Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo on 11 December 1911, the last of the seven children of a civil servant. A graduate in philosophy of Cairo University in 1934, he had a career in the civil service until his retirement in 1971; he served at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, then at the head of censorship and film-support bodies. An allegorical novel of 1959 was banned for blasphemy, and in 1994 an extremist stabbed him. The first Arabic-language writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, in 1988, he died in 2006.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelMidaq Alleyزقاق المدقNaguib Mahfouz · 1947Literature