Naguib Mahfouz translator, Denys Johnson-Davies dies at 95

CAIRO - 23 May 2017: Distinguished Arabic-to-English literary translator Denys Johnson-Davies, a Briton most known for translating Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s novels, passed away at age 95 on Monday. Following his will, he was buried in Fayoum, south of Egypt.

Davies was born in Canada in 1922, but spent most of his childhood in Egypt and Sudan, which led him to learn Arabic at Cambridge University.

Davies’ most famous achievement is translating Mahfouz’s novels, which subsequently gained international attention; the Egyptian writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988.

Described by Edward Said as “the leading Arabic-English translator of our time,” Davies also translated famous works of Egyptian authors including Tawfik al-Hakim, Mahmoud Taymour, Yusuf Idris, Salwa Bakr, prominent Sudanese novelist Tayeb Saleh, Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Syrian author Zakaria Tamer, among others.

Denys Johnson-Davies also contributed his own version of the translation of the holy Quran’s interpretation.