Naguib Mahfouz

Inspired by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Mahfouz planned to cover the entire history of Egypt in a series of books.

However, following the third volume, his interest shifted to current settings and issues, as well as the psychological impact of social change on ordinary people.

Mahfouz's prose is characterised by the blunt expression of his ideas.

His written works cover a broad range of topics, including the controversial and taboo such as socialism, homosexuality, and God.

Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (نجيب محفوظ عبد العزيز ابراهيم احمد الباشا, ; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mahfouz is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers in Arabic literature, along with Taha Hussein, to explore themes of existentialism.

He is the only Egyptian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mahfouz was born in a lower middle-class Muslim Egyptian family in Old Cairo in 1911.

The first part of his compound given name was chosen in appreciation of the well-known obstetrician, Naguib Pasha Mahfouz, who oversaw his difficult birth.

Mahfouz was the seventh and the youngest child, with four brothers and two sisters, all of them much older than him.

The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 had a strong effect on Mahfouz, although he was at the time only seven years old.

From the window he saw British soldiers firing at the demonstrators in an effort to disperse them.

According to Mahfouz, "You could say ... that the one thing which most shook the security of my childhood was the 1919 revolution", he later said.

In his early years, Mahfouz read extensively and was influenced by Hafiz Najib, Taha Hussein and Salama Moussa, the Fabian intellectual.

(Experientially, he grew up an "only child.") The family lived in two popular districts of Cairo: first, in the Bayt al-Qadi neighborhood in the Gamaleya quarter in the old city, from where they moved in 1924 to Abbaseya, then a new Cairo suburb north of the old city, locations that would provide the backdrop for many of Mahfouz's later writings.

He published his first work in Al Majalla Al Jadida, a magazine started by Salama Musa in 1929.

Mahfouz then worked as a journalist for Arrissalah, and contributed short stories to Al-Hilal and Al-Ahram.

He published 35 novels, over 350 short stories, 26 screenplays, hundreds of op-ed columns for Egyptian newspapers, and seven plays over a 70-year career, from the 1930s until 2004.

All of his novels take place in Egypt, and always mentions the lane, which equals the world.

His most famous works include The Cairo Trilogy and Children of Gebelawi.

Many of Mahfouz's works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films; no Arab writer exceeds Mahfouz in number of works that have been adapted for cinema and television.

While Mahfouz's literature is classified as realist literature, existential themes appear in it.

After completing his secondary education, Mahfouz was admitted in 1930 to the Egyptian University (now Cairo University), where he studied philosophy, graduating in 1934.

His father, Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim, whom Mahfouz described as having been "old-fashioned", was a civil servant, and Mahfouz eventually followed in his footsteps in 1934.

Mahfouz's mother, Fatimah, was the daughter of Mustafa Qasheesha, an Al-Azhar Sheikh, and although illiterate herself, took the boy Mahfouz on numerous excursions to cultural locations such as the Egyptian Museum and the Pyramids.

The Mahfouz family were devout Muslims and Mahfouz had a strict Islamic upbringing.

In an interview, he elaborated on the stern religious climate at home during his childhood.

He stated, "You would never have thought that an artist would emerge from that family."

After receiving his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Cairo University in 1934, Mahfouz joined the Egyptian civil service, where he continued to work in various positions and ministries until retirement in 1971.

By 1936, having spent a year working on an M.A. in philosophy, he decided to discontinue his studies and become a professional writer.

He served first as a clerk at Cairo University, then, in 1938, in the Ministry of Islamic Endowments (Awqaf) as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Islamic Endowments.

Abath Al-Aqdar (Mockery of the Fates) (1939), Rhadopis (1943), and Kifah Tibah (The Struggle of Thebes) (1944) were historical novels written as part of a larger unfulfilled 30-novel project.

In 1945, he requested a transfer to the al-Ghuri Mausoleum library, where he interviewed residents of his childhood neighborhood as part of the "Good Loans Project."

In the 1950s, he worked as Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Arts, as Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema, and finally as a consultant to the Ministry of Culture.

Mahfouz published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of screenplays, and five plays over a 70-year career.

Possibly his most famous work, The Cairo Trilogy, depicts the lives of three generations of different families in Cairo from World War I until after the 1952 military coup that overthrew King Farouk.

He was a board member of the publisher Dar el-Ma'aref.

Many of his novels were serialized in Al-Ahram, and his writings also appeared in his weekly column, "Point of View".

Before the Nobel Prize only a few of his novels had appeared in the West.

Most of Mahfouz's early works were set in Cairo.