Maḥfūẓ, Najīb Books

The sensual and provocative second volume in the Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities.Having given up his vices after his son's death, ageing patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad pursues an arousing lute-player - only to find she has married his eldest son. His rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination as they test the loosening reins of societal and parental control. And Ahmad's youngest son, in an unforgettable portrayal of unrequited love, ardently courts the sophisticated daughter of a rich Europeanised family.

في هذه الرواية الجذابة، يروي محفوظ التاريخ الدرامي لعائلة النّاجي - عائلة تنتقل، عبر أجيال عديدة، من قمة السلطة والمجد إلى قاع الانحلال وال decay. تبدأ "الحرافيش" بقصة أشور النّاجي، رجل ينمو من أصول متواضعة ليصبح قائدًا عظيمًا، أسطورة بين الناس العاديين - الحرافيش في العنوان. ومع ذلك، فإن أحفاد أشور يبتعدون أكثر فأكثر عن مثاله الأسطوري، ويفقدون الاتصال بأصولهم ويبددون ثرواتهم الكبيرة، ويتزوجون من بائعات الهوى ويطورون تنافسات مريرة وفي النهاية قاتلة. ومع ذلك، تبقى هناك أمل صغير دائمًا في أن ينتجوا يومًا ما نَاجي يمكنه استعادة اسمهم إلى مجده السابق.

Palace Walk is the first novel in Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent Cairo Trilogy, an epic family saga of colonial Egypt that is considered his masterwork. The novels of the Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons—the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal. The family’s trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two world wars, as change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries. Translated by William Maynard Hutchins and Olive E. Kenny

At the center of Khufu’s Wisdom, Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s majestic first novel, is the legendary Fourth Dynasty monarch Khufu (Cheops), for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. When a seer prophesies the end of Khufu’s dynasty and the ascension to the throne of Djedefra, son of the High Priest of Ra, the pharaoh must battle to preserve his legacy against the will of the Fates. But in the face of the inexorable attraction between Djedefra and Princess Meresankh, Khufu’s beautiful daughter, Khufu must consider not only his personal ambition and the opposing decree of the heavens, but also how the wisdom he prides himself on as a ruler will guide him in determining the fate of his daughter’s heart.