity, much of it experimental. He is now the author of no fewer than thirty novels, more than a hundred short stories, and more than two hundred articles.
Half of his novels have been made into films which have circulated throughout the Arabic-speaking world. In Egypt, each new publication is regarded as a major cultural event and his name is inevitably among the first mentioned in any literary discussion from Gibraltar to the Gulf. (Nobel Foundation)
Many of Mahfouz's works have been banned in the Middle East for alleged blasphemy. Mahfouz is the target of much criticism and hatred due to his support of the peace process with Israel, and of the normalization of the Arab states' relations with that country. After a fatwa was issued against him by Omar Abdul-Rahman, Mahfouz was attacked and stabbed in the neck in 1994. He was 83 years old. He now lives under constant bodyguard protection. When a fatwa was issued against Salman Rushdie, Abdul-Rahman said that such an action would not have been necessary had the death sentence he had issued against Mahfouz been carried out.
(Wikipedia)
MAJOR NOVELS:
Midaq Alley (1947)
"Naguib Mahfouz." The Economist. Aug 31st 2006.
ON THE WEB: Nobel Lecture. The Nobel Foundation. December 8, 1988.
Brief but insightful. Hallengren, Anders. "Naguib Mahfouz: The Son of Two Civilizations." The Nobel Foundation. 16 October 2003.
Excellent article with a good discussion of Children of the Alley. "Naguib Mahfouz:
Biased To Grassroots." People & Facts. Information on Egypt.
Good overview of his life, works, and philosophy. From the Egypt State Information Service
. Theroux, Peter. "
Children of the Alley: A Translator's Tale ." The Massachusetts Review 42.4 (Winter 2001/2002): 666-673. Najjar, Fauzi. "Islamic fundamentalism and the intellectuals: The case of Naguib Mahfouz
." British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 25.1 (May 1998): 139-69.
Haim, Gordon. Naguib Mahfouz's Egypt: Existential Themes in HIs Writing. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
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