#Helmi Hosni

[aisakalegacy]

Hiver 1921, Hylewood, Canada (1/15)

Mers chers cousins,

Je suis heureux d’avoir de vos nouvelles. Ces histoires simples sont un vrai plaisir à lire quand on revient d’un voyage éreintant, où la mort guette à chaque montagne. Je suis rentré d’Egypte il y a quelques semaines et il faut que je vous raconte mon périple.

Je vous ai laissé dans mon repère, le temple mortuaire de Seti Ier, où je me suis caché pendant près d’un an. La vieille Amina m’amenait à manger et me visitait dans mon exil en attendant que les tensions se calment. Loin de se calmer, elles n’ont fait que s’accroître. Le pays est à feu et à sang, divisé entre les saadistes partisans d’une indépendance radicale et sans conditions, et les modérés qui veulent compromettre avec la Grande-Bretagne. Les négociations sont toutes infructueuses, la colère gronde, et des émeutes éclatent en permanence. Amina a fini par être suivie (je soupçonne que ma découverte a été orchestrée par son fils), et j’ai été contraint de fuir. J’ai donc pris la décision de gagner le Soudan, afin de demander de l’aide aux Américains. J’ai donc entrepris de remonter à la nage le Nil et ses canaux, de manière à éviter les villes.

[silverjansims]

Generation 2: Frontier Aquarium

Week 4: Frontier Success

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back to another quick visit with Eliseo and Jemina Gary who are enjoying a nice quiet weekend after a busy week of dreams coming true, travels, prom night, and a couple of birthdays.

Jemina got some new outfits for her birthday including this everyday one.

This is Jemina's 'perfect' jellyfish that completed her lifetime wish.

First please Eliseo as he wishes a very Happy Birthday to his lovely wife, Jemina who has reached her midlife years. Although she's experiencing a crisis that is associated with these mid years, Jemina is extremely happy after completing her lifetime wish of owning the 'Perfect Aquarium' after catching a 'perfect' quality jellyfish to finish off her collection. Now Jemina can sell the remaining fish she catches to advance in her career as an angler.

Jemiah is now all ready for school.

Birthday wishes also go out to Eliseo and Jemina's youngest son, Jemiah whose name is a variation of Jeremiah who is his grandfather. Despite having the absent-minded and good traits, Jemiah is not so good when it comes to acquiring something he wants by showing signs of having a kleptomaniac sign to him. We'll have to wait and see how many 'things' that are not his that Jemiah comes home from school with. His parents hope that he'll do the right thing and return whatever he takes unless it's dirty dishes.

Eliseo emerging from the final dive well in the Pyramid of the Burning Sands after picking the flame fruit he needed for his new contact, Fatima Amin.

Eliseo took a return trip to Egypt to continue his 'Business Abroad' adventures with Sekhmet Hawas. Since he had passed away in Eliseo's absence, he had to wait a couple of days before Fatima Amin contacted him to continue his previous task which was to find some flame fruit inside the Pyramid of the Burning Sands. By the time Eliseo delivered the fruit, his trip was almost over so will return at a later date to ask Helmi Hosni about an ancient book that Fatima is interested in.

Poor Elijah had one of those infamous mood swings on the day of his prom. He got in trouble for trying to put a whoopie cushion on one of the chairs in the downstairs hallway twice so his mother put him in a time out. Things got better for him at the prom with his date.

The last big news of the family's fourth week in Sunlit Tides is that there eldest son, Elijah now has a girlfriend. When he was in grade school, Elijah became friends with one of his classmates, Elosie Carnegie who lives with her parents and brother in Sunlit Tides. She became a teenage a couple of days before the high school prom and asked Elijah to be her date. Elijah and Elosie had a great time at the prom together where she kissed him for the first time and asked to be her steady boyfriend to which he agreed.

Meet Elijah's prom date, Elosie Carnegie who according to Elijah is 'excitable' but neurotic and 'can't stand art'. These things don't matter to Elijah as he has since fallen in love with her.

That's the main news for now from the Gary household in Sunlit Tides and they have included some recent photos for you all to enjoy. Have a great week everyone!

[w-sims]

W’s 365 Days of Sims [183/365] - Helmi Hosni

Helmi has one of the most popular shops in the Al Simhara base camp. His local knowledge is second-to-none (all the more impressive since he’s not a local) and he is always full of advice for the town’s adventurers.

[tasksweekly]

[TASK 032: EGYPT]

Shout out to anon for inspiring this task! There’s a masterlist below compiled of over 120+ Egyptian faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever character or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK -  examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite Egyptian faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by a Egyptian artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on Egyptian culture and customs. 

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST! 

Ladies:

Lobna Abdel Aziz (81) Egyptian - actress.

Shwikar (81) Egyptian - actress.

Nelly Artin Kalfayan (68) Egyptian - actress, singer, dancer & comedian.

Wendie Malick (66) Egyptian (paternal grandfather), German, French, English - actress, voice actress, & former fashion model.

Fifi Abdou (63) Egyptian - belly dancer & actress.

Yousra (56) Egyptian - actress & singer.

Elham Shahin (56) Egyptian - actress.

Hala Sedki (55) Egyptian - actress.

Sherihan (52) Egyptian - actress and multi-artist.

Hoda Kotb (52) Egyptian - news anchor.

Simone Philip Kamel (50) Egyptian.

Abla Kamel (49) Egyptian - actress.

Ghada Abdel Razek (46) Egyptian - actress.

Dalia El Behery (46) Egyptian - actress.

Ola Ghanem (45) Egyptian - actress.

Angham Mohamed Ali Suleiman (45) Egyptian - singer.

Nelly Karim (42) Egyptian - actress, fashion model & ballerina.

