In this novel, al-Jabalaawi sits in his grand house surrounded by gardens and high walls, while his grandchildren quarrel in hopes of gaining his favor. The strongmen (futuwwat) keep them away from his earthly paradise, and his descendants live outside the walls in poverty. Despite their hardship, they never cease praying that al-Jabalaawi will come down to them, leave his isolation, distribute his inheritance, and save them from the oppression of the strongmen so that goodness may prevail for all.

In every generation, a savior emerges, someone the people rally behind as they rise against the futuwwat. Yet greed and ignorance ultimately return them to their former state, leaving poverty and suffering as their inescapable fate.

In this remarkable novel, Naguib Mahfouz portrays oppression and people’s longing for deliverance from themselves, showing how principles can shift with the fluctuations of human nature, and how good deeds often fall into the hands of corruption and the corrupt.

This novel is among Mahfouz’s most famous and most controversial works, and it was specifically acknowledged by the Swedish Academy when awarding him the Nobel Prize in Literature.