Language Quote by Naguib Mahfouz

The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will…

— Naguib Mahfouz

“The Arabic language has had a great history, and in many respects is more remarkable than any other Semitic speech.”

— James John Courtenay

Modern Arabic literature achieved international recognition when Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel prize in 1988 (…) Mahfouz also rendered Arabic literature a great service…

— Denys Johnson-Davies

“The influence of Arabic on the language of Palestine was mainly in vocabulary. Thus is seen to some extent in the text of Old…

— James John Courtenay

All the sciences came to exist in Arabic. The systematic works on them were written in Arabic writing.

— Ibn Khaldun

The Nobel Prize has given me, for the first time in my life, the feeling that my literature could be appreciated on an international…

— Naguib Mahfouz

There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize--it creates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like…

— Stanislaw Lem

“Arabic equals Sanskrit plus history, equals Greek minus tragedy”

— Abdal Hakim Murad

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

— Naguib Mahfouz

Present-day Spain translates as many books into Spanish, annually, as the Arab world has translated into Arabic in the past 1,100 years.

— Martin Amis

“In any Semitic study, Arabic is a most useful adjunct, inasmuch as it often indicates the true significance of words where the Hebrew, Syriac…

— James John Courtenay

During all the first part of the Middle Ages, no other people made as important a contribution to human progress as did the Arabs,…

— Philip Khuri Hitti