Hanan Tork (41) Egyptian - actress & former ballerina.

Mona Zaki (40) Egyptian - actress.

Zeina (40)  Egyptian - model.

Yasmine Al Massri (38) Palestinian / Egyptian - actress.

Arwa Gouda (37) Egyptian - actress.

Nour El-Semary (36/37) Egyptian - singer.

Sherine (36) Egyptian - singer & actress.

Ruby (35) Egyptian - singer & actress.

Yara Goubran (34) Egyptian - actress.

Mirhan Hussein (34) Egyptian - actress & singer.

Menna Shalabi (34) Egyptian - actress.

Elham Wagdy (34) Egyptian - model.

Fawzia Mohamed (33/34)  Egyptian - beauty queen and model.

Randa El Behery (33) Egyptian - actress & model.

Amal Maher (32) Egyptian - singer.

Mona Hala (32) Egyptian - actress.

Donia Samir Ghaneen (32) Egyptian - actress.

Vanessa Lengies (31) German / Egyptian - actress, dancer and singer.

Ehsan Hatem (31) Egyptian / American - model.

Hana Sheha (31) Lebanese /  Egyptian - actress.

Sonja Kinski (30) Egyptian / Polish, German - actress.

Meriam George (29/30) Egyptian - model.

Yara Naoum Egyptian (29) Egyptian - model.

Sara El-Khouly (29) Egyptian - model.

Elisa Sednaoui (29) Syrian-Egyptian, French / Italian - model, actress & philanthropist.

Zizi Adel (29) Egyptian - singer.

Malak Koura (28) Egyptian - actress.

Rahma Hassan (28) Egyptian - actress & former model.

Nesma Mahgoub (27) Egyptian.

Lara Scandar (26) Egyptian-Italian / Unknown - singer.

Jade Thirlwall (24) English / Egyptian, Yemeni - singer.

Mayar El Gheity (24) Egyptian - actress.

Tara Emad (23) Montenegrin / Egyptian - actress & model.

Carmen Suleiman (22) Egyptian - singer.

Lara Debbana (22) Egyptian - model.

Imaan Hammam (20) Egyptian / Moroccan - fashion model.

Menna Arafa (17) Egyptian - actress.

Elham Abd El-Badea (?) Egyptian - actress.

Elham Abdelbadea (?) Egyptian - actress.

Sarah Fasha (?) Egyptian - model.

Donia Hamed (?) Egyptian - model.

Men:

Samir Ghanem (80) Egyptian - comedian, singer & entertainer.

Adel Emam (76) Egyptian - actor & comedian.

Mahmoud Yacine (76) Egyptian - actor.

Hussein Fahmy (76) Egyptian - actor.

Yehia El-Fakharany (71) Egyptian - actor.

Mahmoud Abdel Aziz (70) Egyptian - actor.

Lotfy Labib (69) Egyptian - actor.

Mohamed Mounir (62)  Egyptian - singer.

Ali El Haggar (62) Egyptian - singer.

Sayed Badreya (59/60) Egyptian - actor.

Hesham Selim (59) Egyptian - actor.

Amr Diab (55) Egyptian - singer.

Mohammad Fouad (55) Egyptian - singer & actor.

Andrew Ridgeley (54) Egyptian, Italian / English, Scottish - singer, songwriter and record producer.

Hany Ramzy (52)  Egyptian - actor.

Khaled El Nabawy (50) Egyptian - actor.

Moustafa Amar (50)  Egyptian - musician & actor.

Khaled Abol Naga (50) Egyptian - actor.

Ahmed Helmy (47) Egyptian - actor & host.

Ahmed Ahmed (46) Egyptian - actor & comedian.

Mostafa Shaban (46) Egyptian - actor.

Mido Hamada (45/46) Egyptian - actor.

Xavier Naidoo (45) German, Indian / Egyptian - singer-songwriter.

Ahmed Ezz (45) Egyptian - actor.

Amr Saad (45) Egyptian - actor.

Amr Waked (43) Egyptian - actor.

Ramez Galal (43)  Egyptian - actor & singer.

Jaime Camil (43) Mexican (Egyptian, possibly other) / Brazilian (Portuguese, possibly other) - actor, singer & host.

Ahmed El Sakka (43) Egyptian - actor.

Omar Metwally (42) Egyptian / Dutch - actor.

Karim Abdel Aziz (41) Egyptian - actor.

Samer el Nahhal (41) Egyptian / Finnish - bassist.

Hany Adel (40) Egyptian - guitarist.

Sam Esmail (39) Egyptian - actor.

Tamer Hosny (39) Egyptian - actor.

Hesham Maged (36)  Egyptian - actor.

Ahmed El-Fishawy (36) Egyptian - actor.

Khalid Abdalla (36) Egyptian - actor.

Sammy Sheik (35) Egyptian - actor.

Mohamed Mamdouh (35) Egyptian - actor.

Rami Malek (35) Egyptian, 1/8th Greek - actor.

Sami Malek (35) Egyptian, 1/8th Greek - actor.

Asser Yassin (35) Egyptian - actor.

Ahmed Dawood (34) Egyptian - actor.

Amr Salama (34) Egyptian - film director, blogger, screenwriter & author.

Andreas Bourani (33) Egyptian - singer-songwriter.

Mohamed Imam (32) Egyptian - actor.

Tarek El-Ibiary (30) Egyptian - actor.

Karim Kassem (30) Egyptian, Jewish heritage - actor.

Mohamed Ramadan (28) Egyptian - actor.

Ali Rabee (27) Egyptian - actor.

Xavier Dolan (27) Egyptian / French-Canadian, one quarter Irish - actor.

Sherif Fayed (24) Egyptian - footballer.

Fady Elsayed (23) British / Egyptian - actor.

