I seek God’s forgiveness if I have described a path I myself did not follow…
Like a cameleer who chants without driving camels, like a shepherd who has no flock, like someone offering coffee but his coffee is imaginary, like a host extending an invitation but having no food…
-Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1753-1825), Remarkable Remnants of Translations and Events, aka The History of Egypt
Al-Jabarti’s history of Ottoman Egypt and the French Conquest under Bonaparte begins just like Cervantes begins Don Quixote, with apologies for its shortcomings and excuses for its errors. He worries that he has described a way he himself has not travelled and he quotes a poem that mocks a man’s empty boasting. Never fear…KhairAllah, Khabīr of the Darb al-’Arba’īn, The Way of the Forty, will say nothing in contradiction.
Daoud and KhairAllah, 1984