Kamil is heartbroken
along. Towards the end of the novel, Hussainy realizes his life’s desire of making pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He gives a long, thoughtful farewell oration to colleagues and says simple farewells—and offers advise—to friends in Kirsha’s Café.
Jaada and Husniya Husband and wife bakers whose shop is next door to Kirsha’s Café, Jaada and Husniya are constantly at war with one another. Husniya rents a filthy outbuilding to Zaita, a filthy loner who earns his living by creating cripples and spends time before midnight spying through a hole in the wall on the couple as they fight and make love. When Jaada is away for the day at the baths, Zaita makes his move on Husniya and is dropped in the dust by this formidable woman.
Uncle Kamil A hulking, balding, florid-faced maker and seller of sweets, Kamil owns a shop to the right of Midaq Alley’s entry. Kamil habitually sleeps on the shop’s threshold with a flyswatter on his lap. He is most characterized by his high voice. Kamil complains about being in such deep poverty that he will not be able to afford a funeral shroud. Kamil and his barber friend, Abbas Hilu, with whom he shares a flat in Radwan Hussainy’s house, breakfast together every day after opening their shops and before working. Kamil’s confectionary artistry is well known outside the alley, but he has never prospered financially. Abbas as a joke claims to have bought for him and laid it away a fine funeral shroud. Everyone in Kirsha’s Café goes along with the practical joke on the famously gullible Kamil, who tries unsuccessfully to get his hands on it, to sell it, and use the profits while alive. Kamil is heartbroken when Abbas sells his shop and moves to Tell el- Kebir to earn a wartime fortune and return to provide for his new fiancée, Hamida, the kind of life she wants and deserves. Kamil chants the Qur’an with Umm Hamida to seal the betrothal before Abbas departs. Months later, it falls to Kamil to break the news that Hamida has disappeared without a trace to Abbas, who is home on leave. Abbas searches for her, unexpectedly finds her, and dies when the British troops she is entertaining as a whore beat him to death. Kamil is distraught and mentions the irony of the burial shroud.
Mrs. Kirsha (Umm Hussain) The proud daughter of a pious Muslim holy man, Mrs. Kirsha—whose kunya is Umm Hussain—is approaching fifty, and is strong, courageous, and sharp tempered. She has born six daughters and one son. Long ago she nursed the orphaned Hamida alongside her Hussain, but now criticizes the young woman. Umm Hussain’s greatest worry is that her husband has returned to his “filthy disease” of homosexuality. She resolves to take decisive action, despite the consequences. When the café closes at midnight, she demands he repent and grows furious when he pretends not to understand. She threatens to go public with the scandal. She asks neighborhood holy man Radwan
