Midaq Alley
Naguib Mahfouz
First published in the years following World War II, Midaq Alley tells the stories of the people who live in Midaq Alley. Mahfouz’s characters weave in and out of the story as they fall subject to the different influences on their lives.
Major thematic elements: intertwined lives without a strong sense of community, leaving and returning, the role of Britain in Egypt.
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IB Literature and IB Language and Literature Connections
Place of publication: Egypt
Language: Arabic
Era: 20th Century (1947)
Genre: Fiction
Author: Male
Readers, writers and texts | Time and space | Intertextuality: Connecting texts
Identity | Culture | Creativity | Communication
Perspective | Transformation | Representation
Full text, basic summaries, and overviews
Excerpt from Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz | The Nobel Prize
Excerpt is the first part of chapter 1
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“The Tangled Lives of Midaq Alley” | Medium.com | Colin McCormick | January 1, 2018
This essay summarizes the basic plot of the novel and reflects on the surface and deeper meaning of the text.
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“In the Teeming City, An Alley of Secrets” | The New York Times | August 31, 2006
This essay summarizes the text and highlights some of the questions that it raises for readers.
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Midaq Alley Reader’s Guide | Penguin Random House
This page provides questions and topics for discussion (19 total) based on the novel as well as a short biography of Mahfouz.
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Midaq Alley | Wikipedia
This page gives a very brief overview of the plot, a list of characters with brief descriptors, and some links to external sources which include a book review by Louis Proyect, and a book review by Dan Sisken, originally published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 1989.
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Midaq Alley Summary & Study Guide | Book Rags
This site provides a free sample of Book Rags’s study guide for Midaq Alley. Chapter summaries are present but brief; readers can see the beginnings of the sections on characters, themes, style, etc., but the rest is locked behind the paywall.
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A Map of Midaq Alley | High School Project
This is a simple map that outlines where people live and work in Midaq Alley. It may be useful as a tool for introducing the text or for modifying as an activity in your own classroom.
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About the author
Naguib Mahfouz: Egyptian Writer | Britannica.com | Last updated: August 26, 2022
6-paragraph basic biography of Naguib Mahfouz
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Naguib Mahfouz Biographical | The Nobel Prize
2-paragraph biography written at the time of Mahfouz’s Nobel award
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Naguib Mahfouz: Nobel Lecture | The Nobel Prize
Mahfouz’s lecture upon his acceptance of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988
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The World of the Alley: Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo | The Nation | Ursula Lindsey | October 25, 2018
Biographical essay of Mahfouz as well as a discussion of Midaq Alley. Author includes her observations after meeting and interviewing Mahfouz.
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Naguib Mahfouz: Remembering one of Egypt’s first great novelists | The Guardian | Lee Smith | August 30, 2006
This essay includes the author’s experience spending time with Mahfouz, particularly in the company of their friend Muhammed, a then-26-year-old Egyptian journalist and intellectual.
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Naguib Mahfouz, The Art of Fiction No. 129 | The Paris Review | Charlotte El Shabrawy | Summer 1992
An interview between Shabrawy and Mahfouz. Note: much of the interview is behind The Paris Review’s paywall.
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Naguib Mahfouz | The Guardian | Denys Johnson-Davies | August 30, 2006
Written after Mahfouz’s death, this essay includes biographical information, the reception of his texts, and his lasting impact on Arabic literature.
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Naguib Mahfouz, Chronicler of Arab Life, Dies at 94 | The New York Times | Robert D McFadden | August 30, 2006
This obituary includes biographical information, an overview of Mahfouz’s texts and how they were received when first published.
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Nobel-Winning Author Naguib Mahfouz Dies at 94 | NPR | Mona Iskander | August 30, 2006
Obituary for Mahfouz. Link includes both audio (3:55 total) and transcript of audio.
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Naguib Mahfouz and the Nobel Prize: A Blessing or a Curse? | Middle East Form via The Georgia Review | Raymond Stock | December 2018
This essay tells the story of the day and period of time after Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize in literature.
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Humphrey Davies, Noted Translator of Arabic Literature, Dies at 74
Obituary for Davies, translator of Mahfouz’s texts. This article includes a link to Humphrey Davies’s Ten Rules for Translating.
