Although Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz is regarded as the premier novelist of the Arab world, little of his work is known in the West. Originally published in 1965, this newly translated novel focuses on the moral failure of the Egypt intelligentsia after the overthrow of King Farouk. The central character, Omar al-Hamzawi, has lost all commitment to the ideals he espoused as a young man.
November 12, 1989 |
Conventional critical wisdom usually divides the works of Naguib Mahfouz into four more or less distinct phases. The first of these, the historical phase, borrows its designation from the subject matter (ancient Egyptian history) of the historical trilogy that Mahfouz published between 1938-1945. The second spans the period 1945-1957 and is often defined in terms of the dominant literary technique in which Mahfouz then wrote; namely, social realism. The realistic novels of this period established Mahfouz as a major novelist in the Arab world.
May 4, 1989
Egyptian Nobel literary laureate Naguib Mahfouz said Islamic extremists have vowed to kill him for blasphemy in a threat similar to that made by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie. "Police have offered me protection after Muslim extremists announced their intention to kill me," Mahfouz told reporters. "I refused because police protection could disturb my life and disrupt my day-to-day habits." Mahfouz, 77, sharply criticized Khomeini, Iran's leader, when he urged Muslims to kill Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses."
December 9, 1988 |
Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel literature laureate, has pledged to give a quarter of his $390,000 prize to charity. Mahfouz, 76, said at a news conference Thursday that he would divide the cash equally between his wife, his two daughters and himself. He said his wife and daughters would bank their shares, and added: "As for me, God willing, I will donate it to charities."
November 27, 1988 |
Naguib Mahfouz, this year's winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is by far the best known and most prolific writer in the Arab world. He has been writing novels, short stories, plays and film scripts for more than 40 years now. To suggest the extent of his contribution to modern Arabic literature, it may suffice to remember that the novel was barely a fledgling genre in Arabic when Mahfouz began writing fiction.