The Epic of the Harafish

The Epic of the Harafish is a novel by the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, published in 1977. The novel tells the stories of ten generations of a family who lived in an Egyptian neighborhood of unknown time and place (it is believed to be in Hussein, at the beginning of the Alawite dynasty in Egypt). The Harafish have been and remain a fascinating subject for Egyptian cinema and television, appearing in several films, including The Harafish, The Hunted, Witness of the Queen, Hunger and Mulberry, and The Prophecy, as well as the three-part series The Harafish. The novel explores the philosophy of governance, the succession of rulers, and the role of the people. The Harafish novel also does not stray far from the existentialist approach adopted by Naguib Mahfouz in many of his novels, despite its social connotation (one character seeks immortality after being overcome by sudden death… and other behaviors in the same vein). The events, details, and characters of The Harafish branch out in the reader’s mind, as well as in the writer’s pen, planting many ideas and converging on the idea of ​​the succession of generations, the loss of origins from one generation to the next, and the infiltration of races. Religion also features in The Harafish, like a spirit that man cannot expel from his body despite his rebellion against it. It is a novel that encompasses all of life, imbued with all its characteristics, and generously recounts all values. The novel is filled with verses of Persian poetry, used by the author as a symbol of the unknown that haunts human souls. The stories unfold like a wonderful melody, intermingling strength and weakness, good and evil, hope and despair.