The essay examines Naguib Mahfouz's novel The Beggar and Adrift on the Nile, and and it attempts to understand the author's views on the Role of the Intellectual. Written in the mid 1960s, the novels reflect on the Nasserite regime and the ontological, social, and political crises of the Egyptian intellectual during that period. The essay addresses question of responsibility in Mahfouze's works and draws from other intellectuals, particularly Ali Harb and Edward Said.