A DOWNTOWN Cairo street, that has served for decades as an open air gallery of literary titles, is now frequented by young couples seeking to buy fixtures and fittings for their new homes, along with plumbers and their assistants. These customers mingle with schoolchildren and their parents, who crowd the few stationery shops selling cheap Chinese pens, rulers, rubbers and study aids. Bookworms, men of letters and scholars, led by the big names in literary circles, disappeared since the early 1980s from Al- Faggalla Street, a stone's throw from the main Railway Station in Ramses Square. About 30 years ago, some of the regular faces in Al-Faggalla Street were those of the late Taha Hussein, dubbed the 'Doyen' of Arab Literature, the late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, the late celebrated playwright Tafwik el-Hakim, the late novelist Youssef el-Sebaie and other luminaries of Egyptian literature. Al-Faggalla ('radish-growers') Street was opened approximately 200 years ago. The street derived its name from the fact that the area was once sown with radish. Historians also remember that the chaotic, miserable geographical features of this hill-like area on the outskirts of Fatimid Cairo encouraged thieves, thugs and lawbreakers to creep in at night to hide. Criminal elements were smoked out of the place after Napoleon Bonaparte, who led the French military expedition in Egypt from 1897 to 1801, ordered his engineers and soldiers to remove its hills and set the entire place in order. The railway station was built under the Minister of Public Works Ali Mubarak during the reign of Khedive Ismail. The Al-Faggalla area first became a buzzing area for booksellers during the Mameluke era. While Al-Faggalla was known for books related to literature, art, philosophy and other non-religious subjects, the Al-Azhar area (named for the Al-Azhar Mosque, the highest institution of Islamic learning in Egypt) was known as a centre for books related to Islamic studies. The scientists and writers, who accompanied the French emperor on his military expedition into Egypt, helped the bookstalls in Al Faggalla Street to thrive. Moreover, the print house, that Napoleon brought with him to Cairo, increased the number of publications available on the street. The increasing numbers of customers in the area persuaded different publishers to open outlets next to each other. Eventually, Al-Faggalla Street became an open-air gallery of both the latest and the oldest sources of knowledge, in a vast range of subjects. Al-Hilal Books, established in 1889 by the Syrian family of Ibrahim Zedan (cousin of Georgy Zedan, the founder ofDar al-Hilal Press), used to be considered as the oldest bookshop in the street. However, Nahdet Misr (Egypt's Renaissance), which was opened in 1938, is widely regarded to be the oldest full-fledged bookstore in Al- Faggalla. Local man of letters Saeed Gouda el- Sahar, a former publisher of Naguib Mafouz's works, established Nahdet Misr. Al-Maktaba Al-Masriya, the second oldest, was opened in 1940. More recently, Dar Al-Ma'aref was established in the 1960s by the government of late President Gamal Abdel- Nasser. Syrian and Jewish families used to be neighbours in Al-Faggalla Street and the surrounding area. The Qatawis, the largest Jewish family in Al-Faggalla, were the owners of a majority of its properties and buildings. The reversal in the fortunes of the street occurred as many bookshops were gradually replaced with stores selling sanitary wares, being more lucrative. “People nowadays are no longer interested in culture,” said Mohamed Sayyed, a 76- year-old resident of the area. “The bookshops, which have survived, see their customers dwindling”.
