Mr. Ahmad M. Najeeb

Ahmed Najeeb obtained his BA and MA degrees in Arts from Cairo University. He also obtained a degree from the Teachers’ Institute for Higher Studies in Cairo, and certificates from the Egyptian National Planning Institute, the German Academy of Educational Sciences in Berlin, and the International Institute of Educational Planning in France. He held several essential educational and administrative responsibilities in Egypt.

Mr. Najeeb was one of the most popular Arab writers of children’s fiction; he wrote more than 200 books for children, one of which sold over 9 million copies. His writings combine great talent with a profound knowledge of children’s psychological and emotional needs and their linguistic and mental limits. He edited an international series of children’s stories, which was published simultaneously in Cairo, Beirut, Casablanca, Madrid, Geneva, and Paris. He also edited Al-Mukhtar children’s magazine, published by the Arab Council for Children. At least eleven of his academic books on children’s literature are used for teaching in Arab and western universities. One of these books on the art of writing for children sold more than 3 million copies within the first week of its publication.

Najeeb was a member of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Culture, and the Egyptian Writers Union. He won many awards including the Egyptian State Prize for Children’s Literature in 1972; the Science and Arts Medal (First Class) in 1972; the Egyptian Order of Distinction (First Class); the First Prize in Arts from the Kuwaiti Research Institute in 1976, the Children’s Day Prize and Plaques of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union and the governorate of Aswan in 1986. 

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.