Children of Gebelaawi

I just finished “Children of Gebelaawi” by Naguib Mahfouz.

It is an excellent book, entertaining but also informative and thought provoking.

The book is a fictional account of the life of several generations in an alley somewhere in Egypt at the edge of the desert. Gebelaawi, the founder of the alley, and the ancestor of all those living there, has set up a trust. This trust is intended to benefit all of his descendants. In important aspect of what is described in this book about the life in the alley is how the trust, and particularly the way the trust is distributed, affects the politics of the alley and how some rare characters tried to change the life of the people in the alley.

Through the 5 chapters of the book Naguib Mahfouz shows how Adham (Adam), Gebel (Moses), Riffa (Jesus) and Qaasim (Mohammmad) lived in the alley, as well as one last character, Arafa, who I believe is really a character of the near past, present and possibly future.

Gebelaawi is meant to be a representation of how humans see god and the book was forbidden in Egypt for a long time because this and the representation on Mohammad as a normal human being.

I highly recommend this book. This would be an excellent book to discuss with people. I certainly wished I had somebody to talk to who had read it. If you read it what ever you do, do not stop before the end, do not miss the chapter about Arafa.