海角大神

I visited Cairo in 2006 to write a story about the legacy of Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Naguib Mahfouz, who had recently died. The tribute that stood out to me was given by the manager of a cafe in which Mahfouz had gathered with other writers. He said, 鈥淣aguib Mahfouz gave the Nobel people the honor by accepting their award, not the other way around.鈥�

Now the accuracy of that statement is reinforced by the publication in English of 鈥淭he Quarter,鈥� a collection of 18 stories that were found among Mahfouz鈥檚 papers. The slim book of short stories was first published in Arabic last year as 鈥淭he Whisper of Stars.鈥澛�

Taken together, the collection of narratives adds up to a vivid and emotionally expansive expression of life and people in Gamaliya, the quarter of old Cairo where Mahfouz grew up and set some of his most famous works.

Mahfouz was a master at developing diverse characters, including the tyrannical patriarch of the family, al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad聽from his 鈥淐airo Trilogy鈥� and the petty clerk obsessed with becoming a minister in 鈥淩espected Sir,鈥� Othman Bayyumi.聽聽聽

In the quarter there is no deep probing of individuals. Rather it is the quarter residents in total 鈥� the quarter itself that is actually the character. In the work, Mahfouz displays his versatility as a writer who can be stimulating, poignant, and touching in stories that are at times little more than briefs.

The quarter people are at once gritty and other worldly, believing in healers, saints, and even demons that inhabit the cellar of an old fort. Authorities are disdained. Rumors dominate. The quarter "has its own hidden tongue, although no one knows to whom it belongs," writes Mahfouz. "It can whisper misgivings and reveal secrets."

My favorite story is 鈥淵our Lot in Life,鈥� in which the official in charge, who is nameless and known simply as the Head of the Quarter comments on a new and unprecedented affliction, saying the area 鈥渘ever has its fill when it comes to generating disasters.鈥� This time it's a crying epidemic that begins when a pastry seller bursts into tears while wielding his rolling pin and bawls so hard his family must take him home still crying. Then a shopper with a basketful of pickled vegetables suddenly begins weeping violently. 鈥淭he stories kept multiplying and becoming more elaborate,鈥� Mahfouz writes. 鈥淭here were many victims, both men and women.鈥� Eventually the Health Inspector arrives and goes from house to house to search for the cause. Yet he is afflicted too. The end this time, however, is happy as he is cured in a musician's house by rhythm, drum beats, clapping, and singing. All the weepers are transformed and burst into laughter from the musician's poetics.

A particularly moving story is 鈥淭awhida,鈥� about memories of a young girl who lived with the narrator's family, in whom 鈥渉appiness, beauty and magic all came together.鈥� Many years later, the two have a chance encounter in Alexandria and the narrator does not recognize her since her face has become 鈥済aunt, pale and wrinkled鈥� due to old age. But then "When I heard that sweet voice again, the past came rushing back like a perfume bottle smashing to the ground" and nostalgia fills the narrator's heart.

Compared by some to Balzac and Dickens, Mahfouz was credited by the Nobel committee with creating 鈥渁n Arabian narrative art that applies to all of mankind.鈥� His 34 novels are remarkably varied, ranging from ancient Egyptian themes at the start of his career to 鈥淐hildren of Gebelawi,鈥� an allegory on human history to political novels in the 1960s that used symbolism to highlight the souring of the Egyptian revolution. His 13 short-story collections are also multifaceted. For example, 鈥淭he Time and the Place,鈥� a selection translated into English, contains 鈥淶aabalawi,鈥� which beautifully evokes Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and "The Norwegian Rat,鈥� about how regimes use an external threat to consolidate their rule and exploitation.

It remains a mystery exactly when the stories in 鈥淭he Quarter鈥� were written although Mahfouz scholar Roger Allen, who translated them, sees similarities to another work published by the laureate in 1994. The stories were found with a note attached, saying "to be published in 1994" which never happened, perhaps because of the extremists鈥� attack on Mahfouz that year. It is also unclear whether the stories represent a complete work or are part of a larger work that was not finished. What is certain is that 鈥淭he Quarter鈥� stories, belated as they are in coming to light, offer further compelling testimony to the diversity of their author's creative genius.