In the book Arabian Nights and Days, what physical features and social practices of this imagined but very traditional Arab city are learned?

The physical features incorporated into the action depict a land with mountains harboring jade deposits (seemingly mined, since "old jade" is a feature of note) next to areas of agricultural cultivation, which are next to a barren desert.

Following the dawn prayer, with clouds of darkness defying the vigorous thrust of light, the vizier Dandan was called to a meeting with the sultan Shahriyar. . . He went by a road that led up to the mountain on an old jade. . .

[Urg] had to move away from the cultivated land. He had to search for some hole in the desert, for some safe place to keep the body until he had his desires.  

Jade deposits often occur in mountainous areas like the ones Dandan walks through. A present-day example of mountainous jade deposits is in the Jade Mountains in Canada's British Columbia. In contrast, California's San Joaquin Valley illustrates how agricultural and desert areas can exist next to (jade-filled) mountains because of the "rain-shadow effect." Mahfouz's created land is geographically correct (and interesting).

The social practices represented through characters (such as Gamasa al-Bulti) and plot development shows a society that is in many respects a contemporary society. They have "plain-clothed" policemen, police patrols, arrests, interrogations, and intimidating police warnings, like the one Gamasa gave to Fadil Sanaan. They have corrupt government officials ("Let us leave the rulers till ruling corrupts them"), including governors. They have schools of learning from which students graduate, such as Sheikh Abdullah al-Balkhi's school of the Way. They have dissenting religious groups, such as the Shiites and the Kharijites, dissenters Gamasa has the duty to arrest. One thing that isn't contemporary that their society has is magic and deep superstition, depicted by the Cap of Invisibility given to Fadil by the stranger.

Presented simply as a list, other social practices in their society include

• seekers and teachers of higher truth


• typical work schedules: "He scarcely slept a wink that night and went off to work early in the morning."


• blackmail and bribery: "'You should make it ten thousand, master,' Urg said gently."


• political action (petitions to the governor)


• politico-religious dissension: [Gamasa al-Bulti said to Fadil] "[M]y first task, as you know, is to pursue the Shiites and the Kharijites."


• highway robbery


• local security


• local trade (it is known that security and trade are tied closely together and that trade is closely tied to a thriving community)