This article is about the Naguib Mahfouz novel. For the film of the novel, see Midaq Alley (film). For the alley, see Khan El-Khalili.
Midaq Alley is the English Translation of Zuqaq al-Midaq by Naguib Mahfouz, released in English in 1966. The story is about Midaq Alley, a teeming back street in Cairo which is a microcosm of the world.


== Plot introduction ==
Mahfouz plays on the cultural setting. The novel is introduced with description of the Arabic culture. It centers around the list of characters described below. The novel takes place in the 1940s and represents standing on the threshold of a modern era in Cairo and the rest of the nation as a whole.


== Characters ==
Each character is expressed like a caricature in which one quality or trait is over-emphasized. Mahfouz is not satirizing the individual character - he is satirizing the character type.
Kirsha, a cafe owner who illegally sells and uses hashish and has a predilection for young boys
Mrs. Kirsha, infamous for her temper
Uncle Kamil, good-hearted, bachelor sweets-seller, famously bloated and sleepy
Abbas, a young, kindly barber who wants to get married
Salim Alwan, the wealthy businessman who is embittered after surviving a heart attack
Dr. Booshy, the self-proclaimed dentist who sells false teeth at dirt-cheap prices by stealing them off dead bodies
Sanker, the waiter at Kirsha's cafe
Sheikh Darwish, the old poet and former English teacher, who left his former life to roam the streets.
Radwan Hussainy, a landlord who beats his wife and failed his al-Azhar exams, yet is revered for his high degree of education and devotion to God. He has lost all of his children.
Hussain Kirsha, son of the cafe owner who works for the British. He marries a woman of lower class and returns home with her and her brother.
Saniya Afify, widowed landlady who desires to remarry
Umm Hamida, the neighborhood matchmaker and bath attendant; Hamida's foster mother
Hamida, a beautiful young woman who dreams of a better life and has a distinctly self-centered personality, but is easily persuaded by wealth or power.
Husniya, the bakeress who beats her husband with her slipper
Jaada, Husniya's husband
Zaita, the cripple maker who lives outside the bakery and aids Dr. Booshy in his theft of false teeth.
Ibrahim Farhat, a politician
Ibrahim Faraj, a pimp
The Poet, who is replaced by a radio and is barred by Kirsha (only appears in the first chapter)


== See also ==
Naguib Mahfouz
El callejon de los milagros (the 1995 Mexican film based on the novel)
Nobel Prize in Literature


== External links ==
Allreaders.com book Review of Midaq Alley
Summary of the Novel
A Book Review by Louis Proyect
'Aqoul Reviews
Midaq Alley Character Guide
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Review
shvoong.com Review
Socio Cultural Review