Egypt bids farewell to Mahfouz

Egypt yesterday bid farewell to Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, who died on Wednesday, with military funeral procession from Al-Rashdan Mosque in Cairo. Mahfouz had been in hospital since mid-July after he fell during a midnight stroll and injured his head. Mahfouz's body, draped in the national flag, was borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage and accompanied by military cadets who carried flowers and the prizes Mahfouz won during his 70-year writing career
President Hosni Mubarak and Mahfouz's family led the mourners. Earlier in the day, a public memorial service was held for Mahfouz in the Hussein district of Old Cairo in accordance with the late novelist's wishes.
Scores of black-clad Egyptians and media people paid tribute to the much-loved writer, who died at the age of 95. Of his 50 novels, “The Cairo Trilogy”, published between 1955 and 1957, brought Mahfouz to the forefront of the Arab literary scene. The 'Trilogy' depicts traditional urban life and tells the story of a family who lived through the first half of the 20th century when Egypt was under British occupation and later became an independent monarchy. The three novels introduced the character Si-Sayed, the domineering patriarch, who became an icon in Egyptian culture.
As Mahfouz's body arrived at the Hussein Mosque under tight security, mourners rushed towards the coffin in a gesture of deep affection for the first Arab writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.
Old Cairo inspired many of Mahfouz's writings. Mahfouz was born in the nearby district of Gamalya in 1911. He spent most of his time at el-Fishawi café, which is a few meters from the mosque where Egyptians went to pray for him for the last time. Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize in 1988. Nearly half of Mahfouz's novels have been made into films that have been distributed throughout the Arabic-speaking world.
He wrote more than 100 short stories, many of which have been translated into English. Most of his works are set against the backcloth of the bustling city and portrayed a unique brand of 'Egyptianness' at a time when a national identity was taking shape.Throughout his life, the author was actively interested in politics and a staunch defender of tolerance. His novel, Children of Gabalawi (1959) was banned by Egypt's Islamic Al-Azhar University on the grounds that it violated Islamic principles by including characters who represented God and the Prophets.
The book, which was published in Lebanon and later translated into English, enraged an Islamic fundamentalist group, who said Mahfouz should be killed for blasphemy.In 1994, a young member of the group attacked Mahfouz and stabbed him in the neck.Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi was at the funeral to pay homage to Mahfouz. He praised Mahfouz's efforts in making Egyptian literature known to the rest of the world. Grand Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa said Mahfouz loved Egypt and was “faithful to his country”. In one corner of the old mosque stood Mahfouz's wife and two daughters who prayed for the great writer.
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More about Mafouz
Naguib Mahfouz1911 - 2006
Naguib Mahfouz was born in Gamaliya, Cairo on December 11, 1911. The family lived in two popular districts of the town, al-Jamaliya and al-Abbasiya which have provided the backdrop for most of his writings.
His father was a civil servant, and Mahfouz eventually followed in his footsteps. In his childhood, his mother often took him to museums and Egyptian history later became a major theme is many of his books. He graduated from Faculty of Arts, Philosophy Department, Cairo University in 1934. By 1936, having spent a year working on an M.A., he decided to become a professional writer.
He worked as a journalist at Ar-Risala, and contributed to Al-Hilal and Al-Ahram.Before turning to the novel, Mahfouz wrote articles and short stories. His first published book was a translation of James Baikie's work on ancient Egypt. His first collection of stories appeared in 1938. In 1939, he entered government bureaucracy, where he was employed for the next 35 years.
From 1939 until 1954, he was a civil servant at the Ministry of Endowments, and then worked as Director of the Foundation for Support of the Cinema, the State Cinema Organization. In 1969-71, he was a consultant for cinema affairs to the Ministry of Culture.
Mahfouz's early works, Abath al-Aqdar (1939), Radubis (1943), and Kifah Tibah (1944), were historical novels that were written as part of a larger unfulfilled project of 30 novels. Inspired by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Mahfouz planned to cover the whole history of Egypt in a series of books. However, following the third novel, Mahfouz shifted his interest to the present, the psychological impact of the social change on ordinary people.
Mahfouz's major work in the 1950s was The Cairo Trilogy, which the author completed before the July Revolution. The novels were titled with the street names Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street. Mahfouz set the story in the parts of Cairo where he grew up.
They depict the life of the al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his family over three generations in Cairo from World War I to the 1950s, when King Farouk I was overthrown. With its rich variety of characters and psychological understanding, the work connected Mahfouz to such authors as Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, and Galsworthy. Mahfouz ceased to write for some years after finishing the trilogy.
