Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) is often named as the greatest Arab writer of the twentieth century. Born in the old Islamic Quarter of Cairo in 1911, he began writing aged seventeen before entering university to study philosophy in 1930. He is the author of over thirty novels. In 1988, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Rasheed El-Enany is the dean of the school of social sciences and humanities and professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is also professor emeritus of modern Arabic literature at the University of Exeter, where he became director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He has authored several books on Mahfouz, including Naguib Mahfouz: His Life and Times . Aran Byrne studied Arabic and Persian at SOAS, University of London, and completed a master's degree in Oriental studies at the University of Oxford.

In addition to On Literature and Philosophy , he was co-translator of Democracy is the Answer by the best-selling Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany.