MAHMUD, Mustafa

(1927-)

   Egyptian writer, known also as Moustaffa Mahmoud, author of short stories, novels and plays dealing with Egypt's social and political development; in the mid-1960s he wrote a number of sf novels. These include Al-khuruj min at-tabut (1965; trans as Raising from the Coffin undated Cairo), Rajul tahta as-sifr ("The Man with a Temperature Below Zero") (1965) and Al-anqabut (1965; trans as "The Spider", serialized1965-6 in the magazine Arab Observer). He is well known also for his short-story collections, which contain an sf component, as in Yawmiyat nuss al-layl ("Diaries of Midnight") (coll 1982). MM is also a propagator of ideas about UFOS.

   JO

   See also: ARABIC SF.