THE death of Naguib Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, on August 30 went largely unnoticed in India. Widely hailed as the greatest novelist in Arabic language, he was nevertheless bitterly criticised by fanatics in Egypt, who branded him a kafir. In 1994, he survived an assassination attempt—he was stabbed in the neck outside his apartment—by Islamist militants. Why? We get a pointer to this in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which is truly a masterpiece.

Mahfouz said: ‘‘I am the son of two civilisations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, 7,000 years old, is the Pharaonic civilisation; the second, 1,400 years old, is the Islamic one. As for Pharaonic civilisation I will not talk of the conquests and the building of empires. This has become a worn-out pride, the mention of which modern conscience, thank God, feels uneasy about. I will not even speak of this civilisation’s achievements in art and literature, and its renowned miracles: the Pyramids and the Sphinx and Karnak.’’ He then narrates a story whose gist is the Pharoah’s commitment to Truth and Justice. ‘‘This conduct, in my opinion, is greater than founding an empire or building the Pyramids. It is more telling of the superiority of that civilisation than any riches or splendour. Gone now is that civilisation—a mere story of the past. One day the Great Pyramids will disappear too. But Truth and Justice will remain for as long as Mankind has a ruminative mind and a living conscience.’’

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