Mamur Zapt
Appearance
The Mamur Zapt is the protagonist of an award-winning series of historical fiction police procedurals, written by Sudanese-born novelist Michael Pearce. The novels are set in Cairo at the turn of the twentieth century; the first in the series, The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet, was published in 1988.
Rather than being a specific person, "Mamur Zapt" was the official title of the head of the Cairo secret police; Pearce chose to fill this role with Gareth Cadwallader Owens, a Welsh army captain.
As of 2008, there are 16 novels in the Mamur Zapt series.