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Articles, essays, and videos about Midaq Alley
Critical Perspectives on Naguib Mahfouz | Trevor Le Gassick, editor | Google Books Preview
This preview offers a fairly extensive preview of the text, especially if you’re considering purchasing the full text.
Read more | Paperback on Amazon.com
Qur’anic Allusions in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley: Comparing Two Arabic-English Translations | Arab World English Journal
Najlaa R. Aldeeb | May 2020
From the abstract: “This paper examins the rendition of allusions to Quran and explores the strategies deployed by translators. The language used in the source text reflects the culture in which it is born and determines the ideologies of its users.
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Translating Contextualized Arabic Euphemisms into English: Socio Cultural Perspective | CSC Canada | Ekrema Shehab, Abdul-Rahman Qadan, Manar Hussein | July-August 2014
From the abstract: “This study examines the role context plays in determining the translation strategies pursued by translators of Arabic euphemisms into English.
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Destroy or Be Destroyed: Contending with Toxic Social Structures in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley | The Oswald Review | Stephanie Hasenfus | 2013
Academic, but very readable, analysis of Midaq Alley.
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The Male Dominance of Women in Madame Bovary and Midaq Alley Essay | Arts Columbia | University of California | Sample Essay
This sample essay examines how both Emma Bovary and Hamida “undergo the stress of marriage, feel the pressures their societies place on women, and fall prey to the confusing difference between love and lust.”
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Sheikh Darwish’s Role as the Prophet of Change in Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley | Markedbyteachers.com | Sample IB Literature Essay
This essay is a free sample as part of a larger purchasable package on IB Literature essays.
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Midaq Alley: Does Mahfouz’s Exploration of Identity Loss Still Hold True Today? | Egyptian Streets | Zeina Hanafy | August 1, 2022
This essay is broken into two parts: “Precarious cultural identity in the face of the British,” and “Loss of the present-day Egyptian identity.”
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Lesson plans and other teaching resources
A Universal Study of Theme through the Moroccan Cultural Lens | NCTE | Omar Hakim | Unit Plan
This unit plan includes background, Common Core ELA standards, essential questions, and multiple lessons:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Midaq Alley | Power Structures in Midaq Alley | Writing Revision and Feedback using Arabian Nights | Annotating for Writer’s Choices and Cultural Implications of a Literary Work using Kite Runner.
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Do the Write Thing | The New York Times | Michelle Sale and Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer | September 1, 2006 | 60 minute lesson plan
From the page: “In this lesson, students will explore the qualities that make a classic writer’s work special and compose newspaper articles celebrating the works of different authors.” This page includes objectives, a resource list, activities, assessment, vocabulary, and extension activities.
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Midaq Alley Introduction Power Point | Teachers Pay Teachers | IB Lang and Lit Resources HL SL | Free PowerPoint
This short PowerPoint includes a writing prompt, a brief overview of the development of the literary tradition in Egypt, and other influential Egyptian novelists. PowerPoint is downloadable, but there are no additional resources in the notes section of it. What you see in the preview is what you get.
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Reading Mahfouz in Michigan | Madamasr.com | Hadil Ghoneim translated by Amira Elmasry | August 17, 2014
In this essay, Ghoneim, writes about meeting Katie Glupker, a high school English teacher teaching Midaq Alley. This essay is in two parts: “the classroom experience of [Glupker] and her students reading Midaq Alley” and “Professor LeGassick’s experience translating the novel and his view on the reasons for its success.”
Read Part 1 | Read Part 2
Shopping List
Texts and other resources you may find helpful.
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Midaq Alley
translated by Trevor Le Gassick
Paperback on Amazon.com
Midaq Alley
translated by Humphrey Davies
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Approaches to Teaching the Works
of Naguib Mahfouz
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Paperback on Amazon.com
Religion in the Egyptian Novel
Christina Phillips
Hardcover on Amazon.com
Paperback on Amazon.com
Midaq Alley (2018)
DVD on Amazon.comBack to Browse by Title | Browse by Author
