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Before the Throne: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Novels)

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Twenty-five years after Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz wrote this novel, it has been released in English by the University of Cairo Press. An unusual book, it is more a catalog of all the rulers of Egypt since the First Kingdom than a novel in the traditional sense. Each ruler has been summoned to appear for his own trial at the celestial Hall of Justice, where Osiris reposes on his golden throne, with Isis and Horus flanking him. Each ruler must argue his own case, after which the gods and the other Immortals deliberate and assign him to the place where he will spend his afterlife--Paradise, the Inferno, or the Place of Insignificance, between the two, neither Heaven nor Hell.

The first trial is for King Menes, the mightiest monarch of the First Dynasty, who subdued Libya and joined Upper and Lower Egypt. As he presents his case, his judges counter his positive presentation with other facts he has ignored. One hundred thousand Libyans died, and two hundred thousand Egyptians from the North and South Kingdoms died. As the various kings present their cases, it is Isis who is usually the peacemaker, offering reasons to justify the kings' actions enough to enable them to sit with the Immortals.

In short sections averaging between two and five pages, the rulers are presented chronologically from the earliest of Egyptian history through the trial of Anwar Sadat. As the trials move forward, the reader perceives subtle changes--from the early kings, who are are fierce warriors and builders, to later kings who begin to show more sympathetic treatment of their subjects. At the halfway point in the novel, Thoth announces that the Egypt of the gods, pyramids, temples has come to an end, and Egypt is ruled henceforth by non-Egyptians. Persian kings seize the throne. The Romans arrive, bringing Christianity; sectarian battles erupt between the Egyptian church and that of Byzantium; and Islam sweeps the country.

Eventually, the chronology reaches the twentieth century, with Egypt's colonial rule by the British, and finally, the administrations of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat. Nasser comes under particularly hostile argument during his trial by the Immortals because he was "heedless of liberty and human rights." At Sadat's trial, one former ruler among the Immortals accuses him: "You wanted democratic rule in which the leaders have dictatorial authority."

More a catalog than a novel, Before the Throne provides fascinating research, but there are no dates included, and most of the rulers will be unfamiliar to western readers. Mahfouz's very short summaries of these rulers make the rulers difficult to distinguish from each other, and the threads uniting the earliest Kingdoms of Egyptian history--the time of the pyramids--with modern times are not strong enough to sustain a sense of thematic development. Ultimately, Mahfouz tells his audience the lessons he wants them to glean from the novel. Akhenaten, for example, advises the Egyptians "to hold to the worship of the One God." Menes admonishes them to "Be zealous for the unity of the land and the people." Khufu declares that "Egypt must believe in labor." In conclusion, Anwat Sadat adds that the goal should be "civilization and peace." Mary Whipple

The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth A Novel
The Day the Leader Was Killed
Karnak Café
The Mirage: A Modern Arabic Novel (Modern Arabic Novels)

In this book, which Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) regarded as history rather than fiction, he presents a tableau of Egyptian history. This book has recently been published in English, it was first published in Arabic in 1983.

Almost sixty Egyptian rulers are summoned for judgement by the afterlife court of Osiris. Each person is required to speak of their time in power and their impact or influence on Egypt. Osiris then judges, for those from the Egypt of the pharaohs, whether they will join the Immortals, go to the Realm of Purgatory or to Hell. The judgment belongs to Osiris, but he is flanked by Isis and Horus and assisted by Thoth, Scribe of the Gods. Once the trials move beyond the pharaohs, the judgements by Osiris are a type of historical appraisal to be considered by the appropriate religious court.

Almost 5000 years of history are covered: from Menes to Muhammad Anwar Sadat. The setting - a Court of Justice making judgements about the past - and the imagined dialogue provided glimpses of periods and events. The book is published as a novel yet reads like history rather than fiction. I enjoyed the concept and its potential to illuminate history but found that there are far too many gaps in my own knowledge of Egyptian history to make complete sense of what is presented. What does come across clearly was Naguib Mahfouz's immersion in the history of Egypt.

Raymond Stock, the translator of this book, is writing a biography of Naguiz Mahfouz. His afterword provides contextual and biographic information which I found invaluable in my reading.

`Thus has the life of Egypt passed before you in all its joys and sorrows.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

In this original `After Life', N. Mahfouz calls all main Egyptian rulers (also Nasser and Sadat) before a divine Court of Justice, for `over the threshold of death - like a shadow that clings to them - a record of all their acts and desires (is) embodied on their naked forms.'
The verdict of the Court will tell the rulers their fate for eternity: a seat among the Immortals, Purgatory, Hell or the Abode of the Everlasting for a new trial.

The lives of the rulers, on an international level, are stories of war and peace, freedom and slavery; independence, territorial integrity and invasions; colonial rule, dominion and revolts.
Nationally, they were responsible for famine or prosperity for all; corruption, bribes or justice; law, order, security, freedom (of speech) or tyranny; true worship or phony religious facades; conspiracies, assassinations or true leadership.
Individually, they were pharaohs, queens, governors and priests confronted with the deprived and the wretched.
There are tales of debauchery and drinking, but also of `appetite for life' (Ramesses II had
three hundred children), of darkness of ignorance or light of knowledge, of education and waste of money.

Governors and priests. Revolution and the downtrodden
Independent governors `ruled autocratically, imposing tyrannical taxes upon their inhabitants, The priests made common cause with the governors, eager to preserve their temple estates and so permitted them every form of evil through their fraudulent religious edicts. They paid no mind to the laments of the deprived and promised that their lot would be better in the world to come.'
We, the peasants, the artisans and the fishermen, `have endured agonies beyond what any human can bear, When our ferocious anger was raised against the rottenness of oppression and darkness our revolt was called chaos, and we were called mere thieves. Yet it was nothing but a revolution against despotism.'

National and international policies (how relevant!)
Nationally, the problem was mostly `one of bread, not of God.'
`We felt it better to educate a peasant than to throw a temple. Building pyramids or waging wars is wasting money.'
`Trade relations would do more than invasions to protect our borders. The sword achieved in a few years what words had failed to do in generations.'

These short comments on Egyptian rulers contain in a nutshell some of the main stories of N. Mahfouz's outstanding works. However, I do not recommend this book as a first introduction to his work, because it is only based on Egyptian history.

Highly recommended to all fans of N. Mahfouz and lovers of world literature.