Council of Culture to Raise Naguib Mahfouz Prize's Worth to LE 350K
SOURCE: EGYPT TODAY
CAIRO – 21 December 2018: The Supreme Council of Culture will raise Naguib Mahfouz Prize’s worth to LE 350,000, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem announced on Thursday.
While honoring the winners of Egypt’s State Awards, Abdel Dayem referred that the Supreme Council of Culture will take the necessary measures and set regulations for Naguib Mahfouz Prize in accordance with the laws regulating the international prizes and international standards of nomination.
In May, the Supreme Council declared that the prize’s worth increased to LE 50,000 for Arab and Egyptian novelists.
In 1999, Mauritanian novelist Moussa Ould Ebnou won the prize, which was worth LE 25,000, for his novel “The Impossible Love”.
The Supreme Council awarded many novelists with the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Novel until 1999.
Mahfouz was born on December 11, 1911, and passed away on August 30, 2006 at the age of 96. He is mainly known for being one of the first Arabic literature contemporary writers. Every day, Mahfouz would write for the duration of one hour during his 70-year career; he wrote 25 movie scripts, seven plays, 350 short stories and 34 novels. The Egyptian cinema presented over 30 movies that were based on Mahfouz’s novels and literary works.
In 1994, an Islamic extremist attempted to assassinate Mahfouz, who was 82 at the time, due to his controversial novel “Awlad Haretna” (The Children of Gebelawi). The novel spoke about God and the prophets, and creatively explained the philosophy of religion. This incident only directed attention to the novel, which was later deemed as one of the most famous novels in the history of Arabic literature.
The Egyptian government honored Mahfouz with the Egyptian State Prize twice for his literary works. While the American University in Cairo (AUC) awarded him with a doctorate in 1995; Mahfouz was chosen as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Institute of Arts.