I finished reading another great book today, Children of Gabalawi. The late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz wrote this book in 1959, and it seems it's still banned by Islam… The book is very well written, with a dynamic style, and the allegories it contains could be considered as provoking for the time as "South Park" would be today. It is, of course, not so grotesque for today's standards ;) The synopsis from Wikipedia: "The story recreates the tied history of the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), allegorised against the setting of an imaginary 19th century Cairene neighborhood.
Gabalawi being an allegory for religion in general, the first four sections retell, in succession, the stories of: Adam (Adham أدهم) and how he was favored by Gabalawi over the latter's other sons, including Satan/Iblis (Idris إدريس); Moses (Gabal جبل); Jesus (Rifa'a رفاعة); and Muhammad (Qasim قاسم). Families of each son settle in different parts of the alley, symbolising Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The protagonist of the book's fifth section is Arafa (عرفة), who symbolises modern science and, significantly, comes after all prophets, while all of their followers claim Arafa as one of their own."
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