This week Egypt and the whole Arab world are celebrating the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest Arab and global novelists and a Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz..
Naguib Mahfouz had a great impact on the development of the modern story in the Arab literature. On the personal level, I find Naguib Mahfouz in the long stories, and Yusuf Edress in the short ones, are the most prominent figures who have always impressed me enough to read. I am more of books and researches reader than novels, but I couldnt resist the intimate world Mahfouz gets me in ... he had this ability to make me feel like I am the director of a movie and can just see all the actors and tools right infront of me. May be that is why I like Mahfouz's novels much more than the movies version.
The weird thing is that till today there are still people who attack Naguib Mahfouz not for his literature or flow, or any artistic issue, but just for the sake of attacking... I don't think it is even worth commenting on what they said ... At the end, history and people will always remember Naguib and forget his attackers as he was "Naguib" (smart) enough to ignore them, and "Mahfouz" (protected) from their evil even when they tried to kill him.
Mohaly