Youssef Osman (22) Egyptian - actor.

Shady Srour (21) Egyptian - Youtuber.

Youssef Sawmah (19) Lebanese, Egyptian.

Mohamed El Sharnouby (?) Egyptian - actor.

Ahmed Hatem Omar (?) Egyptian - actor.

Mohamed Kelany (?) Egyptian - musical artist.

Moe Michaels (?) Egyptian - actor.

Amir Aboulela (?) Egyptian - actor.

Tameem Youness (?) Egyptian - Youtuber.

Non-binary:

N/A

Trans:

N/A

-C

[egynationals]

RESULTS BU11 - ROUND 256 & 128

Boys U 11 Round 128 Youssef ELWaboury (Shams)Bt  Yassin Waleed (Smouha) 2/1 Mohamed Yehia (Shams) Bt Ahmed Hossam (Shooting) 2/0 Yassin EL Meligy (M3) Bt Kareem Essam (Smouha) 2/0 Ali Tamer (Shooting) Bt Waleed Hatem (Shooting) 2/0 Ali Amr (Zohoor) Bt Taha Khaled (Geish) 2/0 Yassin Sherif (Zohoor) Bt El Mostafa Hesham (Tawkilat) 2/0 Malek Sherif (Heliopolis) Bt Nour EL Deen Ahmed( shooting) 2/1 Hamdy Tarek (Degla) bt Youssef Hamad (Geish) 2/0 Gebriel Albert (Sporting) Bt Khaled Reda(Degla) 2/0 Ahmed Sameh (Degla) bt Selim Sherif (SHOOTING) 2/0 Ahmed Hamoud (Shooting) Bt Marwan Assal(Gezira) 2/1 Eyad Mansour (Degla) Bt Yassin Mohab (6 October)2/0 Ammar Mahmoud (Maadi) Bt Ibrahim Islam (Tanta)2/0 Adham Mohamed (Shooting) Bt Ismail Amr (Geish) 2/0 Yassin Moahmed (Shams ) Bt Youssef Mahmoud  2/0 Youssef Nabil (shams) Bt Hossam Omar ( Heliopolis) 2/0 Ali Zeyad(Heliopolis) Bt Eyad Ahmed (Shooting) 2/0 Ahmed Taha (Helipolois) bt Youssef Mohamed (Geish) 2/0 Omar Hany (Helio) bt Eyad Ahmed 2/0 Ali Mohamed (Ahly) bt Tim Tamer 2/0 Omar Mohamed (Smoha) bt Adam Mohamed 2/0 Motsafa Tamer (Tanta) bt Yassin Hossam (Mahala) 2/1 Basel Mokhtar (Geish) bt Omar Tarek 2/1 Ali Osama (Helio) bt Mohamed Ahmed 2/0 Seif ELdin (Geish) bt Yassin Khaled (Smoha) 2/0 Ali Ashraf (Shooting) bt Omar Ahmed (Smoha) 2/0 Adham Mohamed (Geish) bt Mostafa Osama 2/0 Yassin Ahmed (Shooting) bt Ziad Hazem (Helio) 2/0 Ali Hany (Geish) bt Mostafa Sherif (Geish) 2/0 Omar Mohamed (Helio) bt Mohamed Saleh (Smoha) 2/0 Seif Dahshan (Degla)  bt Fares el Bashek (Smouha) 2/0 Karim Moataz (Shooting) bt Seif Hazem (T) 2/0 Fares Waled (H.Hedod) bt Yousief Mohamed 2/0 Omar ELKeiy (Spo) bt Seif Shaltot (Shams) 2/1 Yasien Tamer (Geish) bt Abdallah Hassan 2/0 Ahmed Nader (Spo) bt Yousef Salah (Geish) 2/1 Youssef Waleed (Helio) bt Abdelrahman Hamdy (Degla) 2/1 Karim Sameh (Geish) bt Omar Ehab (Geish) 2/0 Mohamed Saleh (Degla) bt Yassin Waleed (Smo) 2/0 Hamza Ehab (Spo) bt Ezz Ekram (Zhor) 2/0 Mina Wasem (Smo) bt Ahmed AbdelAziz (Helio) 2/0 Karim Sameh (Gzeira) bt Omar Khaled (Helio) 2/0 Yassin Yakot (Degla) bt John Nabil (Shams) 2/0 Eyad Hossam (Shooting) bt Yassin Ayman (Degla) 2/0 Omar AbdElhay (Shooting) bt Omar Sherif 2/0 Cris Alber (Smo) bt Radwan Ahmed (Smo) 2/0 Saged Allah Ahmed (Smo) bt Omar Mohamed (Helio) 2/0 Yassin Ayman (Spo) bt Hussien Tarek (Spo) 2/0 Ahmed Khaled (Shams) bt Ali Ahmed (Shooting) 2/0 Ali Sherif (Spo) bt Ahmed Sherif (Smo) 2/1 Omar Hesham (Helio) bt Ziad Mohamed (Smo) 2/0 Osama ELsayed (Degla) bt Youssif Bahgat (Mahala) 2/0 Adham Amr (Degla) bt Ahmed Refaat (Degla) 2/0 Hassan ELmenshawy (Helio) bt Ali Ahmed (Shooting) 2/0 Yassin Waleed (Maadi) bt Youssif Tarek (Shams) 2/0 Omar AbdelKhalek (Spo) bt Yassin Haitham (Helio) 2/0 Abdallah Yehia (Helio) bt Ahmed Waleed (ELmenia) 2/0 Hamdy Ehab (Ahly) bt Omar Khaled 2/0 Mohamed Hossam (Tanta)bt  Karim Amr 2/0 Eyad Mohamed (Smo) bt  Ahmed Tarek (Spo) 2/0 Youssef Ahmed (Degla) bt Momen Tamer (Mansora) 2/0 Yassin Sherif (Shooting) bt Amin Mohamed (Shooting) 2/0 Hesham Osama (Maadi) bt Abdelrahman (Mg3)

