Healing Iraq has a lot to say about the man.
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Mahfouz was a distinguished, prolific writer, a humanist, a free thinker, and a unique example of the rare breed of Arab intellectuals managing to break free of the constraints of Arab society to preach a universal message of tolerance.
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In addition to the hostility he faced from the religious establishment, he was also criticized by so-called intellectuals in the Arab world for his moderate stance toward Israel and his outspoken support for President Anwar Al-Sadat and the Camp David peace accords. Before that, he was branded a reactionary because of his well-hidden disapproval of the destructive policies of President Gamal Abdul Nasser and the coup that brought him to power in 1952. Many of his novels were banned in Arab countries.
Mahfouz is most celebrated for his epic work, The Cairo Trilogy, a novel in three volumes (Bain Al-Qasrain, Qasr Al-Shawq, Al-Sukkariya) published in 1955, which follows the fortunes of a middle-class Egyptian family through three generations during British colonial rule, independence under the monarchy and the coup that brought Arab nationalists to power. The last installment was significant because it depicted the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt around WWII and the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) movement, which later produced people like Sayyid Qutb and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The trilogy shares many similarities with The Brothers Karamazov (not surprising since Fiodor Dostoevsky was a huge influence on the Egyptian novelist), both in its underlying philosophical questions, and its portrayal of the author’s own struggle with spiritual and social issues.
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During the furor in the Islamic world following the publishing of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and the subsequent fatwa for apostasy, blind Egyptian cleric Omar Abdul Rahman stated that if Mahfouz was punished for his novel, Rushdie would not have dared write his. It didn’t help that Mahfouz publicly defended Rushdie’s right to publish his novel.
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Mahfouz was buried at Al-Hussein mosque near his birthplace in Cairo, according to his will. His funeral was attended by a few friends and relatives and a score of Egyptian officials, but the people of Cairo who made the characters of Mahfouz's novels were absent.
It is regrettable that funerals of great men, such as Mahfouz, in our Arab world are not attended by the Arab masses that were the main body of their work. Our people prefer to march in thousands at the funerals of their oppressors and dictators.
Egypt is a key ally, and one of its best authors (arguably one of the best authors from the Middle East) just died. He was a ground-breaker, and very moderate as well. This was our highest official, sending condolences to its friend. I think the sentiments were proper and correct. In that capacity Bush is acting as a dignitary not an individual. He is speaking for Americans, many of whom do value the author's work even if he personally has (most likely) never read a word of it himself.