Three Novels of Ancient Egypt Khufu's Wisdom, Rhadopis of Nubia, Thebes at War

by Naguib Mahfouz

  !952 The writing of The Cairo Trilogy is completed. As a Wafdist, Mahfouz is completely surprised by the army takeover. Beckett: Waiting for Godot. Waugh: Men at Arms.

  1953 Yahya Haqqì is given the role of establishing a new Department for the Arts; this becomes the nucleus of the later Ministry of Culture. He appoints Mahfouz as his assistant. More arrests of left-wingintellectuals. Bellow: The Adventures ofAugie March.

  1954 The serialization of the Trilogy in al-Risalah al-Jadidah. Marries Atiyyatallah Ibrahim from Alexandria. The peak of his cinema activities until end of 1950s. The publication of Yusuf Idrìs’ Arkhas Layali [Cheapest Nights) and Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi's al-Ard [The Egyptian EartR).

  1955 Nabokov: Lolita. Kemal: Memed, My Hawk.

  !956 Bayn al-Qasrain [Palace Walk) is published m book form. Performance of Nu'man ‘Ashour's Al-JVas Uli That(People Downstairs). Mishima: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Osborne: Look Back in Anger.

  1957 The two other parts of the Cairo Trilogy, Qasr al-Shawq [Palace of Desire) and al-Sukkariyyah [Sugar Street) are published. Obtains the State Literary Prize for the Novel. Pasternak: Doctor ^hivago.

  !958 Becomes Head of Cinema in the Arts Department and Chair of Board of Censorship. Performance of Al-Hakìm'sal-Sultan al-Ha'r [Sultan'sDilemma). Lampedusa: The Leopard.

  1959 Awlad Haratina [Children of Gebelawi) is serialized in al-Ahram, but the Azhar, the central religious establishment, objects to it and it does not appear in book form in Egypt. Further arrests of left-wingintellectuals. Grass: The Tin Drum.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Foundation of NATO.

  An organization of Free Officers in the army, led by Jamal abd al-Nasser, takes over on 23 July and forces the king to abdicate in favour of his baby son; he leaves the country on 26 July.

  The new military regime concludes a treaty with the British to evacuate their troops from the country. Death of Stalin. Conquest of Everest.

  Massive programme of agrarian reform and industrialization begins. An attempt on Nasser's life leads to large-scale arrest of Muslim Brothers. Vietnam War begins (to 1975)

  British troops are evacuated, a new Constitution declaring Egypt a republic is promulgated and Nasser is elected by a plebiscite as President. Nationalization of the Suez Canal and the eruption of the Suez war, known m Egypt as ‘the tripartite aggression'. Soviets invade Hungary.

  European Economic Community founded.

  Union between Egypt and Syria is declared and the countries form the United Arab Republic.

  Castro siezes power in Cuba.

  DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1960 Diagnosed as diabetic he imposes a strict health programme on his life. Al-Liss wa'l-Kilab (The Thief and the Dogs) is serialized in al-Ahram. Performance of Yusuf Idris’ Al-Farafir(Flip-Flap). Updike: Rabbit, Run.

  1961 Becomes adviser to the Minister of Culture. Al-Liss wa'l-Kilab is published in book form. Al-Simman wa'l-Kharif (Autumn Quail) is serialized in al-Ahram. Heller: Catch-22. Naipaul: A House forMr Biswas.

  1962 Al-Simman wa'l-Kharif is published m book form. Dunya Allah {God's World)*, his first collection of short stories in 25 years. Solzhenìtsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Bassanì: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Nabokov: Pale Fire.

  1963 Al-Tariq (The SearcR) is serialized in al-Ahram. Levi: The Truce.

  1964 Becomes the Head of the Cinema Organization, Ministry of Culture. Al-Tariq is published in book form. Al-Shahhadh (The Beggar) is serialized in al-Ahram. Bellow: Herzog. Naipaul: An Area of Darkness.

  !965 Al-Shahhadh is published in book form. Tharthara Fawq al-JVil (Adrift in the Nile) is serialized and Amer, Nasser's second-in-command, threatens Mahfouz with imprisonment. Nasser intervenes and Mahfouz is saved from arrest. Bayt Sayyi’ al-Sum'ah(A House of 111 Repute)* is published. Calvino: Cosmicomics.

  1966 Tharthara al-JVil is published in book form. AwladHaratina is published m book form in Beirut for the first time. Miramar (Miramar) is serialized in al-Ahram. Bulgakov: The Master andMagarita. Nabokov: Speak, Memory.

