CAIRO, Oct. 18 (Aswat Masriya) – Renowned Egyptian novelist and writer Gamal al-Ghitani died Sunday at the age of 70, after a long struggle with illness.

Al-Ghitani was a modern novelist and the editor-in-chief of literary weekly newspaper “Akhbar al-Adab”, which he founded in 1993.

Among his known novels are “Zayni Barakat”, “Zafarani Files”, “Pyramids Texts” and “The Book of Epiphanies”.

He was awarded the National Prize for Literature in 1980 as well as the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural award in 1997. He also received the highest literature prize, the Nile Award in 2015.

A street was named after Al-Ghitani last September in Cairo's Al-Gamaliya neighbourhood.