Khufu's Wisdom - A Treat By Naguib Mahfouz

 I just finished reading the first of three novels of ancient Egypt, Khufu’s Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz. And what a treat this was. 

Just a few snippets of music that Naguib composes…..

‘And what is divinity…. ’Tis nothing if power.’

‘Who should give up their life for the benefit of the other:  the people for Pharaoh, or Pharaoh for the people?’

‘You rule according to the wish of the gods, not by the will of men. It is up to you to govern the people as you desire, not to ask yourself what you should do when they ask you!’

‘If Fate really was as people say, then creation itself would be absurd. The wisdom of life would be negated, the nobility of man would be debased. Diligence and the mere appearance of it would be the same; so would labour and laziness, wakefulness and sleep, strength and weakness, rebellion, and obedience. No, Fate is a false belief to which the strong are not fashioned to submit.’

‘O Lord! What was the wisdom of making a woman then? What is a woman without motherhood? A woman without children is like wine without the power to intoxicate, like a rose without scent, or the like worship with strong faith behind it.’ Lamentation by Zaya yearning for a child. 

‘For if only those suffering from loss would remember that Death is a void that effaces memory, and that the sorrows of the living vanish at the same speed with which the dead themselves disappear, how much toil and torment they could avoid for themselves!’

‘Peace is more manly than war for the strong, upright king…But the king must not allow a policy of peace to prevent him from making war when the need to fight is serious!’

‘I fell in love – very suddenly…. Yes, I was like a bird hovering safely in the sky until he feels an arrow dive into his heart – and he falls.’

I wish this didn’t end. The pace, the language, the emotion, the choreography, the knitting of the storyline…. I was there in Pharaoh’s Egypt, a fly on the wall, seeing, sensing, feeling, smelling…like a great plate of food, engaging all the senses…I savoured it slowly….

It’s about great ideas, it’s about love, family, youth, sacrifice, loyalty, treachery, comradeship, it’s about life…

Can’t want to read Rhadopis of Nubia.


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