Children of Gebelaawi (6 page)

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XXV

PROLOGUE

This is the story of our Alley, or rather these are its stories.

I have witnessed only the most recent events, which have

happened i n my own lifetime, but I have recorded everything

as it is related by our nu merous bards. Everyone in our Alley

tells these tales, just as they have been heard i n the local cafe

or handed down in the fami ly, and such have been my only

sources. There are so many occasions that call for the stories

to be told. Whenever people suffer trouble or oppression or

i njustice, they point to the Great House at the head of the AIIey

where it meets the desert, and say sadly: There stands our

Ancestor's house. We are all his children and we all have a right

to his Trust. Why shou ld we be hungry and wretched? ' Then

they start telling the stories of the glorious sons of our Alley:

Adham, Gebel, Rifaa and Qaasim.

This Ancestor of ours is a riddle. He lived so much longer

than a human bei ng can hope for or even conceive that he

became proverbial. He had been shut away in his house long

ago because of his age, and si nce then no one had seen him at

all. The legend of his isolation and longevity defies understanding, and imagi nation or wishful thinking no doubt helped it to grow. Be that as it may, he was called Gebelaawi or 'Old

Man ofthejebel', and our Alley is named after him. He was the

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Children of Gebelaawi

Founder of its Trust Fund and the master of all that stood on

its soil and of all the property around the nearby desert.

I once heard a man say of him: 'From him came our Alley,

from which came Cairo, mother of the world. He lived here

alone when i t was a desolate wasteland and mastered it by the

strength of his arm and by his standing with the Governor.

Time will not bring another like him. He was a strongman so

tough that wild animals cri nge at the mention of him.' I heard

someone else say of him: ' He was truly a strongman, but not

like the others. He never extorted protection money from

anyone, nor did he strut about the world proudly, and he was

merciful to the weak. ' Then came a time when a few people

spoke of him in ways unworthy of his power and position; such

is the way of the world.

I myself have always found conversation about him fascinating, never dull. How often it has made me walk round the Great House in the hope of catch ing a glimpse of him, but

always in vai n ! How often I have stood in fron t of the huge gate,

gazing at the stuffed crocodi le mounted over i t! How often I

have sat i n Muqattam Desert, not far from the great wall, able

to see only the tops of the mulberry and fig and palm trees that

screen the house, and a few shuttered windows that show no

sign of life!

Was it not sad to have such an ancestor without our ever

seeing him, nor he us? Was it not strange that he should be

hidden away in this great, locked house, while we lived i n the

dust? If you ask what brought us all to such a pass you will at

once hear the stories of Ad ham, Gebel, Rifaa and Qaasim. You

will learn nothing to comfort your heart or ease your mind. As

I have said, no one saw our Ancestor after his withdrawal, but

that did not matter at all to most people. From the beginning

they were interested only i n his Trust and in the famous Ten

Clauses, about which so much has been said. This is the source

of the conflict that has been raging ever since I was born, which

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Prologue

has grown more dangerous with every generation up till this

one - and the next.

I do not want any sarcastic comment when I point ou t that

our people have always been one family, into which no outsider has married. Everyone knows everyone, both men and women, yet no alley has seen such savage feuds as ours, nor has

conflict divided its people as it has ours. For each person who

tries to do good you will fi nd ten strongmen brandishing their

cudgels and looking for a fight, so people are accustomed to

buyi ng securi ty with protection money and peace with su bmission and degradati on. They are severely punished for the slightest wrong word or deed, or even for looking as if they

think the wrong though ts.

The amazi ng thing is that people in heigh boring parts, such

as Otouf, Kafr el-Zaghari, Derrasa and Hussei nia, envy us and

talk of ours as an invi ncible alley with an inexhaustible Trust

and unbeatable strongmen. This is all very well, but they do not

realize that we are as poor as beggars, that we live amidst filth

and flies and lice, that we have to be content with crumbs, and

that we go about half naked. They see these strongmen of ours

stru tting arou nd and are overcome with admiration, forgetting that it is on our chests that they strut. Our only consolation is to look at the Creal House and say: 'There is the home of

Gebelaawi, the Founder of our Trust. He is our Ancestor and

we are all his chi ldren. '

I have witnessed the latest period of our history and lived

through the events brough t about by Arafa, a worthy son of the

Alley. It is than ks to one of Arafa's friends thal l am writing our

stories. He said to me one day: 'You are one of the few who can

write. Why not set down the tales of the Alley? Till now they

have been told in any old order, and each bard twists them

according to his whims and prejudices. It would be invaluable

if you wove them reliably into a si ngle complete account for

people to usc. I'll supply you with whatever information and

secrets you don't know. '

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Children of Gebelaawi

So I busied myself carrying out this plan, partly because I was

satisfied by its sou ndness and partly ou t of friendship for the

person who suggested it. I was the first in the Alley to make a

profession of writing, although it earned me a great deal of

scorn and sarcasm. My job is to write down the complaints of

those who are oppressed or in need. Although many unfortunates come to me, my work cannot raise me above the general level of our beggars; but I have gained a heart-breaking

knowledge of people's secret sorrows. But steady on! I am not

here to write about myself and my troubles, which are nothing

compared to those of the Alley.

Amazing Alley with your amazing events! How did it all