Neguib Mahfouz Gets Mediterranean University Prize

Literature Nobel Prize winner, Naguib Mahfouz, was awarded the great prize of the Mediterranean University Community for his "work and concern over Mediterranean-related issues," reported the Spanish news agency EFE.

The awarding ceremony was held in Valencia on Friday and writer Mohamed Salmawy was handed over the prize, on behalf of Naguib Mahfouz.

The awarding ceremony was held on the sidelines of the assembly of the Mediterranean University Community in the presence of some 60 deans of Mediterranean Universities.

Naguib Mahfouz, one of the foremost writers in modern Arabic literature, was born in Cairo on December 11, 1911. He began his writing career at the age of 17 and his first novel (The Games of Fate) was published in 1939. He has written more than 30 novels and many short stories, of which there have been at least 14 collections.

In 1988, Naguib Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy of Letters noted that "through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - [he] has formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind."

He has received numerous other awards for his writing, including the Egyptian State Prize (twice) and the Presidential Medal from the American University in Cairo. He was elected honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Letters and Arts in 1992.

Mahfouz, who has rarely left Egypt, still lives in Cairo with his wife and two daughters.