Boys Under 11  Round 256

Omar Khalil (Mahla city)  bt Hussein Hussein  (Shooting club)  2/1 Youssef Mohamed (Geish ) bt Hassan osama ( Zohoor )2/1 Mostafa osama( Gezira ) bt Hamza Mohamed 2/1 Taha Khaled (Geish) bt Yehia Hatem  2/1 Moahmed Rabee (shooting Katameya) bt  Mohamed Abdullah 2/0 Abd el rahman Hamdy (Wadi degla)  bt Youssef Kareem (shooting) 2/0 Taym Tamer Mohamed (shooting )bt Seif belal (sporting) 2/0 Youssef Mahmoud ( shooting ) Bt Amr Khaled  (shams) 2/0 Ahme d Maher (shooting) bt Ahmed Abd el reheem (shams ) 2/1 Mohamed salah (sporting) bt Abd el rahman sherif 2/0 Yassin ayman (Degla) bt Selim Wagdy (Mahla) 2/1 Ali Ashraf (shooting) bt Ahmed Omar Mohamed  2/1 Omar Mohamed (Heliopolis ) bt Mostafa Khalil  (Geish) 2/0 Ali Ziad Yousri (Heliopolis )bt Ahmed Baher Amir (Zohoor) 2/1 John Maher (Shams ) Bt Youssef Mohamed Ahmed (Heliopolois) 2/0 Omar Khaled (Geish ) bt Ismail Ossama (shooting) 2/0 Seif Hazem (Tanta) bt Adam Sherif (Smouha) 2/0 Ali Moawad (shooting )bt Ali Maged (Geish) 2/1 Omar Hassan (shooting) Bt Omar Sherif Hefni  (Heliopolis) Ahmed Tawheed (Menya) Bt Zein el deen Mohamed ( Heliopolis ) 2/0 Malek Sherif (Heliopolis ) Bt Imam Ramadan (Shams ) 2/1 Yassin Walid  (Smouha) bt Moaz Ahmed (Tanta) 2/0 Walid Mohamed  (Shooting ) BT  Omar Baher (Heliopolis) 2/0 Mostafa sherif (Geish) bt Ali Ahmed (Degla ) 2/0 Eyad Ahmed Saad (Tanta) Bt Karim Khaled Hassan (Degla) 2/1 Radwan Ahmed (Smouha) bt Hamza Mohamed (Tanta ) 2/0 Selim sherif ((Shooting) Bt Yassin Hazem (Zehoor ) 2/0 Abdualla Hassan (M2) Bt Mohamed Hosny ( Degla ) 2/0 Fares el Bashek (Smouha) Bt Abd el rahman Ahmed (Mansoura ) 2/0 Ahmed Refaat (Degla) bt Karim Amr  (M3) 2/0 Youssef Nabil (Shams) bt Hassan Amr (Heliopolis) Omar Helmy (Heliopolis) bt Ali Ahmed ( Geish ) 2/0 Omar Sherif (Maadi)  Bt Mohamed Zeyad (Mahla) 2/0 Ahmed Tarek ( Geish ) Bt Youssef Khaled (Mansoura) 2/0 Ahmed Tamer (Maadi) Bt Zeyad Hazem (Heliopolis) 2/0 Yassin Haitham (Heliopolis) bt Nour El Deen Ashraf  (shams ) 2/0 Karim Amr (Gezira) Bt Fares Sherif  (Heliopolis ) 2/1 Khaled Reda (Shooting) Bt Zein Mohsen (Degla) 2/0 Ahmed Abd el Hamid (M2) Bt Omar Hani (Shooting ) 2/0 ElMostafa Hesham (Gezira) Bt Hussein Mohamed (Heliopolis) 2/0 Ahmed Hossam  - Zeyad Mohamed (Zohoor) Wo Adam Moahmed (Tanta) Bt Abd el Rahman  mohamed (Defaa) 2/0 Youssif Tarek (Shams) Bt Omar Imam (Shooting ) 2/0 Youssef Mohamed (Geish ) bt Islam Ossama  (Degla) 2/1

[yahoonewsdigest-us]

Ousted leader Mubarak returns to an apathetic Egypt after years in detention

World

Ousted leader Mubarak returns to an apathetic Egypt after years in detention

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was freed from custody Friday morning after years of legal proceedings and wrangling that frustrated activists who had hoped he would face justice for the deaths of hundreds who defied his rule. His release marked a new chapter for the former autocrat, whose people rose up against him in 2011 and demanded an end to his 30 years in power — a time marked by corruption, economic inequity and reliance on a much-feared security apparatus. It also underscored the failed aspirations of the Arab Spring movement that swept the region.

Mubarak's trial lasted six years, and public opinion became bored of it.

Mostafa Kamel al-Sayed, an analyst and political science professor in Cairo University

Egypt's top appeals court acquitted Mubarak of charges that he ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. The order to release him was the latest in a series of rulings in recent years that acquitted about two dozen Mubarak-era cabinet ministers, top police officers and aides charged with graft or in connection with the killing of protesters during the uprising. Meanwhile several key activists in the 2011 uprising are now serving lengthy jail terms, and rights groups say hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared. Mubarak's release also made clear to activists how their "revolution" had effectively been reversed by current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. The general-turned-politician has restored the status quo in a country ruled in an authoritarian fashion by men of military background for most of the last six decades.

