Harafish, The

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The Harafish is a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz. It comprises a series of episodes in a dozen generations of a family from the Egyptian urban rabble. Many of the members of this family become clan chiefs in an alley in the city; some of them are benefactors to the other members of the harafish; some are more corrupt. Neither the location within Egypt nor the time of the events is ever identified.