The Destitute

 The Destitute : New,
*[A5+] Paperback - 273 pages,
by Mustafa Sadiq al-Rifa'i,
English translation by Yusuf T. DeLorenzo,
Published by Huma Press.



Description :


When war broke out in Europe in August of 1914, the British rulers of Egypt commandeered everything the country produced to feed and clothe its troops, reducing the Egyptian working class to abject poverty, while the privileged classes took the war as an opportunity to make more profits than ever before. Food crops were replaced by cotton and fortunes were made by the wealthy. However, no food was grown and the common people were subjected to starvation. By the end of the war in 1918 more people died in Egypt than were born. It was against this backdrop of human suffering that the author wrote this book, The Destitute, during the years of the war itself. Having endured so much deprivation in his own life, and through his witnessing at the courts of law the misery brought by the war on the working classes, and through the letters he received from his readers recounting their suffering, the author developed a keen and heartfelt appreciation for what was taking place in his country.


The pages of this book reflect a society in which misery was no stranger. Given the historical context, the reader might consider reading the last chapter, entitled “War”, even before reading the first chapter. However, as the reader will soon discover, the historical context is of relatively little or no consequence because the real concern of the book is in uncovering universal truths about the human condition, in any age and in any place on earth.





This is a book to ponder. It is not a narrative that begins at point A and ends at point B, though the narrator (about whom more later) does tell a few stories. It is not a work of philosophy or of fiction, or a work of belle lettres, or a religious discourse. It is not a homily and it is not didactic in its intent. It might best be called a work of creative non-fiction, a work of reflection, and one that is to be shared. It scores high on the scale of Arabic literary aesthetics, very high. In this sense, the book might be considered an extended essay on poverty. Perhaps the author himself put it best when he explained that he wrote about poverty “...not for the purpose of eradicating it, but so that it may be
endured patiently; and not to study it, but in order to console those it has afflicted.” Finally, this is one of those books you may want to accompany you on your own journey through life as a close companion to whom you may turn from time to time for advice or solace.


This edition Includes English translation with facing Arabic text.



The author : Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi'i was born in January of 1880 in Egypt to parents of Syrian descent. His father, Abd al-Razzaq al-Rafi'i was a learned man and maintained a sizeable personal library that would play an important part in the development of the author as a poet, critic, and respected literary figure in early twentieth century Egypt. His family was devoted to scholarship in the classical Islamic sciences, he was blessed with several generations of gifted offspring. Among all of these, however, Mustafa Sadiq would alone rise to prominence in the literary world.

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*Dimensions : 22.8 x 15.3 x 2.1cm.