Born in Cairo, Ibrahim al-Mazini (1890–1949) was a major figure in modern Arabic literature, as a humorist, prose stylist, and critic. William Maynard Hutchins teaches at Appalachian State University, is the principal translator of Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy (AUC Press, 1989–1992), and has most recently translated Ibrahim al-Koni’s Anubis (AUC Press, 2005).