Midaq Alley

8 Pages 1966 Words

Naguib Mahfouz’s Motivation for Writing Midaq Alley: World War II and the British

Occupation’s Impact Upon Egyptian Society



Naquib Mahfouz surely had multiple factors motivating him to write Midaq Alley, but the main one was his distain for British occupation during World War II and the effects this occupation had on Egyptian society. “During WWII, Egypt became a vast army camp for the Western Allies… Under Nazi threat, thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the British Commonwealth (and the Unites States) poured into Egypt.#” In his book, Mahfouz showed the increased instability and corruption that fell upon his country during this tumultuous period. He used the story of a small Cairo alley and its inhabitants to paint a more intimate picture of a slipping society. He presented what (at first) appeared to be a typical, friendly, respectable neighborhood and slowly unveiled an underworld of pimps, whores, grave robbers, and even a homosexual pedophile. Mahfouz used certain characters to exemplify the sickness of this society. Some were already this way when the story started. However, Mahfouz really emphasized the characters that changed over the course of time as a result of the events that took place during this period.
Midaq Alley started with nightfall and the opening of Kirsha’s café, the central point of social activity in Midaq Alley. All of the notable men of the area came to relax in the evenings. Uncle Kamil, the rotund sweetshop owner, and his best friend, Abbas, the barber, were regulars there. Every evening, after they closed their shops, they walked there together. They often sat and chatted with many other men of the alley. There was, of course, Kirsha, the owner and Sanker, the waiter. There was Sheikh Darwish, a former English teacher and respected man of the alley, who rarely left his dreamy state or couch position. There was Dr. Booshy, the local dentist, who earned thi...