Children of Gebelaawi Read Online Free PDF

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
    begin? What was it all about? Who were these sons of our Alley?
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    AD HAM
    1 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    In the begi nning the place of our Alley was wasteland. It was
    a fri nge of Muqauam Desert, which now lurks on the edge of
    our world. Alone stood here the Great House that Gebelaawi
    had created as if to defy fear and desolation and banditry. I ts
    long, high wall enclosed a large area with the three-story
    building in the eastern half and the garden to i ts west.
    One day the Founder of the Trust summoned his sons to
    attend him in the lower drawing room, which opened on to the
    veranda. They all came: ldrees, Abbaas, Radwaan, Jaleel and
    Adham, dressed in silkjellabas. They stood in front of him, so
    respectful that they hardly dared look at him directly. He made
    them sit down on chairs arranged round him. For a while he
    fixed them, hawk-like, wi th his piercing eyes, then stood up,
    crossed to the great door to the veranda and stood there
    gazing out at the huge garden, crowded with mulberry and fig
    and palm trees, up which were trained henna and jasmine, and
    in whose branches singing birds thronged. The garden was
    bursting with life and song, but in the room there was silence.
    It seemed to the brothers that the Strongman of the Desert
    had forgotten them. Wi th his great height and breadth he
    seemed superhu man, a being from another world. They ex-
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    Children of Gebelaawi
    changed enquiri ng glances; this was how he was when he had
    made an important decision. They were worried, because he
    was as despotic at home as he was outside, and compared to
    him they were nothi ng. He turned towards them without
    movi ng from the spot where he stood, and he spoke i n a deep,
    raucous voice that fi lled the great room, with i ts tapestried
    walls.
    - I 've decided it wi ll be best if