The trials, appeals and retrials — followed by acquittals — were only meant to win time until the military took back power. ... There is a great deal of apathy now. The only reaction you can find on the streets is someone joking about Mubarak being back home.

Ahmed Helmi, a rights lawyer in Cairo

[m-rabie]

Naguib Mahfouz, the man we all wronged

Original article was published on Madamasr here.

1988

As usual I sat at the front, close to the blackboard because I’m short-sighted, and to the left, so the teacher’s body wouldn’t hide what he wrote.

On that particular day the teacher was absent. I don’t remember what he taught us or even who he was, but I remember the substitute who came instead: An Arabic teacher who had taught me the year before and whom I had understood very little from. Instantly the memory of incomprehension came back, along with the idea that he was a bad teacher. A few of my classmates surrounded him, but he didn’t seem to care for the mess, the shouting or the kids standing around him, or even for the kids sitting like me, chatting with their neighbors.

Suddenly I heard someone ask him about Naguib Mahfouz, who had won the Nobel Prize a few days before. I’d heard about it in the news and what he did wasn’t a mystery to me — I knew he was a novelist and I knew of the prize-winning novel, but I didn’t remember who had told me.

As if he had been waiting for a question to bring order to the class, the sub said: “If you want to know about Mahfouz, you have to return to your seats.” Those around him did sit down, the rest quickly followed, and we all listened.

He said that Naguib Mahfouz was an atheist Egyptian writer who did not believe in God and that he had written an atheist, infidel book, which said “God has died” on the first page. He didn’t tell us the title of the book, of course, fearing that we would read it and be tempted, and none of us asked for further details because of his excessive harshness and the idea of Mahfouz-ian heresy that was deserving of execution.

Maybe many of us didn’t give much thought to the awful details related by the substitute teacher, but something settled in my mind and refused to leave. For years I kept asking around and looking for Mahfouz’s phrase, “God has died,” in every magazine or newspaper I put my hands on. I eventually learned that it appeared in his novel Awlad Haretna (Children of Gebelawi, 1959). I read a lot about it, but never succeeded in finding a copy.

1994

I heard the news on the car radio. Unusually, my father was driving me to school and he was listening very carefully: Naguib Mahfouz had been stabbed while walking down the street, but he hadn’t died and was in a stable condition in hospital.

Dozens of images came to my mind of his turtleneck sweater, his neutral grey jacket, his slow walk and his back bent under the brunt of something I didn’t comprehend. I remembered that I’d lazed around a lot and hadn’t yet finished all of his novels, as I’d planned to do that year. Something told me that if I didn’t finish, the man would die and it would be my fault.

It didn’t take much intelligence to realize that the teacher who called Mahfouz an infidel had something to do with what had happened that day. Disbelief flies in the air and stabs with a sharp blade. The desire to enter heaven, to purge an infidel society or to set the rules of Islam — these are three of many motives driving that stabber or other potential stabbers, and it all starts in school when a person we trust, whom our parents also trust, tells us without doubt that Mahfouz is an infidel.

I was still faced with a dilemma — I had yet to find Children of Gebelawi. Perhaps I’d have to skip it, but I didn’t want that. For some reason I’d decided to read Mahfouz by order of publication date, but my terrible mistake was to neglect his short stories, so I only read them later. Anyway, the absence of Children of Gebelawi from the shelves of our small library was an inescapable stumbling block.

1996

One of my friends was holding a copy of Al-Tariq (The Search, 1964) and saying: “Mahfouz, that infidel!” We met at a bookstand in Heliopolis, and he pulled the book from its place and put the stigma of disbelief on the man, just like that. The stabbed man was still in recovery, but the blasphemy accusations never ceased, even from a young man my age who drank beer, smoked hashish and listened to heavy metal.

We proceeded together toward downtown Cairo, walking a long way before he took his leave and left me at Taalat Harb Square. There, at one of the bookstands, I finally found Children of Gebelawi — and in an unusually large size. The vendor handed it to me with a beautiful smile and said: “Absolute infidelity!” This was getting boring.

I went home and started reading the book, fell asleep three hours later from fatigue, then woke up after dawn and continued to read. When I read that Gebelawi had died, I was shaking.

***

But this did not start in the 1980s.

It’s said that when Thartharah fawqa al-Nil (Adrift on the Nile) was published in 1966, military commander Abdel Hakim Amer was infuriated by its descriptions of hash-smokers’ gatherings, possibly somehow reading it as slandering his person. It’s also said that he called Gamal Abdel Nasser and said Mahfouz should be imprisoned, to which Nasser responded: “How many Mahfouzes do we have, Amer?”

The story is clearly false. It’s one of those stories “the Egyptian state” (that complex and mysterious phrase) spread to put Nasser in a good light and everyone else in a bad light. It reeks of the Egyptian state not only because it presents Nasser as aware and understanding, but also because it treats Egyptians — in this case Mahfouz — as chess pieces manipulated by the state to tell stories with a specific purpose and for complete control over the board, attributing absolutely no will or choice to the pieces themselves.

But this wasn’t the state’s only interaction with Mahfouz. It’s also said that Nasser once asked journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal about Mahfouz’s next work, and Heikal responded laughingly that he was about to publish a novel by the author that would “bring disaster” in Al-Ahram. “Only to you,” Nasser told him. I have no doubt that both stories come from the same person. Nasser has the same quick wit in both, and in both the narrator dismisses Mahfouz as a chess piece to be shamelessly manouvered.

Stories about the state’s maltreatment of Mahfouz are many. They include harassment from Al-Azhar University because of Children of Gebelawi, forcing him to resign as head of the censorship authority. They include the censor’s brutal treatment of Karnak Café (1974), cutting so much that it became riddled with plot-holes and appeared more like a draft than a novel by Mahfouz at the height of his craft and creativity. They include Anwar Sadat’s insulting treatment of him — and others — for signing Tawfiq al-Hakim’s 1972 petition denouncing the state of “no war and no peace” since Israel occupied Sinai in 1967. And there are stories about security reports that criticized Mahfouz for talking about “democracy” and other heresies that threatened the Egyptian state.

