biography
pronunciation:
[mafooz]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1911– )
|
| biography:
| Novelist, born in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated from Cairo University in 1934 and held administrative posts, but by 1939 had already written three novels. His later work was somewhat overshadowed by the notoriety surrounding The Children of Gebelawi (1961), serialized in the magazine Al-Ahram, which portrays average Egyptians living the lives of Cain and Abel, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. It was banned throughout the Arab world, except Lebanon. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, but his work is still unavailable in many Middle Eastern countries on account of his outspoken support for President Sadat's Camp David peace treaty with Israel and liberal social views. In 1994 he survived an attack on his life by Islamic fundamentalists, and in 1996 published Echoes of the Autobiography (trans title). |
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