Meeting , Lamia Rady discovers the scent of jasmine and war through a century of Middle Eastern history Dressed in black from head to toe, the tall, balding Frenchman with brown eyes and a tanned complexion could easily blend in on the bustling streets of the Egyptian capital. But that is normal, he is a native Cairene. Born Gilbert Cassab in Cairo on 18 February, 1947, Sionoue returns once again to his city -- this time invited by the Oum El Dounia bookstore - to present his latest bestsellers Le Souffle du Jasmin (The Breath of Jasmine) and Le Cri des Pierres (The Cry of the Stones), two volumes of his French saga Inch'Allah. After 45 years abroad, mostly in Paris, Sinoue still refers to Egypt as "my country" even if it is hard for him today to find the Egypt that he once knew. "At that time, Egypt was totally different from today", he said during a debate with Egyptian novelist Alaa El Aswany at the French Cultural Centre last week. For Sinoue, the essence of the Egyptian people is "this cosmic sense of self- mockery, even when it is no longer possible to bear the unbearable. To laugh at one's own despair and replace tears and lamentations with jokes". The Egypt in which he grew up was a cosmopolitan economic hub where Italians, Greeks, Armenians and Jews had enjoyed life for generations, not mention the thousands of troops of the occupying British forces. Sinoue's father, Maurice Cassab, was the owner of the famous night-club and gambling casino Le Scarabee, where Egypt's upper-class and even its number one reveler King Farouk would come to party or to try their luck at the green tables. After the 1952 Revolution, the father convinced the new government to sell him the toppled king's private yacht, the Qassed Kheir, and transformed it into a cruising casino-ship. Sinoue saw that joie de vivre even despite his a conservative upbringing. "I studied at the Jesuit Catholic school. It was very strict," he recalls, envying the "liberal atmosphere" of Aswany's French Lycee in Cairo. By 1965, Egypt was no longer the El Dorado it had once been. The nationalist-cum-socialist rules imposed by the country's new leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser had forced all big fortunes to flee. Having seen his wealth sinking, Sinoue's father opted for voluntary exile. A heartbroken Gilbert, now 18, sailed away from "his country". He was sad, but Paris offered him a breath of fresh air. "To me, Paris meant freedom," he says. "I arrived there in May 1968 in the midst of the students' riots. Coming from my country where the secret service was scrutinizing each and every person and word, coming from this Big Brother environment, my first reaction when I saw those protesters shouting against the regime was 'My God, they are going to shoot them dead'... They didn't of course, and I suddenly joined the rioters, not even knowing what they were calling for. It was a call for freedom". Freedom will become Sinoue's motto. He studied to become a professional guitarist, earning his bread and butter by performing at Paris nightclubs and writing songs for several famous artists like Dalida and Claude Francois who, like him, were Egyptian born and in exile. But his songs never made it to the hit charts, a blessing for Sinoue who believes such success would have prevented him from becoming a writer. "We are always influenced by other writers," he said. "But in my case, my passion for writing was born while listening to Jacques Brel. Listening to his words, I was certain I would become a writer". Brel, a famous Belgian artist, shook the francophone world with poignant songs. At 40, Gilbert Cassab became -- in tribute to Finnish writer Mika Waltari's novel Sinouhe the Egyptian, which depicted the life of Pharaoh Amenophis IV's doctor and spy, whose life journey speaks of love, fate, power and freedom, Sinoue's favorite themes. His first novel La Pourpre et l'Olivier (The Crimson and the Olive Tree) was an immediate bestseller. It was followed by many other successes, including Avicenna, L'Egyptienne, and Le Livre de Saphir (The book of Sapphire) and Akhenaton. Most were inspired by his motherland. "When you leave your country, you always have a grudge against those who drove you out," says Sinoue, on the verge of tears even as he expresses sympathy for those Egyptians infatuated by Abdel-Nasser. "He was the first Egyptian to ever rule them and the first ruler of Egypt to speak Arabic. This man was necessary for Egypt. He was an honest and proud man. Had he been alive today, Iraq's invasion would not have happened." But Sinoue also sees Abdel-Nasser's mistakes. "He destroyed the intelligentsia, smashed the intellectuals and decapitated the elite. When I ask myself why, I can never find an answer." Sinoue remembers the defeat of the Arabs during the 1967 war with Israel and how the trauma was maximized by "seeing your country defeated while living abroad. You keep a low profile, hoping that you are invisible. For months, I would not dare say I was Egyptian. I was ashamed." Sinoue recounts a more recent trauma: the invasion of Iraq."I was watching the West playing Monopoly with the East," he explains. "My impression was that the West was setting foot in an area they did not understand." Understanding events seems to be an obsession of his. In Le Souffle du Jasmin, Sinoue attempts to understand the historical chain of events that led a group of Arabs to carry out the September 11 attacks against the United States. The master story-teller weaves the complex saga through the fascinating story of five families in the region: Egyptian, Iraqi, Jewish and Palestinian. From the early days of the 20th century, three generations are caught in a whirlwind of turbulent politics and wars, scenarios set by foreign powers. Sinoue starts the story in 1916, the year that saw the beginning of the humiliation of the Arabs. It is after all the year that saw the drafting of the Balfour declaration that gave Jews from around the world a home on Palestinian lands. It is also the year of the Sykes-Picot agreement which split the Middle East cake between the superpowers of the time, France and the United- Kingdom. The novel carries historical references with clear borrowings from the present, with the British of the past representing the Americans of today. One of the book's Iraqi characters, Rachid El-Keylani, says at one point to the influential British diplomat Sir Percy Cox: "to enter Iraq without knowing the meanders of its past and its present is like pushing a blind man into a maze infested with scorpions. You'll end up getting out but feet first." Sir Cox, a major figure in the creation of independent Iraq, who was previously wondering "why the Iraqis did not welcome the British troops with cries of joy and flower necklaces", replies: "The British came here as liberators... to install a free elected national government and local administration. Then, we will withdraw". Such words echo the declarations of the Americans of today. As Sinoue tries to understand events, the gap of misunderstanding between the Western powers and the Arabs of the East persists.
