Fate's Jest Radubis Battle of Thebes

Author: Mahfouz
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: The historical trilogy is an important early work by the Nobel Prize-winning author Mahfouz. A purely fictional story. The protagonist, Dadauf, is a handsome young man who is selected as a guard officer by the crown prince at the military academy graduation ceremony. Later, at the hunting ground, Dadauf bravely saves the crown prince from the jaws of a fierce lion and achieves a decisive victory in the battle against the Bedouin tribe, leading to the king betrothing his beloved princess to him. Subsequently, Dadauf ascends the throne. However, what surprises the king in the end is that Dadauf is actually the infant he had pursued and killed decades earlier, who was prophesied to inherit the throne. Fate cruelly mocks the ruler. It is a brilliant love tragedy. The dancer Radoubis and the young king fall deeply in love and cannot extricate themselves. The priests exploit the king's romantic affair, inciting the people's hatred for the king and causing them to shoot their arrows into the king's chest. On the brink of death, this couple part ways with reluctance and deep affection, a scene that is deeply moving. In the end, Radoubis takes poison and follows the king into the afterlife. It is a war novel. The ancient city of Thebes is the capital of the southern people, and the invaders constantly demand tribute from them, with insatiable greed. Finally, an inevitable war breaks out. The southern people are defeated. However, they endure hardships and, ten years later, the Battle of Thebes, which shakes the Arab world, erupts. From then on, a unified Egypt stands tall by the Nile.