Cairo, 1908, the heyday- or was it past the heyday?-…It was a country ripe with ambiguities. A country bright with sunlight and dark with shadows. And in the shadows, among the ambiguities, worked the Mamur Zapt.
-The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet, Michael Pearce
The Mamur Zapt (from Ma’mūr Dābit, Commissioner of Secret Police, with the letter D of Dābit pronounced in Egypt as Z and the word Anglicized as Zapt, using the letter P which does not exist in Arabic and cannot be pronounced correctly by Arabs- thus the Christian name Butrous, for Peter) is my favorite series of Detective novels (Night of the Dog, Snake Charmer’s Daughter, Death of an Effendi, Spoils of Egypt, Mouth of the Crocodile, Last Cut, etc.), all making Cairo come alive again to those who knew the city. Mouski Street, Ezbekia Garden, Shepheard’s Hotel, Opera Square, Tawfiqiyya Red Light District- all there.
