Midaq Alley

Life in Midaq Alley, a side street in old Cairo, follows a steady, repetitive rhythm. The stores open at sunrise and close at sunset. After dark, the men gather and talk in Kirsha’s café. Modernization creeps slowly even into Midaq Alley, however, as Kirsha replaces traditional poetry performances with a radio. Mrs. Saniya Afify, a property owner, hopes to remarry and turns for help to her matchmaker tenant, Umm Hamida. Umm Hamida agrees, extracting a promise of free rent for life from the notoriously stingy Mrs. Afify in exchange for her matchmaking services. However, Umm Hamida’s own daughter, the beautiful Hamida, struggles to find an eligible husband amongst the men of the alley and dreams of a more exciting life.

The barber, Abbas, is torn between his contentment in Midaq Alley, where he shares an apartment with his dear friend Uncle Kamil, and his love for Hamida. His childhood friend Hussain Kirsha encourages Abbas to follow his lead and work for the British army, a far more lucrative—and modern—form of employment. For her part, Hamida feels little affection for Abbas but is gratified by the attention he shows her. Meanwhile, Kirsha pursues a romance of his own, seducing a youth while he is out dealing hashish. Likewise Zaita, the cripple-maker who lives in a shack behind the bakery, longs for his landlady Husniya.

The biggest business in the alley is Salim Alwan’s perfume company. The wealthy Alwan does not live in the alley, but he too desires Hamida. Famous—and widely mocked—for his sexual appetite, Alwan is increasingly dissatisfied with his steady but boring career and his prudish wife. Taking Hamida as a second wife, however, would be scandalous for a man of Alwan’s class. At the same time Abbas, continuing his pursuit of Hamida, persuades her to get engaged to him after decides to work for the British and ensures Hamida he can provide her a life of luxury.

Though the neighbors largely tolerate Kirsha’s homosexuality, Mrs. Kirsha cannot. She seeks help from the devout Radwan Hussainy, who attempts to persuade Kirsha to repent, to no avail. ( Much later, he will leave for a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, promising to pray for his neighbors.) Mrs. Kirsha waits until the youth visits the café again and publicly attacks him and her husband. The other residents, greatly amused by the scene, manage to persuade her to go home. Meanwhile Kirsha, who was once a notorious violent criminal, grumbles about his domestic fate.

Abbas and Hamida are officially engaged, and Abbas leaves for the army full of both hope and homesickness. Hussain Kirsha becomes lonely and impatient in Abbas’s absence and decides to leave home too, telling his parents he wants a modern life. This enrages Kirsha, who tells him never to come back.

Umm Hamida finds a husband for Mrs. Afify, and Zaita makes a pass at Husniya, which Husniya does not reciprocate. Salim Alwan, still fixated on Hamida, decides to ignore the consequences and tells Umm Hamida he wants to marry her daughter. When he learns Hamida and Abbas are already engaged, he is infuriated. Umm Hamida and Hamida deliberate, and eventually they both agree that they should find a way to break off Hamida’s engagement to Abbas in favor of the much wealthier Salim Alwan, but their decision has come too late: the next day, they learn that Alwan had a heart attack overnight.

A large election campaign rally for the nationalist Ibrahim Farhat disrupts life in the alley. Farhat attempts to bribe Kirsha for his support—Kirsha is an influential man and a former revolutionary, but has renounced politics, except for the highest bidder. Watching the rally, Hamida realizes she is being watched herself by a handsome, well-dressed man.

The handsome stranger continues to return to the alley, sitting in Kirsha’s café and watching Hamida’s window. Eventually Hamida confronts him. In response, he showers her with compliments and promises her a life of wealth and happiness—but he is very vague about the commitment he would make to her.

In preparation for her wedding, Mrs. Afify commissions a new set of gold teeth from the local dentist Dr. Booshy at a bargain rate. Salim Alwan returns to the alley. Though physically recovered, he is an irritable, nervous wreck obsessed with bodily decay and death.

Hamida agrees to visit the handsome man, who she learns is named Ibrahim Faraj, at home. She expects a proposal of marriage, but Faraj withholds such a promise, however, and Hamida soon realizes Faraj is a pimp attempting to recruit her to work as a high-class sex worker. Hamida storms out. However, as Faraj expected, she secretly resolves to return to him, determined not to lose this opportunity for a new life of riches and excitement. The next day Hamida leaves the alley, telling no one where she is going.

Hussain Kirsha returns home, bringing his wife and brother-in-law with him—he has been laid off by the British as the war is coming to an end. Kirsha begrudgingly welcomes him back, though he does not lose the opportunity to mock and insult his son.

Faraj introduces Hamida to his other employees and his “school” for sex work. The two of them commence a torturous love affair, each convinced they are manipulating the other to their own benefit—and aware they are being manipulated themselves.

Abbas returns to the alley on leave and is distraught to learn of Hamida’s disappearance. He and Hussain Kirsha wander around the city from bar to bar, bemoaning their fate. Meanwhile Hamida, noticing that Faraj’s passion for her is cooling, attempts to goad him into proposing to her—he refuses. By chance, Abbas spots her and confronts her. Hamida then realizes she can take advantage of Abbas’s wounded honor and tells him where he can find Faraj to take revenge.

Abbas tells Hussain about his plan for revenge. Hussain agrees to help, not for the sake of Hamida’s honor but because he sees an opportunity to extort Faraj for money. Scoping out the bar that Hamida said Faraj frequents to plan their attack, the two men see Hamida consorting with a large group of British soldiers. Abbas is furious and attacks Hamida before the soldiers attack him in turn. Hussain is paralyzed by fear and doesn’t help his friend.

Hussain returns to the alley and tells his neighbors that Abbas has been beaten to death by the British soldiers, prompting an outpouring of grief and fear. Eventually, however, life in the alley becomes routine once more. And as the resident holy fool, Sheikh Darwish, declares, even the pain and tragedy of death is forgotten.