The Sleep Walkers
| Author | Saad Makkawi |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Country | Egypt |
| Language | Arabic |
| Genre | Novel |
Publication date | 1963 |
| Pages |
The Sleep Walkers is a historical novel written by Egyptian novelist Saad Makkawi that takes place in the period exceeding the thirty years of the rule of the Mamluks (1368-1499) from the age of the Mamluk Sultanate, which governed the history of Egypt and the East for 276 years.[1]
Brief
The novel addresses the last 30 years of Mamluk rule in an interesting and appealing manner. This novel was first published in 1963 as one of the first works to use heritage, and it was republished in 1997.[1][2]
The story immerses you in a mythical atmosphere, whether it's because of the events or because of "Makkawi's" words and delightful style, which transports you to its own realm from the first word. You live inside the Mamluk nomenclature, where you encounter the soldiers and treasury, obligor and forced labor; it truly makes you live what you've never seen, and imagine what was occurring in Egypt’s land at that time. The work is broken into three portions: "peacock, plague, mill". The second section ended with the plague catastrophe. It appeared to have wiped out an entire generation and then passed on to the heroes of the next generation. Through these sections, the author weaves dozens of characters and places into an appealing charm that makes you bolt out of the blue in surprise, wondering how he can catch the characters and their stories and bring them together in such a brilliant statement.
The protagonists are intertwined, and most have a direct connection only to the place and the period of time. Here you will find Sheikha Zuleikha – that skinhead woman – who holds the lottery in her hand, and incense fragrances her house, with a coterie of sufi men flying in her presence, to dive into this atmosphere; where the slave market and the Noor Al-deen Cafe are, but these people are always concerned with their country's order, which is being looted and robbed by the Mamluks, and their meetings are to discuss how to take revenge, especially after "Azza" Khalid's sister – one of Zuleikha's followers – was abducted by one of the Mamluks, bringing her sorrowfully to ask what should be done? She replied wisely: "Wherever you turn your face, then the face of Azza’s, her hands in the salt sea and her feet in the land of Upper Egypt, and the land fills her clean breath!".
Then there are the lives of the princes and the sultans, through which it is realized that the one who ruled Egypt at that time was a group of rulers who had nothing to occupy themselves with but their elite appetite for women, money, prestige and sultanate.
Bilbay, for example, who was set up as a sultan through "Good of you (original name: khair bek)", the head of "Atabik" military, so the latter remained a favourite; He moves him as he wants, so much so that they call Bilbay the Sultan: "Tell him" referring to his execution of what he is told. When "Good of you (original name: Khair bek)" wanted to remove him from office, he did, stopping at two things: the first is the nature of the Mamluk, which overcomes him, he was originally bought, entered into a prince's auspices, and the second: the fragility and weakness of his judgment.
Which, in fact, some princes’ fondness for women, sometimes men, and how this has distracted their attention away from their welfare. Force was also the title of power, and it is the principle of "rule for the strongest" that applies in Egypt, so there are many conflicts between the princes of the Mamluk to capture the reins of government, and the country is plunged into corruption for which there is no deterrent.
Lakhondat, the soldier Atabik, sultan "tell him", bilbay, mit jaheena, Al-gashenkeer, Sheikha Zuleikha, coffin maker, lyashʿ the poison cooker, sufi men, aldawadar, Suleiman Abutasa, plague, al-mrʿwsh, the committed, Idracic conquest, al-fasookh, all these words and sentences inflame your imagination when you read the story and increase your knowledge with the details of the interesting story.
There are many strange words and meanings that are incomprehensible, but it is the weirdness of words, places and people that earns the story a splendor and cast and gives it its general and distinctive character. This novel coats the Egyptian vernacular with some very few classical words as well as the special royal language that will be understood from the context of the novel, despite all this, the author's style and expressions are wonderful and full of symbols as the symbol of the mill, all of which gave the novel something of privacy and made it distinct from the rest of the novels.
The plot of the novel begins with the passage of the Mamluki Sultan Bilbai’s procession from the fishing trip, and at first glance, you'll think it is returning from a battle and not a fishing trip, as the writer describes the procession to us, there were two rows of black slaves, barefoot, bare-chested, and their hands and their shoulders were full of hunting wounds as rigid as mummified birds. Al-hamam neighborhood people started cursing the sultan and talking stealthily with a low voice, fearing that there might be snitchers among them, Ayoub, the maker of coffins and his son Youssef, looking at the procession with a dazed, admiring, malevolent look at the same time, and wishing that his coffin was due.
