Pharaonic tales

By Naguib Mahfouz

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My first novels were inspired by Ancient Egyptian history. I guess it was the 1919 Revolution that triggered my interest in history, particularly for those periods during which the nation was fighting for freedom.

I wrote three novels in the 1930s, a time when Egypt was struggling against foreign occupation, and they were all about ancient turmoil. But there is another source of inspiration for these novels.

In 1922, Howard Carter unveiled the treasures of Tutankhamun, firing the world's imagination and interest in the history of this country. I started to read everything about Ancient Egypt I could find, in Arabic, French, and English. And soon I felt that our modern experience resonated with events that had occurred many centuries before.

My first historic novel was The Mockery of Fate, followed by Rhadopis of Nubia and Thebes at War. Then I moved towards contemporary settings and began to focus on a greater realism. It was only in the 1970s that I returned to ancient history with the novel Akhenaton, Dweller in Reality.

Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.