Naguib Mahfouz' 101st Birthday

Today is the celebration of the 101st birthday of the great Egyptian novelist (and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature), Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006). Last year, for the centenary, I published a lengthy interview with Dr. Raymond Stock, who has translated many of Mahfouz' works and is working on a definitive biography. He told many stories of the great man, and if you didn't read it then I commend it to you now, (If you did read it then, go read it again, then go read some Mahfouz).

As Dr. Stock noted in that interview, his birthday has always been celebrated on December 11, the date the birth was registered, but his research discovered the actual record of the birth showed he was born December 10.

And let me also mention that Stock's latest translation of one of Mahfouz' works was published this year, Before the Throne, in which Egyptian rulers from the earliest times to Anwar Sadat seek to defend their rule before the Ancient Egyptian gods.

Stock Visiting Mahfouz after his 1994 Stabbing