جبلاوي "أولاد حارتنا" بيـن الراوي العليم والموروث العَقَدي

Headlined “Children of Gebelawi, the Omniscient Narrator and the Inherited Faith,” this study consists of an introduction, a preface and thesis. The main topic thereof is the character of Gebelawi, which incorporates the inspired inherited faith and -- in the meantime -- creates a raw material from the narrator’s ideology and thinking. For Mahfouz, the character of Gebelawi was a mask that he used to put the values of his country in the direction that he saw was true and satisfactory to himself.
In the introduction, I mentioned the reasons that motivated me to write this study; And what motivated to write this study was that I reread the Children of Gebelawi for a second time, a while after the first reading; That second reading raised new critical questions, that I sought answers for in the writings of many critics. However, I concluded that they have not ever reached consensus on the issue; most of their opinions seemed very contradictory, in spite of its being based on standard methods of criticism.
In the preface, I was keen to give some necessary information about the novel, as well as some aspects of the critical works that discussed this controversial novel.
Although the critics agree that the history of prophets had inspired Naguib Mahfouz, they had many disagreements over the nature of Gebelawi. To my knowledge, there is no independent research that is dedicated to the character of Gebelawi; thus, I focused my work in studying the character within the framework of the hereditary reference that inspired Mahfouz, and in the light of a critical narrative technique -- the omniscient narrator.
The third section of the study, which is the main section as well, discusses the character of Gebelawi from both the inherited faith and the omniscient narrator perspectives. Mahfouz used the inherited faith to portray the character of Gebelawi in a way that conforms to that inherited faith:
-       The name of Gebelawi
-       His good qualities (justice, mercy, charity, long-living, distinct good manners, power, and strength).
-       His great mission of sending missionaries and prophets).
Regarding the omniscient narrator technique, the mask under which Mahfouz disguised, this study shows that the narrator has incorporated his own thinking, and deviated thereby from the path of the lives of prophets. Thus, the narrator has created a new raw material from his own thinking and ideologies in order to rebuild the string of values in his own society. The author has for long been interested in studying his society, and uncovering the cons thereof in many of his works, especially the contemporary ones at his time.
That omniscient narrator has portrayed Gebelawi from another perspective that contradicts with the inherited faith; He portrays the protagonist as a mugger, aberrant, passive and weak individual.

After I contemplated the character of Gebelawi from the two perspectives -- the inherited faith and the omniscient narrator -- I concluded that the novelist is disguised in the omniscient narrator’s mask through his own perspective: religion did not manage to guide the humanity to goodness; knowledge and sciences as well -- portrayed in the character of Arafa -- have only brought devastation and destruction to humanity; thus, humanity should seek a new way for salvation. Could this new way be the equilibrium between knowledge and sciences on one hand, and religion on the other hand? Or it could be to discard both religion and knowledge, and to find new horizons through new studies?