Nobel winner Mahfouz lives on in Cairo's alleyways

A mosaic of the bespectacled author overlooks a market teeming with children on bikes, waiters balancing trays of hot drinks and shoppers haggling with hawkers over the price of meat. It could be a scene straight out of a typical Mahfouz novel focusing on the minutiae of life in the Egyptian capital, with its satirically political overtones and timeless characters

Mahfouz is considered to be the father of the modern Arabic novel: he broadened its literary range by pushing through sacred red lines including religious taboos. And he was nearly killed for doing so. In 1994, a knifeman stabbed him in the neck in an assassination attempt. The attacker had been acting on a fatwa or religious edict issued by radical Egyptian-American imam Omar Abdel-Rahman, denouncing what he deemed to be the prodigious author's blasphemous prose.

Mahfouz's daughter Om Kalthoum said he was so deeply enmeshed in the chaotic energy of Cairo that the city itself was a major character in his work. The writer's routine included walks along the corniche by the Nile to his favourite cafes near Tahrir Square, epicentre of the 2011 revolution, and to cultural salons. "He wrote about Cairo with true love. He described it in granular detail. Even if he criticised it, it was still full of love," she told AFP. She and her sister accepted their father's 1988 Nobel Prize on his behalf because of his inability to travel due to his deteriorating eyesight.

A new translation of previously unpublished Mahfouz work is also in print, underscoring 13 years after his death the mark he made both on world literature and on Egyptians themselves. In November, young writer Ahmed Mourad sparked controversy in Egypt when he suggested that the quality of Mahfouz's work needed to be adapted to make it more contemporary.

The site of the museum dedicated to him is in a beautifully restored Ottoman guesthouse in Islamic Cairo dating to 1774, and was chosen because he spent his early years there. In the Al-Gamaleya neighbourhood the budding writer was surrounded by 10th century walls and a myriad of hiding spots for curious kids. Om Kalthoum noted that being raised there left an indelible mark on her father's imagination.

Mahfouz's precious belongings including his mahogany desk, honours such as his Nobel certificate and even his last pack of cigarettes are among the items displayed in an exhibition that covers three floors.