CAIRO - It's all about travelling in time; back to Egypt's Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties from the 10th until the 14th century AD. Narrating a simple man's adventures in various periods of Egyptian history, Khairy Shalaby sends his readers centuries back in his breath-taking novel “The Time-Travels of the Man Who Sold Pickles and Sweets”. The novel, published by the American University in Cairo Press, is translated by Michael Cooperson. His pen and words are like a painter's brush and palette and a variety of colourful pictures refresh the readers' mind. The simple narration ventures deeply into the core of man. His highly authentic, yet up-to-date style is captivating, as it combines sarcasm and history. Shalaby portrays how an ordinary Egyptian of the 1980s experiences his nation of ten centuries ago. In his time-travels, Ibn Shalaby, the protagonist, meets with caliphs, commanders, governors, historians, gangsters, locals, maids, slaves and ordinary people. He even meets modern celebrities from different ages on his journey. "He invited me to sit next to him at the Ramadan meal and accept some gifts. I danced with delight, thrilled to have been present at the birth of my beloved city [Cairo]," says Ibn Shalaby who witnesses the foundation of Cairo in the 10th century. "I recognised the historian Ibn Taghribirdi, the biographer Ibn Khallikan, the chronicler Ibn Abdel Hakam Maqrizi, the historian Abdel Rahman Zaki, the Fatimid scholar Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, the architect Hassan Fathi, the novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the critic Hussein Fawzi, the architectural historian Suad Mahir and many other friends and acquaintances, all of whom were doing their best not to look at me sitting next to Gohar the Sicilian, commander of the army of Mu'izz." The novel is in line with his previous works, delving into the very core of Egypt. It is a historical piece of fiction that intertwines sarcasm, philosophy, politics and history. The French Revolution (1789) and Napoleonic wars inspired men of letters in Europe to develop a new genre of fiction the historical novel. It wasn't until the 1800s that Sir Walter Scott dramatised major social conflicts and historical transformations like the dissolution of feudal society in the Scottish Highlands and the entrenchment of mercantile capitalism. French novelist Honoré de Balzac and Russian writer Leo Tolstoi brought historical realism into being. Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz wrote his debut novels ‘Mockery of the Fates', ‘Khufu's Wisdom', ‘Rhadopis of Nubia' and ‘The Struggle of Thebes', taking up historical realism, too. In his novel, Shalaby combines fantasy and real events, comedy and tragic moments, politics and philosophy. Ibn Shalaby meets with Qaraqush, vizier of Egypt during the reign of Saladin in the 12th century. "In the time I come from, people will see you as a strong man and a force for justice, even if it's a dimwitted sort of justice. But they won't remember you the way you dream of being remembered. They'll love you for the charming way you have of crushing and smashing everything in your path, which at least kept the country quiet long enough for Saladin to liberate Jerusalem from the Crusaders," Ibn Shalaby tells Qaraqush. The tawashi then puts something in Ibn Shalaby's hand. He thinks it is a bribe. "It's not a bribe or any such nonsense. It's a gift we give all our visitors. Everything we do here, we do in the open. If we kill you, we kill you in the open. If we impale you, we impale you in the open. It's all for the good of the Land of Egypt." Ibn Shalaby sticks the gemstone in his pocket, thinking ‘fair enough'! He jumps in time to the era of Caliph al-Amir bi-Ahkam Allah and tries to impress him with a cassette recorder a friend of his brought from Port Said in the 1980s. He takes the cassette player out and turns it on, but nothing happens. Alarmed, he looks at it, shakes it and presses all the buttons to no avail, then he exclaims: "Oh… I forgot that you don't have electricity." Ibn Shalaby hands the gadget to the Caliph, who turns it over and over, gingerly pushing the buttons. Then he flings it away as hard as he can. "An imposter!" the Caliph shouts, ordering his soldiers to throw him in the Storehouse prison. "The Third World (may you be spared its fate!) imagines that importing industrial products is the civilised or civilising thing to do. But we fail to grasp that even if you learn how something works, and even when you own the raw materials needed to manufacture the thing in the first place, all you are is a consumer. This is a problem bigger than all the sons of Shalaby in all their branches throughout the region can imagine." In the Storehouse of Banners, a prison for foreigners who were initially prisoners of war, Ibn Shalaby gets the adventures of his life. The prisoners rule as if they had their own state. So he has to make his own business, too. Later, he would be working as the Sultan's press secretary, also selling pickles and sweets downtown. In the Storehouse of Banners are outlaws and some Mamluk emirs. Ibn Shalaby gets to know Emir Khazaal, who tells him that he has access to information and "knows what was happening the very instant it happened". "Coming as I did from the age of telephones, radios and satellites, I had always thought that ours was the most advanced of all periods when it came to espionage, eavesdropping, communications and the like, but here was Khazaal outdoing us without using technology." Khazaal reveals to him how he did it. "As you know, the Storehouse has extended protection to a good many asylum seekers. The ones still out on the street need our protection even more, but for some reason or other they haven't asked for it. And yet they do what they can to help us survive. They want to be sure that we s terrible as we are will always be around. That's why they volunteer to defend us against the regime." Khazaal unveils another down-to-earth fact by saying that another group of Egyptians at that time has religious reasons for hating the way the government treats its people. "They want to make sure that someone in Egypt will always be able to stand up and fight back." It's a Tom-and-Jerry relationship, where the oppressed help the outlaws in the face of their oppressors, a fact that may prove right in similar conditions everywhere and at any time. While he is walking with Ibn Taghri, the historian, he realises that "something was wrong". "People were weeping, shrieking and wailing or trudging gloomily past. As an Egyptian and a Son of Shalaby, I can tell you this kind of mass mourning happens only here, and only for a good reason, like the death of a major political figure". When he learns that Sultan Mansur has been killed by one Abdel Mu'min, Ibn Shalaby wonders how the nation could mourn a sultan who has not been tested, since he only ruled for a few days. Ibn Taghri replies: "He was a generous ruler… and he was young." Ibn Shalaby sees a crucified figure in Cairo and learns that it is Wali al-Dawla Abul Farag Ibn Khatir, a Mamluk who used to oppress locals. Ibn Khatir was killed by another Mamluk militia. When Ibn Shalaby asks a soldier why Egyptians care about the battles among Mamluks, his answer is quite telling: "Egyptians and Cairenes love to see an arrogant oppressor meet his end." To save his skin, Ibn Shalaby becomes a double agent, works for both Sultan Ahmad and the rebels at the Storehouse. Inevitably, confrontation between the government and the Storehouse heats up. The novel has an open end, as Ibn Shalaby uses his Islamic-calendar wristwatch to escape from the Sultan's troops when they destroy the storehouse. Then our hero travels to another moment in time January 2077.
