Talk:Naguib Mahfouz

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The Harafish[edit]

I'm new to this (no account yet). I noticed The Harafish seems to be missing from the list of works, but perhaps it is known under a different title.

The Harafish means 'The Have-nots' in English. The full Arabic title is Malhamat al-Harafish - The Epic of the Have-nots. The Doubleday translation rather unimaginatively called it 'The Harafish'; it appears to be still in print.

I'm using this page to answer Gren's question about why I altered the entries on Mahfouz and Gebelawi (I don't know how to answer a query through Wikipedia pages). It is wrong to suggest that Sheikh Omar talked in 1959 of punishing Mahfouz; I know, because I was there, translating Children of Gebelawi in 1962 and there was certainly no threat; Omar is my age and was a student at the time. It is wrong (and dangerous to Mahfouz and his associates) to claim that what the Sheikh said in 1989 was a 'fatwa'; he himself has always said that it was an opinion given to a journalist, not a formal legal utterance. All this can be verified in Mary Anne Weaver's book A Portrait of Egypt, 2nd edition 2000 as well as a book called 'the stories of Nagiub' writtem by Karim Swelim and Ismail Bassam.

Thanks for those comments and for setting the record straight; I've just added The Harafish (the only Mahfouz I've actually given up on halfway through) and a couple of other titles to the list. –Hajor 01:19, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Does anyone think ALOT more should be added to this Mahfouz article? I think Mahfouz should have a stronger and more detailed biographical sketch than what wikipedia has provided. -Big Mahfouz Fan

Use of the word "fatwa"..[edit]

The use of the word "fatwa' is misleading. Fatwa has a specific meaning, fatwas are generatated to condemn actions and not individuals (though the individuals that commit the actions...) - separate from the doctrine of takfeer. I'm adjusting the wording of the article to use accurate terminology. Angrynight 01:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Date of death[edit]

All the articles I read say that Naguib Mahfouz died today, Wednesday 30 August. This was the date added by Capitalistroadster, who first updated the article with news of the death. The date was changed to Tuesday 29 August by 213.164.6.19 without explanation. This was reverted by 213.152.66.197, and then reverted back by the original anon. Everyone seems to be acting in good faith. Of course, Cairo is currently three hours ahead of UTC, and we should date his death by the calendar date in Cairo. In England, I'm two hours behind Cairo time, and the papers here say he died on the 30th. Does anyone know at what time Naguib Mahfouz died? — Gareth Hughes 11:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

8:05 am Cairo time on 30 august 2006 --Tarawneh 21:41, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. The user who edited it to 29 August must have been an American! — Gareth Hughes 23:30, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]


He died on the 30th morning in Cairo time, may be late evening in the USA Elximo 01:19, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Adrift on the Nile[edit]

I note that the list of works originally translated Tharthara foq al-Nil (1966) as "Chatting on the Nile". Although this is a literal translation of the Arabic title, the book has always been known and published in English as "Adrift on the Nile". I have edited accordingly.

The novel is set on floats on the Nile has met every night a group of friends, men and women in the "quality" and discuss things in their lives and concerns of their community and then return them to his home and remains a single "Anis," who lives Balawamp was unique to some astronauts float some of the pioneers of the desire to achieve and members of this group of professionals and various functions Vanis Zaki, Ministry of Health, which is an intellectual he was a student rural came to Cairo and joined the Faculty of Medicine, and did not complete his studies and was able to by one of the professors in the college to join the work in the Ministry of Health is dead his wife and baby daughter in a single day has been used to abuse and call it The group was awarded a knighthood Razek and guardian is representing the voice of art retailer in the novel are often expressed by the retailer to comment on what is going on around him or the expression of thoughts and musings from the deep stream of consciousness in the novel. And the rest of the group understand the Ahmed Nasr account manager, Mustafa Rashid lawyer, and Mr. Art Critic, Khalid Azzouz story writer and Rajab Judge Representative and Sarah Bahjat press and Sanaa El Rashidi, Faculty of Arts and Leila Zidane localized State Department and the Sunni full pilot ancient Balawamp and a friend of Mr. uncle Abdo guard buoy and the Custodian of pioneers and this group find in Blackjack escape from the concerns of private and public is consistent in the culture, addiction, abandonment, moral and indulge in the pleasures in all its forms did not make them the narrator in isolation from public life around them, but they were a part, they talk about Cuba, Vietnam, bribery and socialism and the problems of workers and farmers, cooperative societies and other things that is going on in public life of public events around them

Complete Works[edit]

I am working on the list of complete works and I guess some pages has to be created for them most of them has been made into movies and soap operas with some variations. Also a disabmiguation page may have to be created for some of the titles or some sort of that. The American University in Cairo currently has the only right to publish his translated novels in English so it is better to stick to their translated titles like Children of Gabalwy for Awalad Haretna. Elximo 01:23, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment[edit]

