“How can I write about the countryside and our own city?”, asked Najib Mahfouz. “It seems that we are not worthy of preserving any history at all. Do you think I’m ignorant, Abu al-Sa’ud Afandi? Brother, it’s enough that I’ve spent all this long life with you. I’m a cursed one, a guardian of history who never truly protects it. I’m forced to live my entire life as just a guard for it. This history fills me with fear in my dreams. Every time I look at it, I see myself as insignificant. I see myself as disgusting, with my hands contaminated by what I’ve touched. I’m terrified of the eyes that will envy us for it, and of those selfish souls who seek to steal it from us. You want us to repeat what happened to us from the beginning, don’t you, Abu al-Sa’ud Afandi? As long as the box is with us, the devil is in our home. All our children will fight over it.”