Editing Naguib Mahfouz (section)

==Early life and education==
Mahfouz was born in a lower middle-class Muslim Egyptian family in [[Old Cairo]] in 1911. The first part of his compound given name was chosen in appreciation of the well-known obstetrician, [[Naguib Pasha Mahfouz]], who oversaw his difficult birth.<ref name="حياة نجيب محفوظ">[https://www.naguib-mahfouz.com/life.htm حياة نجيب محفوظ]{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722130132/https://www.naguib-mahfouz.com/life.htm |date=22 July 2015}}</ref> Mahfouz was the seventh and the youngest child, with four brothers and two sisters, all of them much older than him. (Experientially, he grew up an "only child".) The family lived in two popular districts of Cairo: first, in the Bayt al-Qadi neighborhood in the Gamaleya quarter in the old city, from where they moved in 1924 to [[Abbassia|Abbaseya]], then a new Cairo suburb north of the old city, locations that would provide the backdrop for many of Mahfouz's later writings. His father, Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim, whom Mahfouz described as having been "old-fashioned", was a [[civil servant]], and Mahfouz eventually followed in his footsteps in 1934. Mahfouz's mother, Fatimah, was the daughter of Mustafa Qasheesha, an [[Al-Azhar]] sheikh, and although illiterate herself, took the boy Mahfouz on numerous excursions to cultural locations such as the [[Egyptian Museum]] and the [[Egyptian Pyramids|Pyramids]].<ref name="El-Enany7"/>

The Mahfouz family were devout Muslims and Mahfouz had a strict Islamic upbringing. In an interview, he elaborated on the stern religious climate at home during his childhood. He stated, "You would never have thought that an artist would emerge from that family."<ref name="El-Enany7">{{cite book|author=Rasheed El-Enany|author-link=Rasheed El-Enany|title=Naguib Mahfouz: The Pursuit of Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hit7oPTOKf0C|date=25 June 1993|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-07395-0}}</ref>

The [[Egyptian Revolution of 1919]] had a strong effect on Mahfouz, although he was at the time only seven years old. From the window he saw British soldiers firing at the demonstrators in an effort to disperse them.<ref>Raymond Stock, A Mummy Awakens: The Pharaonic Fiction of Naguib Mahfouz, pg. 13-14</ref> According to Mahfouz, "You could say ... that the one thing which most shook the security of my childhood was the 1919 revolution", he later said.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020}}

In his early years, Mahfouz read extensively and was influenced by Hafiz Najib, [[Taha Hussein]] and [[Salama Moussa]], the [[Fabian Society|Fabian]] intellectual.<ref name="paris">{{cite journal
|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2062/the-art-of-fiction-no-129-naguib-mahfouz|journal=The Paris Review|title=Naguib Mahfouz, The Art of Fiction No. 129|date=Summer 1992|author=Charlotte El Shabrawy|volume=Summer 1992|issue=123}}</ref>

After completing his secondary education, Mahfouz was admitted in 1930 to the [[Egyptian University]] (now [[Cairo University]]), where he studied [[philosophy]], graduating in 1934. By 1936, having spent a year working on an M.A. in philosophy, he decided to discontinue his studies and become a professional writer. He published his first work in ''[[Al Majalla Al Jadida]]'', a magazine started by [[Salama Moussa|Salama Musa]] in 1929.<ref name=sab>{{cite journal|author=Sabry Hafez|title=Cultural Journals and Modern Arabic Literature: A Historical Overview|journal=Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics|date=2017|issue=37|jstor=26191813|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26191813|page=23}}</ref> Mahfouz then worked as a journalist for ''[[Arrissalah]]'', and contributed short stories to ''[[Al-Hilal (magazine)|Al-Hilal]]'' and ''[[Al-Ahram]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hafez |first=Sabry |date=2017 |title=Cultural Journals and Modern Arabic Literature: A Historical Overview |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26191813 |journal=Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics |volume=37 |pages=9–49 |jstor=26191813 }}</ref>