e in Arabic û because he found in the genre a greater degree of flexibility and opportunity for innovation. Though not quite the ôFather of the Arabic novel û a distinction that is accorded to another Egyptian, Muhammad Hussein Haykal, who published Zaynab in 1913 û Mahfouz has certainly been its greatest popularizer and most successful author (Echoes of an autobiography, 1997).
The perhaps best-known of all MahfouzÆs novels in the West are the ôCairo Trilogy,ö consisting of Midaq Alley, The Thief and the Dogs, and Miramar. Each of these novels is set in a quarter of Old Cairo that Mahfouz, who was born there, knew intimately. The novels are characterized by a strong strain of gritty realism and a focus on the day-to-day difficulties (for men and women alike) of living in a city and a place that is often troubled.
In Midaq Alley (first published in Arabic in 1947), Mahfouz (1989) presented a highly charged set of religious issues and created a world in which religion (specifically Islam) was dominant as s source of norms and mores. Mahfouz said that his use of such atmosphere was deliberate; it is the legitimate atmosphere of much of Cairo, particularly in poorer sections of the city and in the Old Quarter that the novel describes (Interview with Nagib Mahfouz, 1989). In describing his views about religion and science in an interview, Mahfouz stated that he believed that science had the potential to work for mankindÆs benefit and that religion could be used to ensure that the potentially dehumanizing effects of science were controlled (Interview with Nagib Mahfouz, 1989).
In Midaq Alley, Mahfouz (1989, p. 78) featured a male protagonist named Salim Alwan, for whom the day is marked by the requirement of prayer and ritual washing or purification: ôHE woke early in the afternoon, performed the ritual washing and said his prayers.ö However, this extremely pious man û who is also a devoted husband û is not f...