CHILDREN OF GEBELAWI

'Children of Gebelawi', ('أولاد حارتنا') is a novel by the Egyptian writer and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. It is also known by its Egyptian dialectal transliteration, ''Awlad Haretna'', formal Arabic transliteration, ''Awlad Haratina'' and by the alternative transalated transliteral Arabic title of "Children of the Alley".

Contents

Reception

Synopsis

Publications

References

Reception

It was originally published in Arabic in 1959, in serialised form, in the Cairo daily Al-Ahram. It was met with severe opposition from religious authorities, and publication in the form of a book was banned in Egypt.^[1]
It was first printed in Lebanon in 1967. An English translation by Philip Stewart was published in 1981 and is still in print; when Stewart refused to sell his copyright, Doubleday commissioned a new version by Peter Theroux.
It was this book that earned Naguib Mahfouz condemnation from Omar Abdul-Rahman in 1989, after the Nobel Prize had revived interest in it. As a result, in 1994 – a day after the anniversary of the prize – Mahfouz was attacked and stabbed in the neck by two extremists outside his Cairo home.^[2]

Synopsis

The story recreates the history of the monotheistic Abrahamic religions, allegorised against the setting of an imaginary Cairene alley.
Gabalawi being an allegory for religion in general, the first four sections retell, in succession, the stories of: Adam (Adham) and how he was favored by Gabalawi over the latter's other sons, including Idris (إدريس); Moses (Gabal جبل); Jesus (Rifa'a رفاعة); and Muhammad (Qasim قاسم). Families of each son settle in different parts of the alley, symbolising Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The protagonist of the book's fifth section, Arafa (عرفة), who symbolises modern science and, significantly, comes after all prophets while all of their followers claiming Arafa as one of their own.

Publications

★ 1981, UK, Heinemann ISBN 0-435-99415-8 Pub date 1981, paperback (as Children of Gebelawi - Stewart's translation)

★ 1981, UK, Heinemann Educ. ISBN 0-435-90225-3 Pub date 13 April 1981, paperback (as Children of Gebelawi - Stewart's translation)

★ 1996, USA, Doubleday ISBN 0-385-42094-3, Pub date 1996, hardback (as Children of the Alley -Theroux's translation)

★ 1997, USA, Passeggata Press, ISBN 0-89410-818-2, Pub date 1997, paperback (as Children of Gebelaawi - Stewart's version revised)

References

1. Hafez, Sabry: "Introduction" to ''The Cairo Trilogy''. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2001. pg xxxiv.
2. Hafez, op. cit., pg. xlii.