The Theme of Justice in Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Arabian Nights and Days Anonymous College

The Arabian Nights, a classic collection of medieval tales, has influenced countless writers in literature creations. There are an ocean of novels, fictions and poetry that either borrow elements or derive inspiration from the stories in The Arabian Nights. The novel The Arabian Nights and Days, written by the Nobel-winning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, is one successful example of the works under the influence of The Arabian Nights. This novel continues the frame story in The Arabian Nights and narrates what has happened after the one thousand and one nights of storytelling by Shahrazad to the bloodthirsty sultan Shahryar. In this novel, familiar characters such as Aladdin, Sinbad, and Nur al-Din come on stage again. However, instead of mimicking the plots and styles of The Arabian Nights as in other parodies, Naguib Mahfouz gives new lives to those old characters, motifs and events, and effectively manipulates them to reflect social realities. Disguised in the ancient fantasy, The Arabian Nights and Days exposes and contemplates on the theme of justice in the Egyptian and Middle Eastern society under the dark age of colonization and corruption. Such manipulation of old stories and discussion of justice under modern context...