Qismati and Nasibi

Qismati and Nasibi is a short story written by Nobel Prize winning Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz.

It was included in the short story collection Ra’aytu fima yara al-na’im (I Saw, in a Dream, or I Saw as the Sleeper Sees) published in 1982.

Amorous affection for a young girl named Samiha provokes aggression and jealousy in the twins, and then a black eye and a bloody lip.

Finally he dies, leaving Qismati in the strange position of carrying his brother's dead corpse around to live a half-life, half-death.

Translators Ronak Husni and Daniel Newman have described the story as tragicomedy, magical realism, and as an allegory with multiple interpretations,[1] which has prompted comparisons to some of Mahfouz's other works such as Children of Our Alley.

Many of the "dreams" in the collection are influenced by the author's reading of medieval adventures and the allegorical ghost story by Muhammad al-Muwaylihi based on them, The Tale of Isa ibn Hisham.

[5] The story features themes such as good and evil, the social responsibility of man, destiny, fate, and death.

[9] Because "Qismati and Nasibi" was included in a readily available collection of Arabic short stories translated into English, it receives a good deal of popular attention.

[10] The multiple possibilities for interpretation of the allegory, coupled with its association with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, make this short story stand out in the canon of Arabic literature.