  1967 Miramar is published in book form. Märquez: One Hundred Tears of Solitude.

  1968 Awarded the State Emeritus Prize, the highest literary prize m Egypt. Death of his mother. Solzhenìtsyn: Cancer Ward.

  1969 Khammarat al-Qitt al-Aswad(Black Cat Bar)* is published.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  The first ‘socialist’ five-year plan and the nationalization of foreign economic interests in the country.

  Syria secedes from its union with Egypt. Erection of Berlin Wall. Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space.

  Army officers in Yemen overthrow the Imam. Egyptian involvement in the ensuing war begins. Cuban missile crisis.

  Assasination of President Kennedy.

  Khrushchev deposed in USSR and replaced by Brezhnev. Mandela imprisoned in South Africa (to 1990).

  Mao launches ‘Cultural Revolution’ in China.

  June war with Israel which results in the occupation of the rest of Palestine as well as the Egyptian Sinai peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights. A war of attrition between Egypt and Israel along the Suez Canal begins. Student unrest throughout Europe and USA. Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Assassination of Martin Luther King. Nixon US President. Americans land first man on the moon.

  DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1970 Re-appointed adviser to the Minister of Culture. Takt al Mizallah(In a Bus Stop)* is published. Mandelstam: Hope Against Hope.

  1971 Officially retires from government. Accepts a new post as ‘writer in residence’ for al-Ahram newspaper. Al-Ahram refuses to serialize his novel al-Maraya (Mirrors), and it is serialized in the weekly Radio and Television. Shahr al-Asal(Honeymoon)* is published. Boll: Group Portrait with Lady.

  1972 Maraya appears in book form. Al-Ahram refuses to serialize his novel Hubb Takt al-Matar(Love m the Ram); it appears in the weekly Al-Shabab. Hikayah Bila Bidayah wala JVihayah(A Tale without a Beginning or an End)* is published. Tawfiq al-Hakim initiates a petition m protest against the lack of action to regain the occupied lands. It is signed by a large number of intellectuals including Mahfouz. Sadat dismisses most signatories of the petition from their jobs and bans Hakim and Mahfouz from publication.

  1973 Hubb Takt al-Matar appears in book form. Al-Jarimah(The Grime)* is published. Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow.

  1974 Al-Ahram refuses to publish Al-Karnak (Kamak), and it is published m book form. Mahfouz is sued for exposing atrocities in political prisons. Gordìmer: The Conservationist.

  1975 Hadrat al-Muhtaram {Respected Sir) is published. Hikayat Haratina (Tales of Our Alley) is published. Levi: The Periodic Table. Fuentes: Terra Nostra.

  1976 Qalb al-Layl(The Heart of the Night) is published.

  1977 Malhamat al-Harafish (Harafish) is published. Morrison: Song of Solomon.

  !979 Al-Habb fawq Hadabat al-Haram(Love on the Pyramids’ Plateau)* is published. Al-Shaytan Ta'iz(The Devil Preaches)* is published. Mahfouz's work is banned in most Arab countries after his support of Sadat's Gamp David Accord. Calvino: If on a winter's night atraveler. Gordìmer: Burger's Daughter.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Death of Nasser; Sadat succeeds him.

  Sadat consolidates his grip on power.

  Wave of students demonstrations against lack of progress in liberating the occupied Arab lands. President Am in expels Ugandan Asians. Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) signed by US and USSR.

  October war with Israel.

  Sadat initiates his ifitah (Open Door) economic policy and reverses Nasser's socialism. New liberal politics emerges. Watergate scandal in US.

  The Lebanese civil war erupts. Formation of political parties in Egypt; the Wafd reorganizes again. USSR and Western powers sign Helsinki Agreement.

  Death of Mao Tse-Tung. Soweto massacre in South Africa.

  Widespread demonstrations against Sadat's economic policy. Sadat visits Israel and is vilified in the Arab world.

&
nbsp; SALT-2 signed. Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister in UK.

  DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1980 Asr al-Hubb(The Age of Love) is published. Burgess: Earthly Pomers.

  1981 Afrah al-Qubbah {Wedding Song) is published. Rushdie: Midnight's Children. Naipaul: Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey.

  1982 Layali Alf Laylah (Arabian Nights and Days) is published. Ra'aytfima Tara al-Na'im(I saw a Dream)* is published. Al-Baqi min al-Ramati Sa'ah(There Only Remains One Hour) is published. Levi: If Not Nom, When?. Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and the Scriptmriter.

