[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-41428-en":3,"doc-seo-41428-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},41428,8796095462418,"Noah","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780",1,"Story & Novel","Karnak Cafe","Karnak Café presents a fictional encounter that begins with a chance delay while a visitor has his watch repaired on al-Mahdi Street. The narrator discovers a small off-main-street café and notices an elderly woman near the cash register whose refined features trigger vivid, buried memories. As the present scene awakens images of music, drums, incense, and a former dancer from the 1940s, the story explores recognition, longing, and the quiet pull of admiration without direct contact. The text centers on the café’s atmosphere and the narrator’s fixation on Qurunfula.","NAGUIB MAHFOUZ KARNAK CAFÉ  \nNaguib Mahfouz was one of the most prominent writers of Arabic ɹction in the twentieth century. He was born in 1911 in Cairo and began writing at the age of seventeen. His ɹrst novel was published in 1939. Throughout his career, he wrote nearly forty novellength works and hundreds of short stories. In 1988 Mr. Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 2006.  \nTHE FOLLOWING TITLES BY NAGUIB MAHFOUZ  \nARE ALSO PUBLISHED BY ANCHOR BOOKS:  \nThe Beggar, The Thief and the Dogs, Autumn Quail (omnibus edition) Respected Sir, Wedding Song, The Search (omnibus edition) The Beginning and the End The Time and the Place and Other Stories Midaq Alley The Journey of Ibn Fattouma Miramar Adrift on the Nile The Harafish Arabian Nights and Days Children of the Alley Echoes of an Autobiography The Day the Leader Was Killed Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth Voices from the Other World Khufu ’s Wisdom Rhadopis of Nubia Thebes at War Seventh Heaven The Thief and the Dogs  \nThe Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk  \nPalace of Desire Sugar Street  \nFIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, DECEMBER 2008  \nCopyright © 1974 by Naguib Mahfouz First published in Arabic in 1974 as al-Karnak English translation copyright © 2007 by Roger Allen  \nAll rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage  \nBooks,  \na division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in  \nhardcover in the United States by The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo and New York, in 2007.  \nAnchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.  \nThis is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  \nAny resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales  \nis entirely coincidental.  \nThe Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress.  \neISBN: 978-0-307-79385-0  \n[www.anchorbooks.com](www.anchorbooks.com)  \nv3.1  \nContents  \nCover  \nAbout the Author  \nOther Books by This Author Title Page  \nCopyright  \nQurunfula Isma‘il al-Shaykh Zaynab Diyab Khalid Safwan  \nTranslator’s Afterword  \nQurunfula  \nIt was sheer chance that brought me to the Karnak Café . One day I’d made my way to al-Mahdi Street to get my watch repaired; the job was going to take several hours, so I had to wait. To kill the time I decided to look at all the watches, jewelry, and trinkets on display in the store windows on both sides of the street. And that’s how I came to stumble across the café .  \nIt’s very small and oʃ the main street. Since that day it’s become my favorite place to sit and pass the time. To tell you the truth, at ɹrst I hesitated by the entrance for a moment, but then I spotted a woman sitting on a stool by the cash register, the usual spot for the manageress. You could tell she was getting old, and yet she still had vestiges of her former beauty. Those clear, reɹned features of hers jogged something buried deep in my memory. All of a sudden the images came ɻooding back. I could hear music and drums. I was sitting there watching a gorgeous body swaying from side to side; the air was permeated by the aroma  \nof incense. A dancer, that’s what she was. Yes, the star of ‘Imad al-Din, none other than Qurunfula herself! Now there she was sitting on the stool, Qurunfula in person, the roseate dream from the 1940s.  \nSo that was how I came to enter the Karnak Café . I felt drawn in by some obscure magic force and a carefree heart, and all because of someone who had never even heard of me. We had never had any kind of relationship, whether of aʃection, selfinterest, or simply courtesy. At one time she had been a real star, whereas I was just oneof her contemporaries. The admiring glances that I directed at her still-glorious ɹgure seemed to have absolutely no eʃect on her, and I did not feel I had any reason to go over and say hello. So I just took a seat and st","cbCaitnp2GeJaxQ4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitnp2GeJaxQ4","pdf",556070,3,155,"English","en",105,"# Contents\n## About the Author\n## Other Books by This Author Title Page\n## Translator’s Afterword\n# Qurunfula\n## It was sheer chance that brought me to the Karnak Café","[{\"question\":\"How does the narrator first come to Karnak Café?\",\"answer\":\"He is on al-Mahdi Street to repair his watch, must wait for several hours, and decides to browse the shop displays, which leads him to the café.\"},{\"question\":\"What causes the narrator to recognize Qurunfula?\",\"answer\":\"He sees an old woman by the cash register, and her refined features bring back vivid memories of a dancer and the former star Qurunfula from the 1940s.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the café like according to the narration?\",\"answer\":\"It is small and off the main street, with a tidy one-room layout, wallpaper, new chairs and tables, mirrors, colored lamps, and clean plates and cups.\"}]",1783323748,239,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"karnak-cafe","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,52,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,49],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",{"item":50,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":51},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/karnak-cafe/41428/",4,{"url":50,"name":13,"@type":53,"author":54,"headline":13,"publisher":56,"fileFormat":59,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":60,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":59,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":55},"Person",{"url":40,"name":57,"@type":58},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-12","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"How does the narrator first come to Karnak Café?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"He is on al-Mahdi Street to repair his watch, must wait for several hours, and decides to browse the shop displays, which leads him to the café.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"What causes the narrator to recognize Qurunfula?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"He sees an old woman by the cash register, and her refined features bring back vivid memories of a dancer and the former star Qurunfula from the 1940s.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What is the café like according to the narration?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"It is small and off the main street, with a tidy one-room layout, wallpaper, new chairs and tables, mirrors, colored lamps, and clean plates and cups.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":50,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":57,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":50},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,95,99,103,108,113,118,123,128,131,135],{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":96,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":51,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":100,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":104,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":109,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":110,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":114,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":115,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":119,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]