Egyptian civilians and opportunities
Objects/Places Midaq Alley The primary setting for the novel, Midaq Alley, is a relic of a once glorious gem, located off historic Sanadiqiya Street in Cairo, Egypt. The surrounding quarters are Ghouriya and Sagha. The alley exists in isolation from them. It is a dead-end lined on one side by an importer’s business operation, which employs outsider workers, a husband-and-wife run bakery, a confectionary that enjoys a good reputation outside the alley, a barbershop, two adjoining three-story houses, and Kirsha’s Café, at night the alley’s only source of illumination, where everyone congregates. The streets get washed on the few occasions Cairo gets rain. Most of the time, the inhabitants are indifferent and forgetful. The alley is said to weep in the morning, laugh in the evening, and in between, doors and windows creak open and shut.
Kirsha’s Café A dingy, dilapidated square room with arabesque-covered walls, a few couches, and a newly installed secondhand radio, Kirsha’s Café is the setting for much of Midaq Alley. Kirsha normally tends the till, mellow on hashish, while Sanker the waiter is kept busy. Every evening after work patrons file in, smoke water pipes, drink coffee or tea, joke, philosophize, argue, and debate. The owner and his wife openly fight. When the café closes around midnight, Kirsha goes off to hashish parties on the roofs or sexual encounters elsewhere. His son, Hussain, does not want to take over the operation.
British Army Egyptian readers need no explanation of why the British Army is in Egypt during World War II, so none is given. Foreign readers with some historical background may assume that they are leftovers from fighting the Germans at Tobruk and El Alamein, two landmark events not mentioned in the novel. The British are simply in Egypt providing gainful employment for Egyptian civilians and opportunities to participate in a thriving black market. Abbas Hilu works at the British base at Tell el-Kebir. The British also seem to have restricted rent increases for the duration of the war, and their soldiers (along with some Americans) are enthusiastic and well-paying patrons of Cairo’s bordellos. The British are, in fact, hated colonial occupiers since 1882 and supposed independence in 1922 makes little difference. Café owner Kirsha is said to have mellowed to the point he hates no one, including the British. When Abbas is pummeled to death by British soldiers upset that he has disturbed their entertainment by Titi (Hamida), his friend says with resignation that there will be no justice for him under British rule.
