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Magd al-Din thought it would be a good opportunity for Zahra to overcome her sorrow. He went into the cafe adjacent to Gazar Pastry Shop. It was filled with patrons drinking tea and coffee and playing backgammon, dominos, and cards by the light of small lamps. Dimyan was playing dominos with another person, while three other men sat with them. As soon as Dimyan saw Magd al-Din and Dimitri he got up to welcome them. Magd al-Din said, “You’re staying up too, Dimyan?”
“Ramadan encourages one to stay up, Sheikh Magd!” was his reply.
As they all sat down, Dimyan shouted, “As of tomorrow, with the begi
A man sitting in the far corner added his own dedication: “And long live the singer Muhammad Abd al-Muttalib and Sitt Fathiya Ahmad!”
The advent of the month of Ramadan did not cause the Egyptian government to relax the emergency and civil defense measures. On the contrary, they were tightened. Alexandria, like other municipalities, instituted nighttime and daytime air-raid drills. The prices of some commodities, especially fuels such as kerosene, gasoline, and natural gas, were raised. Some commodities, such as cooking oil, were removed from price-control lists, and people complained loudly. Flour mills began to add more than the legal limit of corn meal to wheat flour. As a result of the strict enforcement of civil defense regulations, no permits were issued for the erection of the tents or temporary pavilions for entertainment or religious events that people were used to having in the squares, outside the mosques, or other such places during Ramadan. For city dwellers, this year’s Ramadan was less cheerful than usual.
In the big world outside, the naval war was still raging. The exploits of the legendary German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which attacked British convoys, filled the world. The two battle cruisers seemed like ghosts; no one knew when they would appear, and after they had struck, they disappeared in the deep waters of the Atlantic. And so did the two pocket battleships Admiral Graf Spee and Deutschland. During reco
His Majesty King Farouk bestowed the rank of general on His Excellency Baker Pasha, Alexandria’s police superinten-dent. People were cautioned against going beyond the streetcar route in the suburb of Sidi Bishr at night; there had been many murders, strong-arm robberies, and rapes. For the first time, it was decided that army officers would travel on the railroads first class, in recognition of their prominent place in society and to safeguard their dignity. His Royal Highness Prince Muhammad Ali left Alexandria for Cairo at the end of the summer season. The Teatro of Biba Izz al-Din performed the vaudeville play An Aristocratic Thief. The Egyptian gold pound coin was worth 185 piasters, and Craven cigarettes were three piasters for ten and six for a twenty-cigarette pack. It was decided that the officers of the Territorial Army should be recruited from the ranks of physical education graduates, who were always unemployed. The Egyptian film Determination was screened for the first time. The US Neutrality Act, also known as ‘cash-and-carry,’ was passed, removing the ban on arms exports to the Allies. Three German soldiers who had murdered General von Fritsch during the fighting near Warsaw were executed. The king continued to perform the Friday prayers at a different mosque every week; so far, he had prayed at the Kikhya mosque in Cairo and al-Dikhayla in Alexandria. The public safety report was issued, stating that fires had destroyed 858 houses, causing five thousand Egyptian pounds worth of damage. The Border Guard Corps began training on the use of anti-aircraft artillery in Marsa Matruh. Colonel Ali al-Sharif Bey was appointed director-general of the border adminis-tration.
The famous Nazi field marshal Herma
Izz al-Din Abd al-Qadir, who had fired shots at Nahhas Pasha’s car, filed an appeal to overturn the ten-year jail sentence he had received. The appeal was continued. Royal birthdays were celebrated, one for Princess Fawziya upon her reaching nineteen. The celebrations were held simultaneously at the royal palace in Cairo and in the imperial palace in Tehran, since she was the wife of the Iranian crown prince. The sixty-fifth birthday of the Egyptian crown prince, Muhammad Ali, was also celebrated, as was the sixteenth birthday of Princess Fayza. The Romanian embassy celebrated the coming of age of Prince Michael, son of King Carol II and Princess Helena of Greece. The biggest air battle yet between the French and the German forces took place over Alsace. The French shot down nine German planes. King Leopold of Belgium and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands tried to reconcile the warring powers and made an initiative to that effect. Advertisements for Re-Zex pills a
Hitler gave a speech at the Munich beer hall where in 1923 he had shouted, “The National Revolution has begun,” and where he had a