Egyptian Nobel prize winning author dies- report

CAIRO, Aug 30 (Reuters) Nobel Literature Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz died today, after suffering from a bleeding ulcer, the state MENA news agency reported.

Mahfouz, 94, had been in intensive care since suffering a sudden drop in blood pressure and kidney dysfunction. He had been hospitalized on July 19 after he fell in the street and sustained a deep head wound that required immediate surgery.

The Egyptian author won the Nobel Prize in 1988 the first writer in Arabic to win the award and is best known for his Cairo Trilogy in which he narrated developments in Egypt through the eyes of a middle class family over three generations.

Mahfouz was admitted to hospital regularly in recent years, most famously after being stabbed in the neck in 1994 by Muslim militants because of his portrayal of God in one of his novels.

He spent seven weeks in hospital and the knife damaged a nerve, seriously impairing his ability to use his writing hand.

His family declined treatment in the United States for Mahfouz's latest illness, Egyptian television reported.

REUTERS SY BST1229