ABSTRACT
Examining the literary history of Najib Mahfuz from the vantage point of the present, it seems inconceivable that the old quarter of Cairo was for him at any time merely a convenient locale for his stories. There is something uncanny about Awldd hdritnd. Some critics quite clearly prefer to ignore it, and others hardly know what to make of it. Reaction against this novel, immediately after its publication in 1959, was severe. Perhaps for Najib Mahfuz the world's doom is not so much a contingency as a concrete situation, a state of having experienced the worst already. Therefore, the death of God becomes inevitable, for such a dark vision is incompatible with God's existence. They place their trust in a rumor saying that Arafa's notebook of magic formulas may have been found by Hanash. Instead of a rational reliance on science, as some Egyptian critics suggest, it is more likely that this indicates a reversion to the age of superstitions.
