The ¬Whisper of Madness in Najīb Maḥfūẓ’s Literary Works Clara Srouji-Shajrawi

Abstract

This paper explores madness as depicted in various works of the Egyptian writer, Najīb Maḥfūẓ. Madness is often associated with irrational, abnormal and wild elements in human conduct. However, it is also associated with saviors, visionaries, and their behavior.  Both forms are shown here in their different aspects: madness as a mental disease, as an expression of a person’s ‘existential’ crisis, as man’s passion to approach the Divine, as a “safe” way to express critique of the socio-political situation in Egypt, and madness in its visionary form. In some cases, these aspects or shades of madness are correlated and intertwined. I argue that the Maḥfūẓian mad anti-heroes are somehow related to Sufism. A special emphasis is put on madness in two contradictory characters in Malḥamat al-Ḥarāfīsh (The Harafish, 1977), which is discussed through Nietzsche’s notion of the Übermensch, and the paper concludes that this concept can be seen as similar to the Arabic concept of futuwwah (chivalry).