2016

On social media website Goodreads, readers trade their views about books. On the Karnak Café page, I was surprised to find that someone wrote that it’s the best book he had read by Mahfouz, and that he personally envied Farag for what he did.

The name Farag does not appear in the novel. It’s the name of the man who raped Souad Hosni’s character in the film of the book, in a scene where we see her in total breakdown, degraded, afraid and wishing for death because of the brutality she’s confronted with, a scene that depicts rape as an atrocious act against the victim, and a crime not only against the victim, but against the country itself.

Maybe the commenter imagined himself raping Souad Hosni. Mahfouz did not write the details of the rape in the novel, but described it metaphorically in a single line, leaving the rest to the imagination of the reader who lived through that awful era of Egyptian history, and was familiar with what was going on. Or perhaps the censor removed part of the account. We’ll never know.

What saddened me was that the commenter didn’t notice the plot-holes and confusion obvious to anyone reading the novel with care, only seeing the rape incident as an act to be envied.

2014

Here’s a story I never get tired of telling. I was attending an event in Mansoura, in a large theater where some veteran actors were preparing to read selections from Mahfouz’s Ahlam fatrat al-Naqaha (Dreams of the Rehabilitation Period, 2004). Helmy al-Namnam (then a representative of the Culture Minister) was speaking onstage about the connection between Mahfouz and Egypt getting rid of the Muslim Brotherhood a few months before. He said the knife that stabbed the author was close to stabbing Egypt itself. He was cleverly tying together the fates of Mahfouz and Egypt, alive and timeless, now and forever.

Namnam then left the stage and the actors went on, each reading a “dream,” each with their own style and voice. It seems the person who chose the texts was smart, as half of the “dreams” read included harsh criticisms of the Egyptian state, of a ruler who is a fraud, a thief, an embezzler, an oppressor and who treats Egyptians like chess pieces to move as he pleases, without care for their will or desires.

2016

The same year again. On the sidelines of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, on a panel I participated in, an Egyptian reacted sharply when I criticized how Egyptians dealt with their colonizers. Angrily, she asked me not interfere with history, not to mess with it, and unhesitatingly used the example of Mahfouz, who “told the history” of Egypt in his novels.

The first thing that came to my mind was Mahfouz’s Zaqaq al-Midaq (Midaq Alley, 1947), which was written when Egypt was still under British occupation yet has no depiction of the Egyptian resistance, even though the freedom fighter is ubiquitous in television, movies and books about that era. I thought of citing Midaq Alley and Mahfouz’s dismissal of the “freedom fighter,” maybe because he thought the resistance was not serious, not enough to warrant the label, or maybe because he was writing a novel not a history book, writing down his view not “telling the history” of Egypt. But I chose to stay silent. It was obvious the woman had not read the book that the panel was about. It also seemed she had never read a word by Mahfouz.

1988

The Egyptian state was in crisis, as usual. A weak economy, meager industry, endless fights, a “democracy” with one party monopolizing everything and Hosni Mubarak, who knew almost nothing of what was happening around him, earning an enduring nickname: “la vache qui rit” (the laughing cow). If not for a few smart advisors, it would have been a disaster for all. Suddenly, everyone got a surprise: Naguib Mahfouz had won the Nobel Prize. The first Arab, the first Egyptian, and not in a scientific field but a creative field that everyone finds mysterious and attractive.

Mahfouz instantly became a star and the state decided to forget the grudge it bore with this old chess piece, but without forgetting the role it gave him. Indeed, it planned to make him the best, most active piece in the coming years: massive praise in newspapers, endless articles, countless titles (“Egypt’s fourth pyramid,” “the Arabs’ Nobel,” etcetera), magazine pullouts, books and the Order of the Nile awarded by Mubarak — the highest praise the state can offer a chess piece.

Mahfouz, intelligently, accepted all this with contentment. An elderly man cannot face the Egyptian state. Even a young man full of enthusiasm can’t. I think he thought it was all serving his literature in some way, that the state’s interest in him would create wider readership for his work.

He only hoped to spread his word more, and the state hoped to put itself in a good light, betting on the idea that Egyptians don’t read, an idea it planted in everyone’s mind years ago: books will ruin your head, drive you mad, get you arrested. In the end, Mahfouz’s hope didn’t materialize but the state’s plan worked to completion.

2016

Yes, a third time. It was a dark year.

The fallout of novelist Ahmed Naji’s case is endless, even after his recent release, because he “violated the decency” of a citizen with his writings. Part of this fallout was an Egyptian prime minister announcing that Mahfouz had also “violated public decency” with his Cairo Trilogy (1956-7), and he was not tried then only because no one presented a case against him, but he was still a criminal in the eyes of Egyptian law. If Mahfouz was alive today, he added, he would have been tried and sentenced. Rejoice, Naji — your name was mentioned the same sentence as Mahfouz, you were accused of the same thing and if he were alive you could have been cellmates.

It was truly a rare moment. The Egyptian state announced its secret view of Mahfouz, the chess piece used for years against his will. Such moments come after the state has an overwhelming triumph, as we see in every corner in Egypt right now: no one objects, no one opposes, whoever speaks is a traitor, whoever writes is immoral, whoever comments must be tried and whoever thinks is an infidel. Intellectual terrorism with every sentence and every thought. Nothing can stop the Egyptian state’s holy march. It hasn’t beaten the other chess player; there is no other player. The state has defeated the chess pieces themselves: Mahfouz and all other Egyptians.

