The Cow’s Belly

The Cow's Belly by Khairi Shelby is a unique fiction that combines history and geography in an innovative narrative template. Shalabi referred to this template “geo-novel,” as the place is the protagonist in the novel. He tackles the history of the three neighborhoods that make up the heart of old Cairo: Qaitbay neighborhood, Al-Bataliyah neighborhood, and Al-Azbakiya neighborhood.

Qaitbay neighborhood is surrounded by "Al- Mujwareen cemeteries" in the Mamluk desert, where the living co-exist with the dead, houses and cemeteries overlap, and its residents coexist with the spirits who sometimes reach out at times to help and other times for punishment. Shalabi shows how the neighborhood cemeteries have turned into drug joints, adding an exciting dimension to the deep-rooted neighborhood. Al- Balaliyah emerges as a neighborhood that embraces cannabis auctions and endless secrets about popular life, where the writer brilliantly details the daily life in its alleys and the stories of the residents. Al-Azakaya is the most famous neighborhood among the three. It has a rich history, gardens, and palaces where the insane and the amorous live side by side. In this work, Naguib Mahfouz’s character appears confronting a French general at the opera casino, while women are protesting social restrictions.

This is not just a tale with characters and events, but a generational journey between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. The writer relies on a wide range of historical sources, such as Al-Megrezi's plans; Ibn Taghri's The Bright Stars; The Annals of Al-Jabarti; Ibn Al-Tuwair's Al-Maqlatain Nizha; Ibn Eyas' Badaae Al- Zuhor; Ali Mubarak's The Conciliatory Plans and Muhammad Sayyid Kilani's Azbakiyya Quarters.

In the novel, Shalabi repeats his famous saying, “Nothing is lost in Egypt,” emphasizing that these neighborhoods are the nation's memory despite the attempts to obliterate them. The writer recounts a painful incident about the destruction of large and small villages while paving the highway. He saw the old bones scattered, which prompted him and his friends to gather them and bury them out of respect for the dead.

The Cow's Belly is not only a journey through geography and history, but a testament to the genius of ancient Cairo and the charm of its neighborhoods. Khairi Shalabi, who lived in this city for years, knew it by heart and had fallen in love with it, succeeded in translating this love into a tale and keeping its memory.