Historical events and Political changes in Naguib Mahfouz’s “The Cairo Trilogy”

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘magnum opus’, The Cairo Trilogy, aiming to answer the question of how Mahfouz was able to reveal a great part of the twentieth century Egyptian history through the everyday lives of his characters in his The Cairo Trilogy. The book consists of three volumes: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street, and spans a period of almost thirty years (1917-1944) full of significant events and political changes with an immediate impact on the heroes’ lives. In chapter 1, I introduce Naguib Mahfouz himself, the man and the writer, and speak about his work and influences, concluding with an overview of The Cairo Trilogy. Chapter 2 deals with Palace Walk, which begins in 1917 and ends in 1919 with the nationalist revolution led by Sa’d Zaghlul; the Egyptian national hero and founder of the Wafd party, supported by the majority of the Egyptians calling for independence from the British. We also meet the Abd al-Jawad family whose members are all Wafdists as we learn following their turbulent lives. Chapter 3 discusses Palace of Desire. It starts in 1924 when Sa’d Zaghlul wins the elections in Egypt and forms the first Wafd government but unfortunately he is forced to resign. The novel finishes with the death of Sa’d Zaghlul which marks the death of every hope for independence to the mind of the Egyptians. Chapter 4 concerns the third volume of The Trilogy, Sugar Street. It starts in 1935 with the world on the precipice of World War II. Feeling threatened by the German army which is about to overrun Egypt, the British call al-Nahhas, Zaghlul’s successor, to form a government in 1942. Towards the end of this novel, Mahfouz depicts to the two historically evolving movements of the time, the Communists and the Muslim Brothers. Sugar Street closes with the massive arrest of the activists in 1944. Mahfouz, in his masterpiece, The Cairo Trilogy, managed to weave public events with important events in his protagonists’ lives thus creating a binary which enables a perfect reconstruction of important historical events and political changes of the time. Through his vivid dialogues and monologues and thanks to Mahfouz’s skillful use of the language, parts of contemporary Egyptian history are also revealed to the reader.