Ahmed Khaled Tawfik أحمد خالد توفيق
Born	Ahmed Khaled Tawfik Farraag (1962-06-10)10 June 1962 Tanta, Egypt
Died	2 April 2018(2018-04-02) (aged 55) Cairo, Egypt
Occupation	Novelist, author, poet, former professor of medicine at Tanta University
Nationality	Egyptian
Genre	Horror, drama and comedy
Notable awards	Utopia shortlisted for 2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards [1]

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik Farrag ( Arabic: أحمد خالد توفيق فراج; 10 June 1962 – 2 April 2018), also known as Ahmed Khaled Tawfek, was an Egyptian author and physician ^[2] who wrote more than 200 books, in both Egyptian Arabic and Classical Arabic. He was the first contemporary writer of horror, and science fiction in the Arabic-speaking world, and the first writer to explore the medical thriller genre. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

Tawfik is considered by many to have been one of the most influential writers of his time. His legacy has influenced thousands of Arabic-language authors. ^[3]

Biography

Born on 10 June 1962 in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, ^{[6] [4]} Tawfik graduated from Tanta University's medical school in 1985. ^[6] In 1992, he joined the Modern Arab Association publishing company and began writing his first series of novels the following year. ^[7] In January 1993, he published the first installment in his horror/thriller series Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa ( Arabic: ما وراء الطبيعة), which translates to Beyond nature or "Metaphysics". ^{[5] [7]} He also wrote periodical articles for journals and web-based magazines such as El Destoor and Rewayty. ^[8] His writing style appealed to both Egyptian and broader Arabic-speaking audiences, gaining him popularity in Egypt, and the rest of the Middle East. ^[8]

Tawfik's novels typically feature all Egyptian characters, and are set both in Egypt, and around the world. Some of his characters are semi-autobiographical. Tawfik draws from personal experiences in their creation; fans consider him their "godfather" and identify him most closely with his character Refaat Ismael, who is featured in the Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa series. ^[8] His book Utopia may even reflect Egypt as it is becoming, with rich and poor and no middle-class. ^[9]

Characters

Refaat Ismael

Refaat Ismael is the main character of Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa. He is a retired doctor who leads a life chock-full of paranormal experiences. A bachelor with a sarcastic attitude, this character is widely loved by fans of Egyptian pocket novels.^{[ citation needed]}

Alaa abdel Azeem

Alaa abdel Azeem is the main character of the Safari. He's a young Egyptian physician who works for a fictitious a mother, medical establishment named Safari, with branches in African countries. Safari's sole purpose is to hunt diseases. The character is married to Bernadette Jones, a Canadian pediatrician. This character is witty, nervous, not the greatest physician but a quick study who enjoys performing surgeries.^{[ citation needed]}

Abeer abdel Rahman

Abeer abdel Rahman is the main character of the Fantazia series. She's a simple Egyptian housewife with average looks, but well read. She marries a handsome computer programmer, Sherif, who has invented DG-2 (Dream Generator 2), a high tech device that can materialize preexisting human knowledge into dreams. With the device, Abeer has the chance to participate in any story she knows and live with any character ( Superman, Batman, Adham Sabri).^{[ citation needed]}

Works

He began writing his stories when he was only ten years old, and he wrote, in all, more than 500 books. ^[3] His series Fantasia was the first of its kind; a plot that presents famous literary works to young people, through an interactive presentation. Fantasia presented his readers to a wide spectrum of topics from Arthur Conan Doyle and Sikhism, to Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Mafia's Cosa Nostra.^{[ citation needed]}

Other works include:

• An Arabic translation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club. ^[10]
• Utopia is about Egyptian people living in a dystopian and utopian society, separated by walls. It's a fictional, political-minded novel, published by Merit, translated into English by Chip Rossetti. ^[4] There were plans to make it a major motion picture, with a scheduled release date of 2017; ^[11] however, the project did not come to fruition. Utopia translated into Italian in 2019 by Barbara Benini
• El-Singa (Egyptian slang for The Knife) is an Egyptian politically-flavored novel published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. ^{[12] [13]}
• Just Like Icarus is a fictional political-minded novel, published by Dar El Shorouq. ^[14]
• Ahmad Khaled also wrote periodical articles for "El Dostoor" newspaper in Egypt.
• Rewayat (Egyptian pocket novels) ^[15]
• Shabeeb Novel ^[16]
• "Your luck today" novel, published in 2010. ^[17]
• "Tea with mint" collection of articles published in 2012. ^[18]
• "You are not alone" ^[19]
• "Sombre laughs". ^[20]
• " A story you will end." ^[21]
• " Now we open the box" part 1. ^[22]
• " Now we open the box" part 2. ^[23]

Death

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik died on 2 April 2018 at El Demerdash Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. ^{[24] [25] [26]} He had undergone, on the same day, a cardiac ablation surgery to correct his long-term arrhythmia. The immediate cause of death was reported to be cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation that he suffered a few hours after waking up from the surgery. ^{[27] [28]}

Recognition

• In April 2018, the Egyptian rock band Cairokee released a song titled He's No Longer A Child (Arabic: ما عاد صغيرا) based on lyrics from Dr. Tawfik's 1987 poem Coronary Arteries (Arabic: شرايين تاجية). ^[29]
• On 10 June 2019, on Tawfik's 57th birthday, he was honored with a Google Doodle. ^[30]
• On 5 November 2020, Netflix released Paranormal, a six-part adaptation of Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa, which marked the streaming service's first original Egyptian series.
• On 31 October 2022, Shahid released the first episode of the first season of Room 207, a ten episode season adaptation of the book with the same title.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.

• Dr. Ahmad at The World of Stories (in Arabic)
• Dr. Ahmad at Rewayat.com (in Arabic)

• 10 June: Remembering Ahmed Khaled Tawfik on Birthday