al-Manyalawi, Shaykh Yusuf (d. 1911): a singer in the classical style and model for many modern singers. His recordings date to the era before the First World War.
Marsa Matruh: on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt to the west of Alexandria. Now a seaside resort, it was the scene of fighting during the campaigns of 1942.
al-Mubarrad (d. 898): the grammarian of Basra who spent the latter part of his life in Baghdad. His most famous work is al-Kamil (The Complete).
Muhammad Ali Street: a key artery in Cairo that connects Khalig Street (so called because it was formerly a canal, now called Port Said Street) with the square beneath the Citadel.
al-Mu’izz (d. 975): a ruler of the Fatimid dynasty, during whose reign Egypt was conquered and the old city of Cairo constructed.
Mutran, Khalil (d. 1949): known as “the poet of the two regions,” he was born in Lebanon but spent much of his life in Egypt. His poetry combines neoclassicism with hints of an emerging romantic tendency.
al-Muwaylihi, Muhammad (d. 1930): an Egyptian writer and journalist, best known for his pioneering narrative, Hadith ‘Isa ibn Hisham (1907), available in English as A Period of Time (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1992).
New Road (al-Sikka al-Gadida): the road that connected the newly built nineteenth-century part of Cairo, named al-Ismailiya after the Khedive Ismail during whose reign it was constructed, with the old city, the al-Azhar Mosque, and the eastern edge of the city.
Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr): falling between the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth day of the month of Ramadan, the night during which the Prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of the Qur’anic text (an event recorded in Sura 97 of the text).
al-Qali (d. 967): a famous philologist who moved from Baghdad to Cordoba in Spain. His best known work is al-Amali (Dictations).
Rud al-Farag: an area of Cairo to the north of Bulaq, renowned for its fruit and vegetable market.
al-Sakakini: one of Cairo’s middle-class suburbs (like al-Abbasiyya where Mahfouz spent the latter part of his childhood) that sprung up outside the bounds of the old city during the latter part of the nineteenth century. It lies immediately to the south of al-Abbasiyya.
Shaaban: the eighth month of the year in the Islamic calendar.
shahada: the Islamic statement of faith, “I bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is His Prophet.”
Shawqi, Ahmad (d. 1932): the Egyptian neoclassical poet, renowned for the musicality of his verse, who was given the title “Prince of Poets.”
shisha: the local name for the water pipe, narghileh, “hubble-bubble.”
Sitt: by contrast with “Hanem” (see above), “Sitt” is the commonly used word for the female head of a household. It means “woman” but implies something close to the English “Mrs.”
taamiya: a characteristic Egyptian dish, made with fried beans and garlic.
Umm Kulthum (d. 1975): “the Star of the East,” the Arab world’s most famous singer of the twentieth century and a personal favorite of Mahfouz himself.
Zaghlul, Saad (d. 1927): Egyptian nationalist leader who was a personal hero of Mahfouz. References to him appear in many of the novelist’s works.
zar: an exorcism ceremony conducted by and for women.
al-Zaytun: a district in the central northern part of Cairo, between Shubra and Heliopolis.