Obituary of a brilliant storyteller

"A grief at the hour of death
Is more than a hundred-fold
Joy at the hour of birth."

Naguib Mahfouz included this verse from 11th century Islamic poet Abul Alaa al-Ma'ari in his address to the Swedish Academy on becoming the only Arab to win the Nobel prize in literature. It holds true today when Egypt and the world mourns Mahfouz, the foremost name in Arabic literature in the last century. His vivid descriptions of Cairo and of a society transitioning from colonialism to popular rule and struggling with traditional values in a modern era kept me glued to the pages of his books.

Naguib Mahfouz described himself in his Nobel lecture as 'the son of two civilizations that at a certain age in history have formed a happy marriage. The first of these, seven thousand years old, is the Pharaonic civilization; the second, one thousand four hundred years old, is the Islamic one.'

As for Pharaonic civilization I will not talk of the conquests and the building of empires... Nor will I talk about how it was guided for the first time to the existence of God and its ushering in the dawn of human conscience... I will not even speak of this civilization's achievements in art and literature, and its renowned miracles: the Pyramids and the Sphinx and Karnak...

Let me, then, introduce Pharaonic civilization with what seems like a story since my personal circumstances have ordained that I become a storyteller. Hear, then, this recorded historical incident: Old papyri relate that Pharaoh had learned of the existence of a sinful relation between some women of the harem and men of his court. It was expected that he should finish them off in accordance with the spirit of his time. But he, instead, called to his presence the choice men of law and asked them to investigate what he has come to learn. He told them that he wanted the Truth so that he could pass his sentence with Justice.

This conduct, in my opinion, is greater than founding an empire or building the Pyramids. It is more telling of the superiority of that civilization than any riches or splendour. Gone now is that civilization - a mere story of the past. One day the great Pyramid will disappear too. But Truth and Justice will remain for as long as Mankind has a ruminative mind and a living conscience.

As for Islamic civilization I will not talk about its call for the establishment of a union between all Mankind under the guardianship of the Creator, based on freedom, equality and forgiveness. Nor will I talk about the greatness of its prophet. For among your thinkers there are those who regard him the greatest man in history. I will not talk of its conquests which have planted thousands of minarets calling for worship, devoutness and good throughout great expanses of land from the environs of India and China to the boundaries of France. Nor will I talk of the fraternity between religions and races that has been achieved in its embrace in a spirit of tolerance unknown to Mankind neither before nor since.

I will, instead, introduce that civilization in a moving dramatic situation summarizing one of its most conspicuous traits: In one victorious battle against Byzantium it has given back its prisoners of war in return for a number of books of the ancient Greek heritage in philosophy, medicine and mathematics. This is a testimony of value for the human spirit in its demand for knowledge, even though the demander was a believer in God and the demanded a fruit of a pagan civilization.

It was my fate, ladies and gentlemen, to be born in the lap of these two civilizations, and to absorb their milk, to feed on their literature and art...

To end, I quote another line from Abul Alaa al-Ma'ari:

"People were created to last
And lost are those who think people are created to vanish."

Naguib Mahfouz, 1911-2006, a man who will last a long time.