Egyptian Nobel prize winner for literature and famed novelist Naguib Mahfouz died on Wednesday morning at an Interior Ministry hospital in Cairo at the age of 95, the official MENA news agency reported.

According to MENA, Mahfouz died at 8:00 o'clock local time (GMT 0500) after suffering unstoppable ulcer bleeding overnight.

Mahfouz will be given a military funeral Thursday following noon prayer at Al-Rashdan armed forces mosque in the northeastern Cairo district of Nasr City.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in his condolences that Mahfouz was one of the pillars of intellect and culture in the Arab world, expressing deep condolences to his family, the Egyptian people, the Arab nation and the world.

Mahfouz's works, characterized with realism, were simply a narration of social developments in Egypt, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazef also said in his condolence statement.

Mahfouz was hospitalized on July 19 at the Police Hospital in the Cairo district of Agouza when he fell and sustained an injury in the head.

He was admitted to the intensive care unit on Aug. 14, suffering breathing problems, a sudden drop in blood pressure and kidney dysfunction.

Although he had improved in the past days, his bleeding continued, according to medical sources.

In 1994, Mahfouz was injured by a radical Islamist in an assassination attempt due to his controversial novel "Children of Gebelawi" written in 1959, which conservative Muslims deemed blasphemous.

Before being hospitalized, Mahfouz was said to have been living a punctual life and chiselled his daily routine to perfection.

He wrote at an exact time, ate at an exact time, and even smoked at an exact time. Any change in his routine troubled him deeply.

Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, was the first Arab to win the prize. His works have been translated into many languages.

The Nobel prize winner, born in December 1911 in Cairo, began writing when he was 17. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian revolution of July 1952.

The novelist is best known for his Cairo Trilogy, which describes life in the over 1,000-year-old Islamic part of the Egyptian capital.

Mahfouz obtained a bachelor of philosophy in 1934 from Cairo University.

From his early career and until 1972, Mahfouz was employed as a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Mortmain Endowments, then as Director of Censorship in the Bureau of Art, as Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema, and, finally, as consultant on Cultural Affairs to the Ministry of Culture.

Mahfouz was famous throughout the world for depicting traditional urban life. Half of his novels have been made into films which have circulated throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

In Egypt, each new publication of his works was regarded as a major cultural event and his name was inevitably among the first mentioned in any literary discussion from Gibraltar to the Gulf.

According to MENA, Mahfouz's works include:

Old Egypt (1932)

Whisper of Madness (1938)

Mockery of the Fates (1939)

Rhadopis of Nubia (1943)

The Struggle of Tyba (1944)

Modern Cairo (1945)

Khan al-Khalili (1945)

Midaq Alley (1947)

The Mirage

The Beginning and The End (1950)

The Cairo Trilogy

Palace Walk (1956)

Palace of Desire (1957)

Sugar Street (1957)

Children of Gebelawi (1959)

The Thief and the Dogs (1961)

Quail and Autumn (1962)

God's World (1962)

Zaabalawi (1963)

The Search (1964)

The Beggar (1965)

Chatting on the Nile (1966)

Miramar (1967)

Mirrors (1972)

al-Karnak (1974)

Respected Sir (1975)

The Harafish (1977)

Love and the Veil (1980)

Arabian Nights and Days (1981)

Wedding Song (1981)

The Journey of Ibn Fattouma (1983)

Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth (1985)

Fountain and Tomb (1988)

Mahfouz was the third oldest Nobel laureate in literature of all time, just behind Bertrand Russell, who died in 1970 at 98, and Halldor Laxness, who died in 1998 at 96.

Source: Xinhua