Intimate description of the inhabitants in Midaq alley gives the alley a life of it's own. Mahfouz indulges the reader in the inhabitants inner thoughts and desires; Kirsha's drug addiction and homosexuality; Zaita's sadistic nature; Hamida's untamed ambitions; Alwan's desires for Hamida; Hussain's dissatisfaction. On the other hand, there is Radwan Hussainy-the religiiou figure; Abbas the niave lover. Thus, Mahfouz created a complete sphere for a socity with the good along the bad; with the intangled destinies of the characters in Midaq Alley. Which like life itself possesses it's own irony; Hamida-the concided beauty of the alley, is left at the end of the book with a scare on her beatiful face; Abbas finally over come his hesistance only to over react and get killed for the love of his life- Hamida.One of the most outstanding charactes in Midaq Alley is Sheikh Darwish who is a sarcastic commenter on the events as they unfold. He is the voice of Naguib Mahfouz in the novel. The reader is introduced to him as a "fool" by the way he is dressed and the perception of the people of the alley of him. Midaq Alley as life itself it isn't without an irony that wisdom is only utered through the words of the "fool". ...
