He was born in Alexandria of Nubian parents who had left their impoverished native village. From 1963 to 1967 he was a construction worker on the Aswan High Dam. Later, he served in the Egyptian army, where he saw action in both the War of Attrition and the October 1973 War. He didn't begin writing until the age of forty. His works have received several Egyptian literary awards, and he obtained government grants for the years 1996-98 and 2002–03, to complete his novels.