But the state has not been the only one to wrong Mahfouz. We have all wronged him: when we called him an infidel, envied Farag, claimed Mahfouz “wrote the history” of Egypt and called for his imprisonment. We, fellow oppressed chess pieces, wronged someone who wrote for us and showed us everything that was inside him, all his puzzlement, questions, doubt, faith and the love with which he replaced everything. We wrong him more than the state does, because we never read what he wrote.

___________________________________________________________

This piece originally appeared in Arabic. It was translated by Ahmed Bakr.

[aisakalegacy]

Printemps 1919, Al Simhara, Égypte (2/3)

Totalement, ou presque. Une femme s’y était réfugiée, et c’est elle qui m’a tenu au courant des dernières nouvelles. C’est d’ailleurs grâce à sa mère que vous recevez ce courrier, et j’ai eu beaucoup de chance de tomber sur une femme mariée à un étudiant en droit et éduquée qui parle bien l’anglais et avec laquelle j’ai pu communiquer aisément.

Le 20 mars, le leader nationaliste égyptien Saad Zaghlul a été arrêté par les Britanniques, conduisant à des manifestations et des émeutes sévèrement réprimées. Un couvre-feu a été instauré. Mon interlocutrice avait participé au matin même à une manifestation de femmes devant l’une de ses résidences à Louxor. Elles ont été dispersées par les Britanniques, certaines arrêtées mêmes, et ma bienfaitrice avait dû fuir afin d’éviter plus de répercussions. Elle m’apprit également l’exécution de mon ami le cheikh Fahad Madbouli, qui m’avait hébergé il y a vingt ans et m’avait ouvert sa bibliothèque. Elle n’a pas su me dire ce qu’il est advenu de la cheikha. Ce pauvre cheikh était un homme de culture, un polyglotte, je n’ai jamais croisé de ma vie quelqu’un de meilleure conversation. Je ne comprends pas quels sauvages ont pu ordonner son exécution.

Les Egyptiens, furieux de ces répressions, s’en prennent à tous les Blancs qu’ils croisent, puisqu’ils nous assimilent tous à des Anglais - même les Franco-canadiens, vous rendez-vous compte ? Nous qui luttons plus ardemment que tout autre contre leur dominion ! Mais écoutez, c’est ainsi. Ne souhaitant être tué à vue, même par erreur, j’ai fait comme les Britanniques qui ont déserté le chantier de fouilles où ils étaient exposés et je me suis caché en attendant de rencontrer le frère de Nephty - c’est le nom de ma bienfaitrice, qui, m’avait-elle dit, pourrait peut-être me venir en aide.

[Transcription] Nephty Hosni : You came. (Vous êtes venu.) Jules LeBris : I don’t have that many options, do I. Is that your brother? Who’s the woman? (Je n’ai pas beaucoup d’autres options. Est-ce votre frère ? Qui est la femme ?) Nephty Hosni : She’s my mother. Wait, I’ll introduce you. (C’est ma mère. Attendez, je vais vous présenter.) Helmi Hosni : Ma kinnash lazmeen nekoon hena. Di fikra sayya'a gedan. Wa kull dah 'ashan eih? 'Ashan nennaweez Ingleezi a'war? (On ne devrait même pas être ici. C’est une très mauvaise idée. Et tout ça pour quoi ? Pour sauver un Anglais unijambiste ?) Amina Hosni : Dah mesh Ingleezi, dah Kandi. (Ce n’est pas un Anglais, c’est un Canadien.) Helmi Hosni : Dah nefes el-haga. (C’est la même chose.) Amina Hosni : Ta'ala… kant zayy el-full ennak ta'mel safqaat ma'a 'ulama' al-athar. (Allons… Ça t’arrangeait bien de faire des affaires avec les archéologues.) Helmi Hosni : Lazem teghumi bittahkom fi bintik, ya ommi. Heeya hatwadeena kullina lil-qatl! (Tu devrais contrôler ta fille, Mère. Elle va tous nous faire tuer !)

[aisakalegacy]

Printemps 1919, Al Simhara, Égypte (1/3)

Chers cousins,

Quelques nouvelles d’Egypte, probablement les dernières que vous aurez de moi avant quelques temps j’en ai peur. Je vous envoie cette lettre grâce à ma contact, qui ne pourra pas reproduire l’opération cent fois, et qui a consenti à le faire pour me laisser donner des nouvelles à ma famille. J’envoie donc deux lettres : à vous, et à ma femme (et je ne sais pas si elle le mérite, puisqu’elle ne m’a rien écrit du tout !).

J’espère que Constantin n’envisageait pas de rejoindre un chantier prochainement, car cela s’annonce impossible ces prochaines années. C’est la guerre ! Oui, encore, alors que l’autre, la Grande, vient à peine de finir. Je reviens du Soudan où j’étais retourné quelques semaines - et au passage, Constantin, ma théorie était bonne : Reisner du chantier d’El-Kourrou y reconnaît bien le style éthiopien, mais lui pense non pas à une tombe excentrée mais plutôt à la preuve d’une activité artistique et artisanale intense qui s’est diffusée le long du fleuve et dont on retrouve trace jusqu’à Memphis, et qui pourrait donc venir d’un autre type de ruine.

Bref, je devais rencontrer le chef d’une équipe britannique installée à Al-Simhara ces derniers mois pour y poursuivre les fouilles que laissées par M. Naville. Sauf qu’en revenant, j’ai trouvé le camp totalement désert.

