EGYPT is saying a proud farewell to its most eminent man of letters, not simply because he was the country’s only Nobel literary laureate but because he was also the only person in the Arab world to have won the Nobel Prize for literature. Naguib Mahfouz is to be accorded a military funeral which is expected to be attended by senior politicians, including President Hosni Mubarak. That is quite a turn of fortune for a man who rose to prominence following his portrayal of the autocratic rule of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Few characterize the Swedish-based Nobel institution as anything other than internationalist in its approach to choosing those it will honor. Nevertheless, the fact that the 1988 literary award to Mahfouz remains the only one received by any Arab writer is a disappointment, unreflective of the achievement of Arab letters. Maybe not enough Arab writers make it into translation in the way that Mahfouz did. Through translation, his work came to the attention of a wider public during the closing days of the British occupation of Egypt. His masterpiece. Cairo Trilogy, dealt in part with the struggles of student activists against the British.
A stylish writer with a distinctive voice, Mahfouz chose to deal with great themes by focusing on small canvases, very often the district immediately around his home in ancient Cairo and characters very like his own family or the Nile-sidecafe and literary companions who filled his later life. His greatest achievement was to characterize the social challenges posed to old Egypt by modernity. Even when he was attacking the failures and oppression in the world around him, often in allegorical tales, he was always notable for his moderation. His wide popularity was almost certainly based upon the acceptability of his gently expressed views to all shades of political opinion and social class. However strongly he held an opinion, Mahfouz was never a bigot.
Unfortunately it was a bigot who in 1994 tried to stab to death the then 82-year-old writer as he left his home. The would-be murderer failed. And once again, the pen proved mightier than the sword because Mahfouz, though he lost the use of his right arm in the attack, continued to produce books and articles by dictating to a friend. Nevertheless, Mahfouz maintained a busy schedule well into his 90s. In his final years, he would go out six nights a week to meet friends at Cairo’s literary watering holes, trading jokes, ideas for stories and news of the day. Mubarak described Mahfouz aptly when he a said in a condolences statement, “Mahfouz was a cultural light ... who ... expressed with his creativity the values shared by all, the values of enlightenment and tolerance that reject extremism.”
A final testament to this remarkable writer and his victory for moderation will be the republication later this year of the entire body of his written work — 34 novels, five plays, dozens of film scripts and hundreds of short stories and essays. This should ensure that Mahfouz finds an even wider public at a time when his moderation is sorely needed.
