Zayni Barakat Paperback – by Gamal al-Ghitani

From one of Egypt's greatest contemporary writers, a historical novel which "succeeds brilliantly" (Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement)

“In the course of my long travels I have never seen a city so devastated. After a long time I ventured out into the streets. Death, cold and heavy, hung in the air. Walls have no value here, doors have been eliminated. No one is certain that they will see another day.”

This historical novel, first published in Arabic in 1974, is set in early 17th century Mamluk Cairo. It traces the career of Zayni Barakat ibn Mousa as Cairo's puritanically moral and severe wali or governor, who employs several corps of spies and informers to rule the city. The author has used various narrative devices including diary extracts, police reports, legal decrees, first-person narratives and religious discourses which together with oblique references to the Cairo of Nasser, serve to give the novel the dimensions of a political and historical fable.