Nobel prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz dies

CAIRO, Aug 30 (Reuters) Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the only writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for literature, died today in Cairo aged 94, doctors said.

Mahfouz, whose writing on taboo topics often rankled conservatives in Egypt, survived an assassination attempt 12 years ago. He was hospitalised last month after he fell in the street, and died after suffering from a bleeding ulcer.

''He came to this world only to write,'' Egyptian writer Youssef al-Quaid told Egyptian television.

''He was the most famous writer in Egypt ... He had an incredible ability to create and create all his life.'' Mahfouz, a prolific writer best known for his Cairo Trilogy, became a literary force when he moved beyond traditional novels to realistic descriptions of Egypt's 20th century experience of colonialism and autocracy.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1988 for works which ''formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind''.

Declared an infidel by Muslim militants because of his portrayal of God, Mahfouz survived a knife attack in 1994 that damaged a nerve and seriously impaired his ability to use his writing hand.

''They are trying to extinguish the light of reason and thought.

Beware,'' Mahfouz said after the attack.

Al-Azhar, the highest Islamic authority in Egypt, banned his 1959 novel ''Children of Gabalawi'' on the grounds that it violated Islamic rules by including characters who clearly represented God and the prophets.

Born on December 11, 1911 in Cairo, the son of a merchant, Mahfouz was the youngest son in a family of four sisters and two brothers.

He obtained his philosophy degree from Cairo University at the age of 23, at a time when many Egyptians had only a primary education. He worked in the government's cultural section until retiring in 1971.

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