«Mourir de faim devant une porte en or». Le roman Riḥlāt al-Ṭuršaǧī al-Ḥalwaǧī de Ḫayrī Šalabī ou l’échec de l’Histoire arabe

This paper investigates Ḫayrī Šalabī’s novel, Riḥlāt al-Ṭuršaǧī al-Ḥalwaǧī, where the protagonist makes a journey into the past. During this fantastic journey he is witness to some of the important events of the past and he knows a lot of Egyptian historical personalities. Through this novel, Šalabī tries to understand the profound meaning of History, in search of which normally official historical sources are silent about. He puts himself on the side of those men and women who belong to the sub ordinate classes (the ʿāmmah) and who have been only exploited by the élites and have, in general, been victims of History.