  !983 Rihlatlbn Fattumah [The Journey of Ibi Fattumd) is published. Amam al-Arsh(Before the Throne) is published. 1

  1984 Al-Tanzim al-Sirri(Secret Organization)* is published. Märquez: Love in the Time of Cholera. Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

  !985 Tawm Qutil al-^a'im [The Day the Leader Was Killed) is published. Grossman: Life and Fate. Pamuk: The White Castle.

  1987 Hadith al-Sabah ma'l-Masa’(Tales of Mornings and Evenings) is published. Sabah al-Ward(A Very Good Morning)* is published. Morrison: Beloved.

  1988 Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy mentions both The Cairo Trilogy and Children of Gebelawi. Qushtumur(Qushtumur) is published. Rushdie: The Satanic Verses.

  1989 The citation of Children of Gebelawi in the Nobel Committee decision leads a Muslim Fundamentalist leader, Omar Abd al-Rahman, to issue a Fatma for his death. Mahfouz defies the Fatma and refuses government protection. Al-Fajr al-Kadhib(False Dawn)* is published. Barnes: A History of the Worldin 10 Chapters. M. Amis: London Fields.

  1990 Three collections of his journalistic essays are published: Haml al-Din ma'l-Dimoqratiyyah(On Religion and Democracy), Haml al-Thaqafah ma'l-Ta'lim(On Culture and Education), and Haml al-Shabab ma'l-Hurriyah(On Youth and Freedom). Updike: Rabbit at Rest.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Solidarity union formed in Poland.

  Assassination of Sadat by a group of army officers. Mubarak succeeds him. Reagan becomes US President.

  Israel invades Lebanon and the Palestinians are driven into the sea. The massacres of Sabra and Shatila take place following Israel's occupation of Beirut. Falklands war.

  Famine in Ethiopia.

  Gorbachev comes to power in USSR.

  The eruption of intifada (uprising) in the occupied Palestinian territories.

  Collapse of Communist empire in eastern Europe. Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tienanmen Square massacre in China. De Klerk becomes President of South Africa.

  Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait.

  DATE AUTHOR'S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1991

  1992

  1994 A Muslim Fundamentalist plunges a knife into his neck. He survives, but is left partly paralysed in his right arm. Aksyonov: Generations ofWinter. Goetzee: The Master ofPetersburg.

  1995 Asda’ al-Sirah al-Dhatiyyah [Echoes of an Autobiography) is published. M. Amis: The Information. P. Fitzgerald: The Blue Flower.

  1996 Al-Qarar al-Akhir(The Final Decision)* is published.

  !997

  1998

  1999 Goetzee: Disgrace.

  2000 Kitab al-Qarn(The Book of the Century)* is published. Pamuk: My Name is Red. Roth: The Human Stain.

  2001 Futuwat al-'Utuf (The Toughest Guy in Utouf)* is published. Franzen: The Corrections.

  2002 Pamuk: Snow.

  2003

  2004 Ahlamfatrat al-naqahah (The Dreams) is published. Gordìmer: Get a Life.

  2005

  2006 Ahlamfatrat al-naqahah(second edition, with 60 more Dreams). Life's Wisdom, from the Works of the Nobel Laureate^ edited by Aleya Serour. Death of Naguib Mahfouz on 30 August, aged 94.

  Titles of Mahfouz's works are given in transliterated form, followed by a translation of the title in parentheses. Where the work is available in English, the title m parentheses is that of the English translation, and is therefore italicized. An asterisk indicates a collection of short stories.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  The Gulf war takes place. American and Allied troops liberate Kuwait from the Iraqis, but Iraq is completely devastated.

  Clinton elected US President. Civil war m former Yugoslavia.

  Assassination of Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin.

  President Clinton re-elected.

  Massacre of tourists at the temple of Hatshepsut by Islamic mutants. Clinton orders air-strikes against Iraq.

  The eruption of the second intifada and student demonstrations in Egypt. Putin succeeds Yeltsin as Russian President. Violence in Chechnya. Milosevic's regime in the former Yugoslavia collapses; Vojislav Kostunica elected President. George W. Bush elected US President. Al-Q aeda terrorist attacks of 9/11. US and allied military attacks against the Taliban m Afghanistan.

  Iraq weapons crisis; American and British troops invade Iraq; Saddam Hussein captured.

