Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic writer to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for literature (1988). He wrote prolifically, producing numerous novels, short story collections, plays and screenplays over the course of his career. He wrote exclusively in Arabic.

Naguib Mahfouz was born in Gamiliya, Cairo in 1911, and lived in different areas of the city most of his life. Many of his novels are set in the districts he grew up in, al-Jamaliyyah and al-Abbasiya.

His writing was influenced by the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. Although he was only seven years old at the time, he observed clashes between protesters and soldiers. He said the revolution “shook the security of my childhood.”

Mahfouz graduated from the University of Cairo with a degree in philosophy in 1934, and began graduate work. After a year, however, he went to work as a journalist for Ar-Risala. He also contributed articles to Al-Hilal and Al-Ahram. He began to write articles and short stories for magazines, and published a translation of a book on ancient Egypt by James Baikie. He published his first collection of short stories in 1938.

Naguib Mahfouz entered civil service in 1939, and worked for the government until 1972. Some of the positions he held included the Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Art, Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema and that of a consultant on Cultural Affairs for the Ministry of Culture. He married Atiyyatallah Ibrahim in 1954, and moved to an apartment overlooking the Nile River.

Naguib Mahfouz’s writing can be divided into three periods: prior to the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, his middle period, and his post retirement period.

Mahfouz’s works prior to the Revolution were set in his childhood neighborhood. He wrote several historical novels, but became well known for his writing about urban Egyptian life. During this period, his best known work was The Cairo Trilogy. This was a major work and it established Mahfouz as a literary figure.

Jafouz stopped writing for several years after the Revolution, and when he started again, his work was more controversial, more political and more symbolic. The Children of Gebelawi, published in 1959, was banned in Egypt and much of the Arab world. Like Salman Rushdie, his life was threatened by Islamic fundamentalists who thought his writing was blasphemous.

Naguib Mahfouz’s third period began with his retirement from civil service. The works from this period are more creative and experimental. Arabian Nights and Days and The Journey of Ibn Fatouma are examples of Mahfouz’s later works.

Mahfouz rarely traveled outside Egypt, and even sent his daughters to accept his Nobel Prize.

In 1994, Mahfouz was stabbed in the neck by Islamic militants. He was hospitalized for seven weeks after the attack, and was left with nerve damage. His health deteriorated after that, and he began to go blind. In July, 2006, he fell while walking at night and suffered a head injury. Naguib Mahfouz died August 30, 2006, at the age of 94.