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When Naguib Mahfouz Passed Away This Morning in A Cairo Hospital

Naguib Mahfouz was a renowned Egyptian author who passed away at the age of 94. Over his lifetime, he witnessed immense political, social, and economic changes in Egypt including British occupation, the rise and fall of authoritarian rulers like Nasser and Sadat, wars with Israel, and the growth of Islamist fundamentalism. Through his novels, Mahfouz provided insightful observations of everyday life in Egypt and satirized political leaders, though he generally avoided direct political conflict. Despite his success, he maintained a humble routine and was deeply attached to his hometown of Cairo.

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Abdul Nisar Jilani
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141 views2 pages

When Naguib Mahfouz Passed Away This Morning in A Cairo Hospital

Naguib Mahfouz was a renowned Egyptian author who passed away at the age of 94. Over his lifetime, he witnessed immense political, social, and economic changes in Egypt including British occupation, the rise and fall of authoritarian rulers like Nasser and Sadat, wars with Israel, and the growth of Islamist fundamentalism. Through his novels, Mahfouz provided insightful observations of everyday life in Egypt and satirized political leaders, though he generally avoided direct political conflict. Despite his success, he maintained a humble routine and was deeply attached to his hometown of Cairo.

Uploaded by

Abdul Nisar Jilani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Q, Discuss that Naguib Mahfouz was a master of humour

and irony whose


observations of life in Egypt were strikingly accurate.
Q. Discuss naguib mahfouz as a master of irony.
When Naguib Mahfouz passed away this morning in a Cairo hospital, the last
great figure of 20th century Egyptian life disappeared. The life of the Nobel
prize winner. During that time Egypt went through British occupation, the fall
of a monarchy, the populist-charismatic dictatorships of Gamal Abdel Nasser
and Anwar Sadat, a disastrous socialist experiment, an equally disastrous
crony [favouritism] capitalist experiment, two world wars, four wars with
Israel and the occupation of Sinai, alliances with the Soviet Union and later
the United States, an uneasy peace with Israel, an Islamist revolt and its
brutal control, a rise in corruption and incompetence now so generalised that
it has become an actual public danger (trains crash, buildings crumble,
ferries sink [boat that transports people or vehicles]...), and the
distinctly unpopular and uncharismatic dictatorship of the current president,
Hosni Mubarak.
In a country full of employed intellectuals, Mahfouz kept a healthy distance
from politics. While his books occasionally satirised rulers (he was known for
having a particular distaste for Nasser, and only reluctantly embraced
Sadat), they were generally more focused on the details of Egyptians' lives,
their ambitions, their jealousies and their weaknesses. The Professor (Al
Ustaz), as he is called, weaved vast sociological complexities of Egyptian life
as he knew it - particularly the urban life of Cairo's traditional
neighbourhoods, where he was born and raised. These portraits were highly
recognisable, and it's hard not to wander down a Cairo street and not see
Mahfouzian characters at every turn.
But even if Mahfouz avoided conflict, he could do little to avoid it. His support
for the Camp David treaty caused his books to be banned in some Arab
countries. Islamist fundamentalists judged his works blasphemous and
caused some of his books to be banned in Egypt. In 1995 one young
extremist stabbed him in a caf, which caused him to lose the use of his
writing hand. Confusingly, when his Children of Gabalawi, long banned in
Egypt by religious authorities, was finally published in Cairo Mahfouz was
against it. He said he didn't want to stir up more trouble than he already had.
Mahfouz, who despite his success remained a civil servant at the ministry of
culture until retirement, was a man deeply attached to his routine. He would
get up early and write all morning, or just sit at his desk and stare at blank
paper if nothing came into his head. (Patience is the key to salvation, he
once wrote.) Then came lunch, an afternoon nap, and later meetings with
friends and writers at cafs. Even in his old age, this rarely changed. One of
his closest friends, the Egyptian novelist and critic Gamal Ghitani, tells an
anecdote that when the Swedish ambassador in Cairo came to Mahfouz's
house in 1988 to tell him he had won the Nobel prize, his wife refused to
wake him up and made the ambassador wait until nap time was over.
This routine was combined with extreme humility. Mahfouz kept the same set
of friends, which he would see on a daily or weekly basis according to his
schedule, and never sought the limelight or fortune. Satisfied - even grateful
- with what he had, he was the opposite of the few contemporaries matching
his stature. Umm Kulthoum and Gamal Abdel Nasser, whatever their merits,
had monstrous egos. Mahfouz reportedly did not even think of himself as
that great a writer.

Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian model - a pragmatic, realistic, somewhat


fatalistic, stubborn man who liked to keep his head down and observe the
world around him with humour and irony.
he once wrote,
"Life is wise to deceive us, for had it told us from the start what it
had in store for us, we would refuse to be born."
On the whole, the subjects of Naguib have diversity in them. He shows the
great history of
Egypt and feels pride on it and make the present political issues as well as
social issues. He not only unveils the face of the exploiters and their allies
but also shows injustice in the society.
Existential themes like death and sufferings are part of his stories. He shows
the supremacy of the Egyptian culture. Although he is connected with
nativity but he presents before us universal themes like relationship of alien
and aborigine.
Naguib Mahfauz believes Egyptian culture to be supreme. He dislikes Pasha
against the imperialistic policies of various nations. He champions the poor
Egyptian who have been reduced to poverty. The story Mummy Awaken is
a story about injustice and plunder in countries like Egypt. Its basic theme is
the shift of power from the true owners to unworthy persons by total unfair
means. The story brings before us the poor condition of the Egyptians. The
mummy comes alive and kills all the rich and demolishes their buildings for
not giving their due rights to the poor Egyptians.

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