The old Gamaliya quarter in Cairo is humble and bustling, cobblestone streets and squat buildings. In one home, nestled tight between two others, a son is learning how to hold a pen upright; that son would soon become one of Egypt’s thought-leader figureheads and a Nobel Prize laureate. From the controversial to unrivaled colloquial story-telling, Naguib Mahfouz has immortalized his name in local and international literary circles. Straying from romantic visions of Egypt, Mahfouz reacquainted the world with a human reality, one with fault-lines and furies, with love and betrayal. Mahfouz reacquainted the world with modern Egypt. A Child of Gamaliya Writes Born on December 11, 1911, Mahfouz was raised in Cairo’s modest Gamaliya district, in a house packed with seven siblings. Being the youngest by far, Mahfouz is recorded as having felt like an only child; with nearly ten years between him and his next-youngest brother, Mahfouz was left scavenging for attention among preoccupied minds. During his youth, he lamented his lack of sibling dialogue, and revisited the bonds within his later work. Although not always connected to his family, Mahfouz’s childhood was noted to be a happy, stable…
