Original title زقاق المدق Language Arabic Publication date 1947 Originally published 1947 Genre Novel | Country Egypt Publisher Khayats, Beirut (1966) Published in English 1966 Translator Trevor LeGassick | |
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Adaptations The Alley of Miracles (1995) Characters Umm Hamida, Salim Alwan, Radwan Hussainy, Zaita Similar Naguib Mahfouz books, Novels |
This article is about the Naguib Mahfouz novel. For the film of the novel, see Midaq Alley (film). For the alley, see Khan El-Khalili.
Contents
Midaq Alley is the English Translation of Zuqāq al-Midaq by Naguib Mahfouz, released in English in 1966. The story is about Midaq Alley, a teeming back street in Cairo which is a microcosm of the world.
Plot introduction
Mahfouz plays on the cultural setting. The novel is introduced with description of the Arabic culture. It centers around the list of characters described below. The novel takes place in the 1940s and represents standing on the threshold of a modern era in Cairo and the rest of the nation as a whole.
Characters
Each character is expressed like a caricature in which one quality or trait is over-emphasized. Mahfouz is not satirizing the individual character – he is satirizing the character type.