Stories from history
In the introduction to the book, the author told us about his style of writing these stories, saying: “These chapters were not written in one day, but were written in separate times, so what you see was the difference between their styles. Al-Hajjaj (The Migration of a Teacher, the Night of Farewell, and the Day of Meeting) is a trace of the style of Marouf al-Arnaout, and in the story of “Alam” there is a trace of the style of al-Rafi’i, and the rest of it is written in my style.
Then he talks about his method in these stories: “I did not intend to make them stories as stated in the title of the book, and I did not abide by the restrictions of the story and stand at its limits, but rather I used to take the news and fall on it and turn it in my mind and visualize its details, then I try to present it expanded and clear, so what came was It approaches the story at times, and it is more like a show (reportage) at times.Perhaps I was overcome by the desire for psychological analysis, so I made it long, and sometimes I stopped at the facts and made it short.If you go back to the origins of these chapters in history, you will find that most of them do not exceed a few lines that came hidden in a footnote or One of the angles that the reader does not pay attention to and does not stop at.
As for the stories contained in the book, they are twenty-three stories, and they were written in a style that spreads life to the extent that it brings tears - sometimes - from the eyes of its reader, and even to make one think that he is one of its heroes and characters, who goes with them and comes, and suffers with them and rejoices, and even almost lives with them and dies!
They are selected from different times, extending from the days of ignorance to the last century. It contains stories from the pre-Islamic era (Al-Nabigha Al-Dhubyani), from Taif in the last days of the pre-Islamic era and the first days of Islam (Ibn Al-Hub), and from Hijaz in the beginning of the Umayyad era (thirty thousand dinars, at the gates of Medina, the night of farewell, and the day of meeting).
And from Samarkand in the early days of the conquests (Samarkand case), and from the Levant in the last days of the Umayyads therein (a woman from the Umayyads), then from it in the eighth century (in the Umayyad courtyard), and from Mecca in the middle of the third century (The Tale of Al-Hamiyan),
And from Baghdad in the days of al-Ma’mun (the deposit of God), and from Palestine in the days of Salah al-Din (in Jerusalem, Helena and Louis), and from Andalusia at the end of the fifth century (overnight), then from it in the hours of farewell before the fall of Granada in the hands of the Christians at the end of the ninth century (The last heroes of Granada), then after the fall (Muhammad Al-Saghir), and finally here is the story of “A scholar” from Damascus in 1831. In the book, one theatrical scene is entitled “Abu Jahl.”