Naguib Mahfouz ( ) Born in 1911 to a Muslim family of modest means in an older district within Cairo. The milieu of his upbringing – a densely populated, traditional, and antique neighborhood of Cairo – forms the setting for most of his realist works. Naguib Mahfouz was extraordinarily prolific, writing 34 novels (and hundreds of short stories over his literary career (in addition to several screen plays and theatrical works). Starting with a phase of historical novels, Naguib Mahfouz’s literary career encapsulates the evolution of the Arabic novel: historical novels, realism, symbolism, and finally, postmodern experimentation. Naguib Mahfouz’s literary idiom set the standard for novelistic writings: clear and unadorned, yet richly evocative. The idiom is neither classical nor vernacular, but a marvelous middle ground that has since become the standard for literary prose. Naguib Mahfouz’ Cairo Trilogy is arguably one of the finest extended imaginary prose works in the Arabic language. This work, and others by Naguib Mahfouz, established the novel as a co-equal to poetry in the esteem of Arab readers and literary critics.

Naguib Mahfouz’ life is – in its own way – thoroughly unremarkable, though filled in his own recollections with the warmth and love of his family. Naguib was never a “professional” writer or novelist. He worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Pious Endowments (waqf) for most of his life, and his life was one of modest means. Naguib Mahfouz was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, the first Arab writer to receive this honor. In addition to Arabic sources of literary inspiration (historical novels, detective novels, and the quasi-autobiographical works of his immediate antecedents) Naguib Mahfouz drew his inspiration from the English and French novelistic traditions (in the original languages and in Arabic translation). Naguib Mahfouz never deliberately courted controversy and, for the most part, maintained a low profile. However, an attempt was made on his life in 1994 by a religious extremist who stabbed him in the neck. The “offending” text was Naguib Mahfouz’ existentialist allegory, The Children of Gebelawi, which re-enacts stories from the Torah, Bible, and Quran, in the outskirts of a modern city.

In speaking of his own political awareness, Naguib Mahfouz cited the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 against the British as one of the defining moments of his early life. Although the uprising was violently suppressed by the British, Egypt obtained its nominal independence from the British, although it remained very much under British control. Earlier stages in Naguib Mahfouz’ writing reflect a cautious optimism and unaffected love for his homeland. Naguib Mahfouz, like many others, steadily grew disappointed with the state of political affairs after the excitement and optimism of the Free Officers Revolution in 1952 and the achievement of national sovereignty for Egypt under the charismatic leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Hope for a modern and democratic Egypt faded after decades of military rule and its partner ideologies of secular Arab Socialism and Arab Nationalism. Naguib Mahfouz’ own works begin to move into darker, more experimental territories as the social and political rhetoric of national unity against a common cause (colonization) fractured into darker, more conspiratorial, and frequently contradictory narratives.