A celebration commemorating nine years since the death of 1988 Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz started on Monday, writes Nevine El-Aref. Under the title “A night in the love of the professor”, at the Supreme Council of Culture (SCC) Minister of Culture Abdel Wahid Al-Nabawi inaugurated two week-long exhibitions: a collection of Mahfouz-based movies posters (including Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and The Thief and the Dogs) and a book fair dedicated to ministry publications on Mahfouz, including such new titles as novelist Youssef Al-Qaid's When Mahfouz Tells. All are sold at a 50 percent discount. Al-Nabawi also announced that the long-awaited Mahfouz Museum is to be officially inaugurated on 11 December in time for the author's birthday. The location has changed from the Mohamed Bek Abul Dahab house to the Prince Bashtak Palace in Gamaliya. The Head of the Culture Development Fund Mohamed Abusaeda said the museum will show a collection of Mahfouz's personal belongings, including the Nobel trophy. It will also include a creative centre and a library of Mahfouz and Mahfouz-related books. Present at the ceremony were actor actor Ezzat El-Alayli, who said he was proud to have performed 12 Mahfouz characters, and screenwriter Mohamed Abul Ela Al-Salamoni, who discussed making The Thief and the Dogs into a television series in the 1990s. Also present was sociologist Abla Al-Saati, who presented her work on women in Mahfouz. The event ended with the screening of a documentary on the author.
