Naguib Mahfouz, 82, a prominent and award-winning Egyptian author, suffered several stab wounds to the neck outside his Cairo home. He had been accused of blasphemy for his writings and placed on a hit list.
earning the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
Atiyyatallah Ibrahim (wife); Fatima, Umm Kalthum (daughters)
Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian author who received the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Best known for his novels, he also published hundreds of short stories, along with movie scripts, plays, and newspaper pieces. He is distinguished as one of Egypt's most renowned writers.
One of Naguib's novels, Children of Gebelawi, first serially published in 1959, generated significant controversy to the point of its banning in Egypt. The book allegorically retells the story of the development of the Abrahamic religions, and some considered this to constitute an offensive depiction of God. Religious authorities at al-Azhar deemed the novel’s content blasphemous.
For thirty years, nothing much came of this. Children of Gebelawi was published in other countries, including in an English translation in 1981. However, in 1989, when the Satanic Verses occurred, some religious clerics returned the issue of Naguib’s “blasphemous” book to the surface.
“The censor in Egypt is no longer the state. It's the gun of the fundamentalists.” - Naguib Mahfouz
Finally, in October 1994, 82-year-old Naguib was stabbed several times in the neck outside his home in Cairo. He was taken to the hospital while his assailant was apprehended. The perpetrator said he carried out the attack because the blasphemous content of Children of Gebelawi made Naguib an infidel—even though he had not read the book and only been told it was blasphemous.
Naguib survived the assassination attempt, but he suffered permanent injuries with which he lived for the rest of his life. He died in 2006 at the age of 94.
Mahfouz, Nobel-Winning Novelist, Is Stabbed in Cairo - New York Times
Seasons of the Patriarch - New York Times
Salmawy recounts failed Mahfouz assassination attempt, reveals 500 hours of audio tapes - Ahram Online
Egypt has a general blasphemy law that prohibits disparaging “the heavenly religions.” While the law ostensibly targets no religion in particular, in practice it is usually used against religious minorities and those who blaspheme Islam. Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority has particularly borne a disproportionate weight of blasphemy prosecutions. In addition to the relatively aggressive efforts of Egyptian authorities to prosecute such cases, blasphemers and atheists must also contend with social pressure, coercion, and the risk of vigilante violence.