Eminent writer, essayist, and Dhaka University Emeritus Professor of English Syed Manzoorul Islam passed away at a city hospital on Friday evening. He was 74.

He breathed his last around 5pm while undergoing treatment at LabAid Hospital in the capital, confirmed Mazharul Islam, chief executive of the publishing house Annoprokash.

His condition deteriorated in the morning, prompting doctors to put him on life support. Later in the evening, around 5pm, he was pronounced dead,” Mazharul said.

According to Mazharul, the body of the noted litterateur will be kept at the Central Shaheed Minar at 11am on Saturday for people to pay their last respects under the initiative of the National Poetry Council.

His namaz-e-janaza will be held after Zuhr prayers at Dhaka University Mosque, followed by burial at Mirpur Intellectuals’ Graveyard.

Family members and friends said his body has been kept at the mortuary of BIRDEM Hospital tonight.

Professor Islam fell ill last Friday while on his way to the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) in Dhanmondi. His driver, with the help of a passerby, rushed him to a nearby hospital. Upon hearing the news, Mazharul Islam and others went there and later shifted him to LabAid Hospital.

Doctors said he had suffered a massive heart attack. He underwent surgery the next day during which two stents were placed. Though his condition initially improved and he was taken off life support after 48 hours, his health deteriorated again later. Doctors finally declared him dead on Friday afternoon.

Born on January 18, 1951, in Sylhet, Syed Manzoorul Islam earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Dhaka.

He later completed his PhD at Queen’s University in Canada, focusing on “The Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg’s Philosophy on Yeats’s Poetry.”

Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Islam served as a faculty member of Dhaka University’s English Department and gained wide recognition as a novelist, translator, and essayist.