Naguib Mahfouz - Death and Funeral

Death and Funeral

Prior to his death, Mahfouz was the oldest living Nobel Literature laureate and the third oldest of all time, trailing only Bertrand Russell and Halldor Laxness. At the time of his death, he was the only Arabic-language writer to have won the Nobel Prize. In July 2006, Mahfouz sustained an injury to his head as a result of a fall. He remained ill until his death on 30 August 2006 in a Cairo hospital. In his old age, he became nearly blind, and though he continued to write, he had difficulties in holding a pen or a pencil. Prior to his death, he suffered from a bleeding ulcer, kidney problems, and cardiac failure. He was accorded a state funeral with full military honors on 31 August 2006. His funeral took place in the Al-Rashdan Mosque in Nasr City in Cairo.

Read more about this topic:  Naguib Mahfouz

Famous quotes containing the words death and/or funeral:

    We achieve “active” mastery over illness and death by delegating all responsibility for their management to physicians, and by exiling the sick and the dying to hospitals. But hospitals serve the convenience of staff not patients: we cannot be properly ill in a hospital, nor die in one decently; we can do so only among those who love and value us. The result is the institutionalized dehumanization of the ill, characteristic of our age.
    Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)

    I asked if I got sick and died, would you
    With my black funeral go walking too,
    If you’d stand close to hear them talk or pray
    While I’m let down in that steep bank of clay.
    —J.M. (John Millington)