Nobel prizewinning novelist Naguib Mahfouz was born 100 years ago this year.
WATANI International
11 December 2011
Nobel prizewinning novelist Naguib Mahfouz was born 100 years ago this year. His birth on 11 December 2011 to his death on 30 August 2006 spanned almost a century of huge change in Egypt. Throughout and during these changes—which affected the nation politically, socially, economically and culturally—Mahfouz continued his creative output, expressing the pains and hopes of the Egyptian people. He journeyed into the innermost heart of the nation, and he well deserved to have his position as an international literary giant recognised by the Nobel Prize committee, and the prize for literature he was awarded in 1988.
His books and the varied characters in them reflect Egypt just as it was. He elevated the Arab novel to the international level. He won the prize for writing about the back streets of Egypt in the period before and after the 1952 Revolution.
The Ministry of Culture has labelled 2011 “Naguib Mahfouz Year”, and crowned its the year of activities on 11 December with a special event under the title of “100 Years On From His Birth’.
Naguib Mahfouz spent his childhood in the district of Gamalyia where he was born, attending the Saniya primary school and later the Fouad I secondary school. He remained in Cairo, moving to Abbasiya, al-Hussein and Ghouriya.
Values of faith
The ‘soul’ remained the focus of Mahfouz’s attention. Recognised as a prominent intellectual, he wrote about the values of truth, goodness, justice and freedom, values we all strive for. The ‘soul’ in his works is ever anxious, never to be calmed or pacified; it seeks a place for itself on the ground; on its journey it may be right or wrong, It might be creditworthy, or it might behave improperly. It frequently seeks God for deliverance, in attempts to escape the fate of ‘lost souls’.
As I see it, Mahfouz’s focus on the ‘soul’ may have its root in his study of philosophy, his contemplation of the world and the events taking place there.
Readers of Mahfouz’s works will always find that he focuses on two themes: human misery in all its aspects; and the truism that in hard times one can still resort to God.
These two points made Mahfouz works humane and immortal, exceeding the limits of place and time.
From the beginning, the religious perspective occupied a special place in Mahfouz’s thoughts. In January 1936 Mahfouz wrote an article entitled “Allah” in the magazine al-Magallah al-Gadida before he produced his first book, Abath al-Aqdar (The Absurdity of Fates) in which he testified to the fact that religion was and is still an essential element, playing a great role in the inner man and his conscious. Its effect extends to the wide community, and influences all aspects therein. This is why the concept of God, as illustrated in religion, arouses passions and attracts souls to explore it. Intellectuals and scholars have tackled the notion or believed in it…”
The meaning of life
Mahfouz’s dialogue with God was repeated in his novel Al-Shahaat (The Beggar), where Omar, who already has a brilliant career and a loving wife, is in a perpetual, turbulent quest the meaning of his life. Mahfouz’s moral is that all the success, riches and glory can never grant the soul the peace and fulfillment which only comes through faith.
This is Naguib Mahfouz, who was loved, both as a person and a novelist, by all the world. This same Naguib Mahfouz was falsely accused of being apostate and corrupt, to the point that an attempt was made on his life. I am quite sure, however, that those who attacked him had not read a word of his magnificent works or contemplated his creations. If they had, they would have discovered that the view in most of his works is that God is the only resort in which the human soul can find its peace.