Central to the plot are the futuwwat strongmen who control the alley and exact from the people | An English translation by Philip Stewart was published in 1981 and is no longer in print; the had controlled the world rights since 1976 and had licensed Heinemann Educational Books to publish Stewart's version, but Heinemann sold back its rights a few weeks before the |
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Critics claimed that Gabalawi stands for | 1988, USA, Three Continents Press Pub date 13 April 1981, paperback as Children of Gebelawi - Stewart's translation• We shall see the end of tyranny and the dawn of miracles |
The followers of each hero settle in different parts of the alley, symbolising Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The successive heroes overthrow the strongmen of their time, but in the next generation new strongmen spring up and things are as bad as ever | However, Three Continents Press still had license to publish on the American market, and Stewart wanted to continue publishing quietly in America and to avoid a world-wide relaunch of such a controversial book, but when he refused to sell his , American University of Cairo commissioned a new version by for Doubleday to launch backdated to 1959 |
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Arafa tries to use his knowledge of explosives to destroy the strongmen, but his attempts to discover Gabalawi's secrets leads to the death of the old man though he does not directly kill him | The people say "Oppression must cease as night yields to day |
Mahfouz survived the attack, yet he suffered from its consequences until his death in 2006.
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