A biographical tale about the city of Cairo and a description of the transformations experienced by Egyptian society through the literary legacy of foremost Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz. The tale begins with his birth in 1911. How was Egyptian society then? A study based on historic documentation and newspaper archives of the turn of the last century ends with the final scene of Naguib Mahfouz’s funeral, in 2006, during which his coffin becomes a quarrelling point between the ruling government, the political Islamists, and the general public.