By Nouran Maamoun
Eslam El-Bana is a young Egyptian novelist, whose first book “Bab Al-Hegazy” was published in 2014. El-Bana writes with words that are more like images that allow the reader to travel through time into the 1970s in a poor Egyptian village.
El-Bana writes about the characters in this village, their stories, and the societal diseases of the community at that time, with undeniable reflection on the current reality before and after the 25 January Revolution.
The cover artist, Abdulrahman Alsawaf, shows part of a mysterious and sacred gate, which ties into the key elements of the story. The name of the gate is Al-Hegazy which is also the name of the village in which the story takes place.
The lead character of the story, Saeed, is an intelligent, well-educated young man who is an introvert with antisocial behaviour due to his stutter, which the villagers make fun of and thus do not take him seriously. Saeed uses his wide knowledge and exceptional talent in writing sermons for the Imam, who is an outstanding presenter, but poor at preparing and linking ideas.
The richest and most influential man in the village, Sayed Khattab, is an illiterate who makes his fortune through shady deals and selling body parts. He convinces the poorer villagers in need to sell their body parts to rich buyers who need them.
One day, one of the villagers dies in one of said operations and the Imam notices that Khattab’s days are almost over, so he decides to finally listen to Saeed and agrees to deliver a strong sermon about the prohibition of organ trade. Khattab is driven out of the village and dies of grief.
After Khattab’s death, the Imam, who was once a kind and moderate man, becomes the new master of the village and begins to adopt extremist views and force the villagers to obey him. Those who disobey are severely punished in the name of religion at the hands of the Imam’s ruthless guards.
In order to tighten his grip over the villagers with money, the Imam agrees to facilitate the marriage of young girls to rich Sheikhs from the Gulf, who abuse the girls and divorce them after a month at most, in return for a good sum of money for the girls’ families and for the Imam himself.
Saeed understands the Imam is on a wrong track. His anger escalates and he picks a fight with the Imam when the latter wants a rich Sheikh to marry Saeed’s sister Zeinab.
Throughout the story, “Bab Al-Hegazy” follows the lives of the villagers; it begins as a place where celebrations are held and people gather, a place where Sufi prayer sessions are held and tourists come to visit the mysterious and gorgeous gate.
The language of the book is easy to read, to the extent that readers forget about the words and just wander through the lines as if watching a film. El-Bana uses some slang and the very expressive language of Egyptian villagers. Although using slang in publications is usually heavily criticised, it was different in “Bab Al-Hegazy” , since the language served the context and the story.
El-Bana raised the bar high with this novel, not only for others, but for himself. With his first story being outstanding, his future works are required to be at least as good, if not better, and they would be judged upon the high standards El-Bana set for himself.
Despite his young age, his novel is extremely mature, and those who read it had a hard time believing it was El-Bana’s first.
