The Devil Turns Preacher

Naguib Mahfouz(Author) was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. His nearly forty novels and hundreds of short stories range from re-imaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture. Some of his most famous works includeThe Cairo Trilogy,made up ofPalace Walk, Sugar Street,andPalace of Desire,as well asMiramar, Midaq Alley, andChildren of the Alley. In 1988, he was the first writer in Arabic to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in August 2006.

Sarah Enany(Translated by) is a literary translator and a professor in the English Department of Cairo University. She is a recipient of the Banipal Prize for Literary Translation for her translation ofThe Girl with Braided Hair(Hoopoe Fiction, 2020). She has translated several operas including the acclaimed sung versions ofLes Miserablesand Mozart'sThe Magic Fluteinto Egyptian Arabic, and Sayed Higab's libretto for the operaMiramarinto English. She is also the translator ofWitness to War and Peace: Egypt, the October War, and Beyond, The Book Smuggler,and theJewish Muslimtrilogy (all AUC Press).

Nehad Selaiha(Translated by) (1945–2017), dubbed "The Lady of Theater Criticism," was an Egyptian academic and critic. She was and remains the foremost critic of Arab theatre, traveling all over Egypt and the Arab world to view hundreds of theater performances and known especially for her wryly humorous comments on the state of theater and her passionate championing of amateur and independent theater-makers. She was the resident theater reviewer ofAl-Ahram Weeklyfor decades and has published many books on Egyptian and Arab theater, as well as contributing to publications at home and abroad. She has been honored with numerous awards including the State Achievement Award.