But I would hope you will not entertain the idea, dear sirs, that Mustafa Sa'eed had become an obsession that was ever with me in my comings and goin… - al-Tayyib Salih

...the Imam is revered and followed by only the more traditional villagers. To most young men and the influential “gang,” the Imam is “a necessary evil"

I had put out the candles and locked the door of the room and that of the courtyard without doing anything. Another fire would not have done any good.

It is a chaotic house, built without method, and has acquired its present form over many years: many differently-sized rooms, some built up against one another at different times, either because they were needed or because my grandfather found himself with some spare money for which he had no other use.