The relevance of Jacques Chirac's (not to mention George Bush's) literary opinions is, at best, dubious.202.175.209.177 07:30, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, although I think you give Chirac and Bush too much credit by implying that these press statements represent their own thoughts. I am removing them. Flauto Dolce 12:21, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Atheism[edit]

I removed the Egyptian atheists category. Though he was always accused of being an infidel by Muslim extremists, Mahfouz himself never declared himself as an atheist. In one interview he said in response to a question regarding his religious beliefs "When I was studying philosophy in college, I went through a time when I questioned God and religion. This was a crucial phase in my life, but I came out of it with solid faith"[1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.205.224.2 (talk) 10:08, 27 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some guy put the atheist and former Muslim categories again; I think this article should be locked; he had always been a Muslim even if he had questioned god's existence once. 41.232.156.163 (talk) 20:04, 25 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In any case questioning god is Agnosticism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.188.114.26 (talk) 16:04, 21 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am removing atheist and former Muslim categories, until a source is provided.--Fjmustak (talk) 00:50, 3 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is another nonsense attempt of atheists to prove any significant person is atheist.The reference is a personal opinion of an author who had no good connection with Mahfouz and why don't you check this reference?[2]“Naguib Mahfouz – The Son of Two Civilizations” by 'Anders Hallengren',article on Naguib Mahfouz,Nobel Foundation, retrieved March 24, 2012,“a pious Moslem believer”Skashifakram (talk) 07:38, 24 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As an atheist, I don't think it's an attempt for anyone trying to "claim" him. Such ineptitude from previous commenter. No atheists ever claims to be unfalsifiable or otherwise able to 100% say they don't believe in god anyway. In this sense, most of us are agnostic as it is. As was said previously, merely at all having ever questioned God's existence makes you agnostic in a sense. So in this regard, Mahfouz was certainly agnostic if you had to absolutely label him. Labeling people is such a bad practice in some instances such as this one.

Questioning God is neither atheism nor agnosticism. It is simply DOUBT and is considered a healthy sign by many believers. Believing in a faith is different from knowing a fact. Knowing means certainty whereas believing means you do doubt. In truth, doubt and faith are never separated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elven acher (talk • contribs) 18:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Noble Prize Separate Section[edit]

Shouldn't there be a section on him winning the Noble prize ? Thebutterfly (talk) 13:25, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Number of novels[edit]

The article says he published over 50, and he published 34. One or the other, surely.KD Tries Again (talk) 15:13, 23 May 2012 (UTC)KD Tries Again[reply]

English Translations[edit]

the list of Mahfouz works on the English Wikipedia page is not accurate. Some of the titles are the name of films based on the novels. Some are short stories in collections and some are the names of short story collections. Some titles are missing. A full list of all translations can be found at (pp 31-52) http://www.aucpress.com/images/Mahfouz_brochure_2011__LowRes.pdf But in the meantime here are some clarifications I have noted on the Naguib Mahfouz page: Whisper of Madness is a short story; 3 Stories of Ancient Egypt is the collected title of three novels: Mockery of the Fates Translated into English under the name Khufu's Wisdom (1st of 3 Stories of Ancient Egypt; Rhadopis of Nubia (2nd of 3 Stories of Ancient Egypt; The Struggle of Thebes aka War at Thebes (3rd of 3 Stories of Ancient Egypt). God's World is a collection of short stories; Zaabalawi is a short story; Tharthara Fawq Al-Nīl is A Film based on Adrift on the Nile; The Pub of the Black Cat is short story; The Honeymoon is a Collection of short stories; The Hunger is a film based on The Harafish; I think Fountain and Tomb is the English translation listed as Stories from Our Neighbourhood ; What is listed as Dreams of the rehabilitation period is either two volumes or a combination of the two in one volume called Dreams and Dreams of Departure

Mahfouz Reader (talk) 14:57, 17 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your attention to this, but the way to improve the list is to modify it, not to cut and paste a couple of paragraphs of unformatted, unencyclopedic, unintelligible gibberish into the article. Hopefully you'll make an effort. 71.139.148.115 (talk) 19:04, 10 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Language of his works[edit]

A stupid question maybe, but: did he write in Modern Standard Arabic or Egyptian Arabic? --Dorpater (talk) 19:22, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Conflicting bio[edit]

The biography has a contradiction. At the end of "1 Early life and education" he does his BA, the tries MA, gives up and works for newspapers. Then follows "2 Civil service" where he enters government service right after BA. Which?Kipala (talk) 21:14, 6 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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