“His Excellency” by Naguib Mahfouz
The Ambition That Devours the Soul
Naguib Mahfouz’s His Excellency (originally published in 1975) is a compact yet philosophically profound novel, one of his most emblematic symbolic works.
On the surface, it appears deceptively simple, but beneath the linear narrative lies a deep meditation on ambition, success, and the existential emptiness that often underlies bureaucratic life.
Through a single protagonist—Osman Bayoumi—we follow a life from its early professional stirrings to its desolate conclusion, raising timeless questions about the price of ambition and the meaning of fulfillment.
While Mahfouz’s The Mirage explores emotional failure and The Thief and the Dogs captures the spirit of rebellion
His Excellency examines the consuming nature of ambition when it becomes an end in itself. It is a mirror reflecting the faces of bureaucracy, egotism, and existential void—all conveyed through Mahfouz’s hallmark of accessible yet deeply layered realism.
Narrative Structure and Setting
The novel follows a straightforward chronological structure. It begins on the day Osman Bayoumi is hired as a junior clerk in a government ministry and ends on the day of his retirement—tracing a 35-year climb up the bureaucratic ladder.
The ministry, unnamed and generic, serves as a symbolic backdrop, standing in for any number of government institutions.
Time stretches from the 1930s to the post-1960s era, but historical events remain in the background. The focus is not on politics but on the monotonous, emotionally sterile inner life of a man whose only movement is vertical—up the career ladder.
Central Character: Osman Bayoumi
The Dream: To Become “His Excellency”
Osman Bayoumi, a young man from the lower-middle class, loses his father early and decides to forge his path through career advancement alone. From his very first day at the ministry, he is laser-focused on one goal: becoming the Deputy Minister—earning the honorific title of “His Excellency.”
To Osman, the job is not just a livelihood—it is the essence of existence. He reveres the bureaucratic hierarchy as others might revere religion, art, or country. The office becomes his altar.
Sacrificing Everything for Success
In pursuit of this singular goal, Osman abandons everything else:
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Love: He rejects his only romantic partner because she is poor and of no social benefit.
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Friendship: He avoids genuine connections, forming only strategic relationships within the ministry.
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Principles: He takes no ethical stands, adjusting his values to whatever ensures his upward mobility.
Osman worships order, fears change, and interacts with people only according to their rank. Each promotion brings him a fleeting thrill, but a creeping emptiness follows—one he refuses to acknowledge.
A Symbolic Character
Osman Bayoumi is more than just a government employee; he’s a symbol of mechanical ambition. He loses his sense of self in pursuit of a mental image of “success.” To him, becoming His Excellency is the ultimate purpose. But when he finally arrives, he finds nothing there. The grand title offers no joy—only a deeper plunge into isolation.
The Ministry: A Stage of Bureaucratic Absurdity
The ministry in which Osman works is a microcosm of Egyptian—and by extension, Arab—bureaucracy: a closed world ruled not by merit but by connections and sycophancy. Administrations come and go, but the rule remains: those who play the game win.
In this setting, Osman excels. He is a master of flattery, silence, and political maneuvering. But his reward is steep: the slow erosion of his humanity.
The Inner Transformation
As Osman ascends the bureaucratic ranks, his inner world deteriorates:
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He begins as an idealistic, disciplined young man.
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Then becomes opportunistic, cynical, and mechanical.
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Ultimately, he is a hollow shell who lives only through his personal diary and talks only to his mirror.
He reaches the pinnacle of his career—only to be retired. It is then that he confronts a brutal truth: his life had been a pursuit of an illusion.
Loneliness and Symbolic Death
After retirement, Osman returns home to find nothing and no one waiting for him—no family, no friends, no legacy. He turns to his diary, once a record of triumph, only to find it void of any real life.
He falls into an existential isolation and dies suddenly—a death that echoes the spiritual death he suffered years before. His physical demise is not just an end, but a symbol of the futility of a life consumed by empty ambition.
Key Themes and Symbols
Literary Style
Mahfouz adopts a restrained, at times austere style in this novel—well-suited to the sterile world he depicts. He avoids elaborate description and long dialogues, opting instead for internal monologue and psychological depth.
Though brief in length, the novel is profound in impact. It reads smoothly, focusing more on the protagonist’s internal evolution than on external drama.
Final Reflection
His Excellency is not merely the story of a man who climbed to the top. It is a critique of modern societal values, where worth is measured by status, not substance. It invites readers to reconsider the meaning of ambition and success, and to confront the question the novel only whispers:
Were you ever truly alive while achieving all that?
Mahfouz gifts us a literary gem that blends symbolism with realism, urging us to rethink what it means to be "respected." Is respect found in titles and offices—or in the depth of the human heart?
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