[3] It is Mahfouz's first novel and the first of what would later be referred to as his pharaonic trilogy, which also includes Rhadopis and Thebes at War.

[4] After beginning his literary career in the mid-1930s writing short stories published in Arrissalah, Mahfouz made his foray into writing novels in 1939 with 'Abath al-Aqdar.

[4] It is one of several novels that Mahfouz wrote at the beginning of his career with Pharaonic Egypt as the setting, employing what would become his signature historical realism.

[4] Rhadopis of Nubia (1943) and Thebes at War (1944) completed Mahfouz's pharaonic trilogy.

The complete pharaonic trilogy was published in English in one volume under the title Three Novels of Ancient Egypt (Everyman's Library, 2007).