He started publishing again in 1959, now prolifically pouring out novels, short stories, journalism, memoirs, essays, and screenplays.
The Children of Gebelaawi (1959) portrayed Gebelaawi and his children. Gebelaawi has built a mansion in an oasis in the middle of a barren desert; his estate becomes the scene of a family feud which continues for generations. Whenever someone is depressed, suffering or humiliated, he points to the mansion at the top of the alley at the end opening out to the desert, and says sadly, "That is our ancestor's house, we are all his children, and we have a right to his property.
Why are we starving? What have we done?" The book was banned throughout the Arab world, except in Lebanon. In the 1960s Mahfouz further developed its theme that humanity is moving further away from God in his existentialist novels.
In The Thief and the Dogs (1961) he depicted the fate: a Marxist thief, who has been released from prison and plans revenge. Ultimately, he is murdered in a cemetery.
Mahfouz left his post as the Director of Censorship and was appointed Director of the Foundation for the Support of the Cinema. He was a contributing editor for the leading newspaper Al-Ahram and in 1969 he became a consultant to the Ministry of Culture, retiring in 1972. He has been a board member of Dar al Ma'aref publishing house.
Most of his novels have been serialized in Al-Ahram, and his writings also appeared in his weekly column, 'Point of View'.
In the 1960s and 1970s Mahfouz started to construct his novels more freely and use interior monologue. In Miramar (1967) he used a form of multiple first-person narration.
Four narrators, among them a Socialist and a Nasserite opportunist, represent different political views. In the center of the story is an attractive servant girl. In Arabian Nights and Days (1981) and in The Journey of Ibn Fatouma (1983) he used traditional Arabic narratives as subtexts. Akhenaton, Dweller in Truth (1985) is about conflict between old and new religious truths.
Mahfouz, called the "Balzac of Egypt", has written some 40 novels and short story collections, screenplays, and several stage plays. In his work, Mahfouz has described the development of his country in the 20th-century.
He has combined intellectual and cultural influences from East and West, his own exposure to the literature of non-Arabic culture began in his youth with the enthusiastic consumption of Western detective stories.
Mahfouz's stories are almost always set in the heavily populated urban quarters of Cairo. He had focused on 'the little man', who has to deal with the modernization of society and the temptations of Western values.
In his own country, his characters have become household words, and he is widely considered a spokesperson not only for Egypt but also for a number of non-Western cultures. Before the Nobel Prize only a few of Mahfouz's novels had appeared in the West. Jacqueline Onassis was among those people, who brought early translations to the English-speaking readers.
In 1994, Mahfouz was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. Two Egyptian Islamic militants were sentenced to death in 1995 for attempting to kill him.
Early in the morning on August 30, 2006, Naguib Mahfouz died at Police Hospital in Agouza.Selected works:
• Abath al-Agdar, 1939 - Mockery of the Fates• Radubis, 1943• Kifah Tibah, 1944• Khan al-Khalili, 1944• Al-Qahirah al-Jadidah, 1946 - New Cairo• Zuqaq al-Midaqq, 1947 - Midaq Alley –• Al-Sarab, 1949• Bidayah wa-Nihayah, 1949 - The Beginning and the End.• Al-Thulatiya, 1956-57 - The Cairo Trilogy; Bayn al-Qasrayn (1956) - Palace Walk - Quasr al-Shawq (1957) - Palace of Desire - al-Sukkariyah (1957) - Sugar Street• Children of Gebelaawi, 1959 - Children of the Alley• Al-Liss wa-al-Kilab, 1961 - The Thief and the Dogs• Al-Summan wa-Al-kharif, 1962 - Autumn Quail• Al-Tariq, 1964 - The Search• Al-Shahhadh, 1965 - The Beggar• Thartharah fawq al Nil, 1966 - Adrift on the Nile• Miramar, 1967• Al Maraya, 1971 - Mirrors• Al-Hubb taht Al Matar, 1973• Al-Karnak, 1974• Qualb al-Layl, 1975• Hadrat al-Muhtaram, 1975 - Respected Sir• Malhamat al-Harafish, 1977 - The Harafish• Layali alf Laylah, 1981 - Arabian nights and days• Rihlat ibn Fattumah, 1983 - The Journey of Ibn Fatouma• Akhenaten, Dweller in truth, 1985• Hadith al-Sabah wa-al-Masa, 1987• Echoes from an autobiography, 1994The arabic site of Mahfouz