Inside the Sultan's Palace, where he had married nine other women, Gilbahar, to whom he had only been married for nine days, was a mean strong woman who planned and everyone executed her. Above all, she was gorgeous, and the Sultan was not spared from her tongue, although he had only been married to her for nine days.
He had nothing but extracting his wrath and anger from his women and princes by killing one of the prisoners whom he had every day in front of his entourage, and this brutal nature was not just distinguished by him alone, but by all who came before and after him.
Al-Harah is located in central Egypt near to the Mamluki Palace, where Sheikh Zuleikha Haleqa, the bald head woman who owns a house where all the sufi men and Darwaish,
she is characterized by the people of the neighborhood with love and respect, and the owner of a supreme word, Zuleikha used to take her home as a cemetery for the Mamelukes who were killed.
"Ayub" a coffin maker who loves his wife, "the lady of all", who came from meet-Johaina and Youssef Sabeyah, as well as Khalil and Abdul Jalil al-Saqai and Abbas, the owner of the copper shop, who was ordered by the wife of Wali and Khalid Azza's brother and Sheikh al-Nassnas abbas who’s sultan's ally and his company friend. All of them were oppressed peoples controlled by tyrants and could not say anything, widespread corruption, destruction, murder and thieves ruined their lives.
The abduction of Azza from the woman's bathroom had a particular impact on the people of the neighborhood. How dare the Mamluki enter the women's bathroom and abduct Azza, that gorgeous lady among the people of the neighborhood, without anyone asking him? This authoritarianism reached the end of her brother's "Khalid," and he swore to return Azza's honor no matter how long or short the time.
The historical narrative in this novel makes us see what is like today from yesterday's Mamluks corruption, reminds us of the corruption of Arab rulers at this time, the spread of the snitchers or as we call them spies or (People of Security) spread in both times, muzzling opposition, high prices, all this and more were spread today and yesterday, but if the Mamluks were called "intruders" to the Islamic Ummah, what will we say now about what Arab rulers are doing to their people.
In Mette-Jehina, which is located in Giza, southern Egypt, that country, which is not much different from Al-hamam neighborhood, nothing is different. but here, the colonists and spoilers are the people of the country. Idriss Al-Multazim and his son Hamza are the senior of the Mette-jehina people. Idris's eldest son, Hamza al-multazim is the biggest womanizer (and who resembles his father has no sin). he adored Fatime insanely and since the curses were inflicted on him and his father from the people of mette-Jehina, Fatima married Ghalib, the simple peasant who works at Hamza, and because the lion never leaves his prey until he gets her, Hamza pursued Fatima even after her marriage, while at that time, Khalid, Issa and Sheikh Khalil fled to al-Hamam neighborhood after a revolution over Azza's abduction and went to the mette-Jehina at Suleiman Abu Tasah, Fatima's father, and the brother-in-law of the "lady of all" (original: set al-kol), Ayub's wife، and there, they’ve impersonated as blessed sufi men so that they could disregard the suspicion of the mette-jehina people, especially the Al-multazim and his son. All three worked in a mill and this mill was one of the two chapters in the novel of “The Sleep Walkers”. Saad Makawi used it as a symbolic tool. The mill was a millstone that crushes the cereals. This is what the writer wanted, where Al-Multazim crushes his people as the Mamluks crush the people of Egypt, both are the both sides of the same coin.
In the Mamluks Palace, the greed of each led them to fight each other to rise to the supreme chair.
The Great Committed dies and Hamza grows up and takes over the property of his eldest son, Idriss. In the middle of all this, a pure love story between Hasina's daughter "Noor" and "Mohamed" Fatima's son who is Ghalib's wife. And that Idrisi tickle of Mohammed and Noor’s, subsequently changed events.
After the plague, which was spread in Mette Johayna and killed many people, after Yusuf grew up, he emigrates with his wife to Mette Johayna, when the young men grew, and the adults died, and only memories remained, he meets his friend Khalid and tells him about what happened.
Fatima refuses Muhammad and Noor's marriage for no apparent reason, but Mohammed notices Idrisi's tickle between him and Noor and understands why his mother refuses to marry him. Simultaneously, Hamza Al-Multazim asks his son Idriss to stop chasing Noor and promises to marry him to a good woman.[1][2][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 ""السائرون نياما" رواية عن سيرة المماليك أم إسقاط على الضباط الأحرار؟". اليوم السابع (in العربية). 2020-08-16. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 ""The Sleep Walkers" one of the best 100 Arab novels in 20th century".
- ↑ "السائرون نياما". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2022-06-22.
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