As the patrons trickle home
Umm Hamida concludes a marriage agreement between Afify and a younger civil servant and is then astonished to hear Alwan wants to marry her foster daughter. Hamida forgets her fiancé instantly as she pictures getting everything she wants in life. Fate steps in, however, as Alwan barely survives a heart attack and changes mentally. Cut loose from an anticipated life with Abbas, Hamida cares as little about Hussainy’s advice as does lecherous Kirsha, whose wife drags the holy man into their squabble. Hussainy leaves on Hajj. Booshy and Zaita are arrested for desecrating tombs by stealing gold teeth, which Booshy sells cheaply to patients like Afify.
A political campaign comes to the district and Kirsha offers his vote to the highest bidder. A mystery man at the rally shows interest in Hamida, and during one of her daily walks, they talk and she accepts that she is on this earth to be taken—by Ibrahim Faraj. She leaves Midaq Alley without compunction, just as Hussain Kirsha limps back bitterly,
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laid-off, and married. Faraj turns Hamida into a profitable prostitute, renamed Titi. When he returns on holiday, intending to marry, Abbas learns his fiancée has vanished. Seeing Titi riding in a carriage, he chases her down, cannot believe what has happened to his Hamida, and vows to kill her pimp. Later, while walking with big-talking Hussain, Abbas sees Titi entertaining British troops; he snaps, attacks, and is pummeled to death. Hussain brings the sorrowful news to Midaq Alley, which talks about it for a while, and then returns to its everyday routine.
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Chapters 1-5 Chapters 1-5 Summary Midaq Alley is a bygone gem, an isolated, dead-end off Sanadiqiya Street in Cairo. Enormous, balding Uncle Kamil is usually found napping outside his confectionary. His neighbor and best friend is the barber Abbas. The owner of an office, Salim Alwan, lives outside the quarter. The three-story residences at the end of the alley are shuttered against the cold. Kirsha’s Café fills with patrons after work. It is dilapidated, with walls covered with arabesques, and a floor scattered with couches where patrons smoke, drink tea, and talk.
Patrons include Sheikh Darwish, a man in his fifties whose dress is a mix of native and western, who is lost in a world of his own. A senile poet, who for twenty years has performed in the café, defies Kirsha by coming to recite and is ordered out. A self- trained dentist, Booshy, and a serene philanthropist, Radwan Hussainy, intercede to no avail. Hussainy, who earlier in life is crushed by disappointments, now sees sorrow as blasphemous. He rents flats to Kirsha, Kamil, and Abbas. The latter two arrive after work. Patrons play along with Abbas’s claim to have bought for poor, gullible Kamil a fine burial shroud. Kirsha’s prosperous son, Hussain, drops in to be admired and envied. As the patrons trickle home, Kirsha goes to a rooftop party at Hussainy’s that lasts until dawn. Darwish departs to the “world of God”, the dark streets, where he lives homeless. A former English teacher, he rebels after being demoted, is fired, abandons friends and relations, and makes do, learning peace and contentment, and is honored everywhere he goes.
Saniya Afify finds her fifty-year old reflection in a mirror “not bad”, as she prepares to visit Umm Hamida on the middle floor of her house, which neighbors Hussainy’s. Booshy occupies the first floor. Umm Hamida is fit woman in her mid-sixties with a rough, resonant voice, which she uses to effect in frequent quarrels with neighbors. She works as a bath attendant and a marriage broker, and knows and tells everything that happens in the alley. Afify needs matrimonial help. Content to be widowed ten years after a bitter marriage, Afify has recouped her fortunes and wants to try again. Umm Hamida finds this sensible and pious, and can find 1,001 men, if Afify puts her hope in God—and her. Umm Hamida first proposes a man “well advanced in years” as best, but adjusts to one in his thirties. Afify’s wealth assures success. She accepts Umm Hamida’s fee, free rent for life, and leaves hopeful she is “as good as married”, but financially cheated.
