For what it’s worth, you can read my half-baked reminiscence of meeting Naguib Mahfouz over on Marcia Lynx Qualiey’s Arabic Literature (in English) blog, which by the way you should all be following if you aren’t already.
My friend Robyn Creswell’s more eloquent account of one of these Mahfouz evenings, published as an obituary, came out in n+1.
Send Down the Basket! 