Naguib Mahfouz (1911 - 2006) was considered the greatest Egyptian intellect of our times. Nobel prize laurate, writer, long time civil servant, he was one of the few Egyptians who dared stand up in support of Anwar Sadat's peace treaty with Israel.
He gained a lot of enemies for his stance, as well as his ideals. His novel Children of Gebelawi (1959) was considered blasphemous enough to be banned in most of the Arab world and, altough there was no murderous fatwah ever declared agains him, in 1994 Islamic extremists attacked Mahfouz, stabbed him in the neck, severely damaging the nerves to his right hand. At the beginning of this year the book has finally been published in Egypt, too.
Yes, we all mourn his death. He was a great storyteller, a great painter of the human condition. (If you are interested in 20th Century Egypt you should read his Cairo Trilogy, a most entertaining saga.) Yet I have also read some comments which imply that his death means a point of no return, the downfall of an ideal. I don't think so! His life and work left glowing embers behind. Those sparks will inevitably find their way into the hearts and minds of present and future intellectuals, fertile ground for ideas of peace, cooperation, a pursuit of mankind's common goals.
It is our duty, yours and mine, too, to keep those embers alive, nesting them in our palms, to blow on them every once in a while and let a small shower of sparks find new homes...
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