[Transcription] Jules LeBris : Excuse me, miss? Where is everyone? I can’t seem to find them. (Excusez-moi, mademoiselle ? Où sont passé les archéologues qui travaillaient ici ? Je ne peux en trouver aucun.) Nephty Hosni : Where have you been? Nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul has been arrested by the British and the entire country has been protesting. I was in a strike in front of Beit Ul-Umma this morning. We’ve been scattered and I had to flee. I don’t even know what has happened to my friends. (D’où est-ce que vous sortez ? Le chef nationaliste Saad Zaghlul a été arrêté par les Britanniques, et tout le pays manifeste. J’étais ce matin devant Beit Ul-Umma. Nous avons été éparpillées et j’ai dû fuir. Je ne sais même pas ce qui est advenu de mes amies.) Jules LeBris : I’m sorry, but I need to reach my friend myself, cheikh Fahad Madbouli. (J’en suis navré, mais j’ai moi-même besoin de contacter mon ami le cheikh Fahad Madbouli.) Nephty Hosni : The cheikh has been killed. I’m sorry. (Le cheikh est mort. Je suis désolée.) Jules LeBris : What? How? (Quoi ? Comment ?) Nephty Hosni : I told you. There are riots in town, and the British authorities don’t like it. (Je vous l’ai dit. Il y a des émeutes en ville, et les authorités britanniques n’aiment pas ça.) Nephty Hosni : You said you were a friend of the cheikh’s? (Vous avez dit que vous étiez un ami du cheikh ?) Jules LeBris : I am… was. Him and his wife hosted me for a little while back in 99. (Je le suis… l’étais. Lui et sa femme m’ont hébergé quelques temps en 99.) Nephty Hosni : Maybe my brother can help. He knows the archaeologists and he knew the cheikh. (Peut-être que mon frère pourra vous aider. Il connait les archéologues et il connaissait le cheikh.) Nephty Hosni : Hide, and meet me at nightfall near the old ruins. My house is nearby, so I can go home quick if patrols come. (Cachez-vous, et retrouvez-moi à la nuit tombée près des vieilles ruines. Ma maison est proche, ce qui veut dire que si les patrouilles passent, je pourrais rentrer rapidement chez moi.) Jules LeBris : Thank you, very much. (Merci, énormément.)

[aisakalegacy]

Printemps 1919, Al Simhara, Égypte (3/3)

Le frère, Hosni, n’était pas très collaboratif. Je dois donc ma survit au fait que leur vieille mère Amina ait été présente au rendez-vous. Il a été convenu que je réside dans une ruine proche de la ville. À l’entendre, je m’attendais à ce qu’il s’agisse de quelque vieille résidence détruite, mais non, il s’agit d’un temple mortuaire de Seti Ier… C’est donc là que je loge actuellement. Amina m’amène des provisions tous les quelques jours quand elle va chercher de l’eau au canal. Je vois Hosni de temps en temps, quand il accompagne sa mère, et j’en profite pour m’informer des évènements car la vieille Amina n’est pas d’un grand secours dans ce domaine. Les émeutes durent depuis trois semaines, et plus de huit cent Egyptiens auraient été tués. Quelques Britanniques téméraires qui sont restés là auraient été abattus en représailles, ce qui me conforte dans mon idée de ne pas bouger en attendant que ça se calme. Il parait que des négociations entre l’Egypte et le Royaume-Uni ont été entamées. Avec de la chance, tout cela sera tassé d’ici l’été.

J’espère revenir entier de cette expédition. Embrassez votre grand-mère, votre femme les enfants pour moi.

Votre bien dévoué,

J. Le Bris

[Transcription] Jules LeBris : Can’t Nephty simply help me go into the city and find a boat? (Nephty ne pourrait-elle pas simplement m’aider à entrer discrètement en ville et trouver un navire ?) Amina Hosni : She can’t help you, my friend. She’s waiting for things to settle down before she can join her husband to Cairo. (Elle ne peut pas t’aider, mon ami. Elle attend que les choses se calment avant de rejoindre son mari au Caire.) Jules LeBris : Why can’t I do it myself? (Pourquoi ne puis-je pas le faire moi-même ?) Amina Hosni : The authorities set up a curfew, it’s dangerous for you to stay here. (Les autorités ont mis en place un couvre-feu, c’est dangereux de rester ici.) Amina Hosni : Everyone is angry, protesters could kill you if they saw you. (Tout le monde est en colère. Les manifestants pourraient te tuer s’ils te voyaient.) Jules LeBris : But I’m not even British! I’m Canadian. The British have been subduing us, too. (Mais je ne suis même pas britannique ! Je suis canadien. Les Britanniques nous assujettissent nous aussi.) Helmi Hosni : It won’t matter. When people see you, they see a settler. (Cela n’a pas d’importance. Quand on te voit, on voit un colon.) Jules LeBris : Where are the British archaeologists? Maybe I could reach them. (Où sont les archéologues britanniques ? Peut-être que je pourrais les contacter.) Helmi Hosni : You’re too late. They are already gone. (Tu arrives trop tard. Ils sont déjà partis.) Jules LeBris : What am I to do then? (Qu’est-ce que je suis censé faire, alors ?) Helmi Hosni : I hardly see how that is our problem. (Je vois difficilement en quoi cela nous concerne.) Amina Hosni : You’ll hide in the old ruins. Wait for things to settle down. (Tu te cacheras dans les vieilles ruines. Tu attendras que ça se calme.) Amina Hosni : I’ll come see you, bring you food every couple of days. I go there often to fetch water, it will not drag attention. Then, you take a boat and you go home. (Je viendrai te voir, je t’apporterai des provisions tous les quelques jours. J’y vais souvent pour chercher de l’eau, ça n’attirera pas l’attention. Ensuite, tu prends le bateau et tu rentres chez toi.) Helmi Hosni : This is too dangerous. We are all going to get killed. (C’est trop dangereux. On va tous se faire tuer.)