  Terrorist bombings in Madrid. Beslan school hostage crisis. George W. Bush re-elected as US President. Indian Ocean tsunami.

  Terrorist bombings in London. First forced evacuation of settlers under Israel's Unilateral Disengagement Plan.

  Renewed fighting in Afghanistan. Iran announces that it has joined the 'nuclear club'.

  KHUFU'S WISDOM

  A Novel of Ancient Egypt

  Translated by Raymond Stock

  1

  THE POSSESSOR of Divine Grandeur and Lordly Awe, Khufu, son of Khnum, reclined on his gilded couch, on the balcony of the antechamber overlooking his lush and far-flung palace garden. This paradise was immortal Memphis herself, the City of the White Walls. Around him was a band of his sons and his closest friends. His silken cloak with its golden trim glistened in the rays of the sun, which had begun its journey to the western horizon. He sat calmly and serenely, his back resting on cushions stuffed with ostrich feathers, his elbow embedded in a pillow whose silk cover was striped with gold. The mark of his majesty showed in his lofty brow and elevated gaze, while his overwhelming power was displayed by his broad chest, bulging forearms, and his proud, aquiline nose. He bore all the dignity of his two-score years, and the glorious aura of Pharaoh.

  His piercing eyes ran back and forth between his sons and his companions, before shifting leisurely forward, where the sun was setting behind the tops of the date palms. Or they would turn toward the right, where they beheld in the distance that eternal plateau whose eastern side fell under the watchful gaze of the Great Sphinx, and in whose center reposed the mortal remains of his forebears. The plateau's surface was covered with hundreds and thousands of human forms. They were leveling its sand dunes and splitting up its rocks, digging out the mighty base for Pharaoh's pyramid — which he wanted to make a wonder in the eyes of humankind that would endure for all the ages.

  Pharaoh cherished these family gatherings, which refreshed him from his weighty official duties, and lifted from his back the burden of habitual obligations. In them he became a companionable father and affectionate friend, as he and those closest to him took refuge in gossip and casual conversation. They discussed subjects both trivial and important, trading humorous stories, settling sundry affairs, and determining people's destinies.

  On that distant day, long enclosed in the folds of time - that the gods have decreed to be the start of our tale - the talk began with the subject of the pyramid that Khufu wanted to make his eternal abode, the resting place for his flesh and bones. Mirabu, the ingenious architect who had heaped the greatest honors on Egypt through his dazzling artistry, was explaining this stupendous project to his lord the king. He expounded at length on the vast dimensions desired for this timeless enterprise, whose planning and construction he oversaw. Listening for a while to his friend, Pharaoh remembered that ten years had passed since the start of this undertaking. Not hiding his irritation, he reminded the revered craftsman, “Aye, dear Mirabu, I do believe in your immense ingenuity. Yet how long will you keep me waiting? You never tire of telling me of this pyramid's awe-someness. St
ill, we have yet to see one layer of it actually built - though an entire decade has passed since I marshaled great masses of strong men to assist you, assembling for your benefit the finest technical resources of my great people. And for all of that, I have not seen a single trace on the face of the earth of the pyramid you promised me. To me it seems these mastaba tombs in which their owners still lie — and which cost them not a hundredth of what we have spent so far — are mocking the great effort we have expended, ridiculing as mere child's play our colossal project.”

  Apprehension rumpled Mirabu's dusky brown face, wrinkles of embarrassment etching themselves across his broad brow. With his smooth, high-pitched voice, he replied, “My lord! May the gods forbid that I ever spend time wantonly or waste good work on a mere distraction. Indeed, I was fated to take up this responsibility. I have borne it faithfully since making it my covenant to create Pharaoh's perpetual place of burial - and to make it such a masterpiece that people will never forget the fabulous and miraculous things found in Egypt. We have not thrown these ten years away in play. Instead, during that time, we have accomplished things that giants and devils could not have done. Out of the bedrock we have hewn a watercourse that connects the Nile to the plateau upon which we are building the pyramid. Out of the mountains we have sheared towering blocks of stone, each one the size of a hillock, and made them like the most pliable putty, transporting them from the farthest south and north of the country. Look, my lord - behold the ships: how they travel up and down the river carrying the most enormous rocks, as though there were tall mountains moving along it, propelled by the spells of a monstrous magician. And look at the men all absorbed in their work: see how they proceed so slowly over the ground of the plateau, as though it were opening to reveal those it has embraced for thousands of years gone by!”