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Sirrou dar al Casba

The Secret of Casbah house

 

Important events of the novel

 

1. The more important event in the novel is the death of three martyrs in the Casbah. This concerns Abbas Essayes, Kaddour Allaf and Seddik Asly. Abdel Nour Kadi was accused of betraying them and giving them to French colonizers. His corpse was found in the Casbah and it is said that the Mujahedeen killed him for his betrayal.

This event occurred in September 1960, but it still affects the behavior of grandchildren of the three martyrs to the grandchild of the traitor.

2. Attempt of kidnapping: Hourria the owner of "good appetite Pizzeria" wanted to record the conversation between her young son and his fiancée without their knowledge, but two strangers sat at this table. They spoke about the abduction of a woman without mentioning her name. One of them gave the other detailed instructions on the time and place of the abduction. They mentioned the name of Abbas during the conversation. Fear for herself and for the reputation of the shop, Hourria did not alert the police. She sought advice from Abdel Nour. Abdel Nour, in his turn, did not want that the police arrest Abbas. He went himself to try to save the woman.

3. The announcement of the auction of the house Asly: Hamoud Al-Sammak found in the documents of the lawyer Ammar Kadi after his death a letter signed by the businessman Anwar Asly asking his lawyer to deliver the letter attached to his son Ziad the day of his twenty-fifth birthday and not before.

Driven by curiosity to open the closed message and read it, Hamoud Al-Sammak has discovered an unexpected secret. Anwar Asly told his son that his grandfather participated, when he was a young man in 1936, in hiding jewelery and money stolen. Three young French ransacked two Italians jewelers named Giovanni in the street "Disly" ​​Larbi Ben Mhidi currently. The thieves hid the jewels in the hair salon of Kaddour Saaid, at the intersection between the Casbah and the European neighborhood. This barber persuaded Abdel Majid, the grandfather of Anwar Asly, to hide jewellry at home. Working as a scavenger, he carried the jewels in the bag of his mule into two journeys at night. Police were able to arrest the three thieves. They have confessed that they hid the stolen jewelery at the Kaddour Saaid' salon. In trying to escape, the barber was killed by police. Nobody knows except him, that jewels were hidden in the house of Asly. His grandfather had buried the jewels and money stolen in the garden of the house and built a room above.

Fortunately for Abbas, the house was mortgaged and will be auctioned later. Abbas rewarded Hamoud Al-Sammak and promised him a greater reward if he could get the treasure. But Hamoud Al-Sammak had revealed this secret to the three other businessmen and received the award from them. Who will, of the four, get the treasure?

4. The trial of those involved in the attempted abduction:

There are other events in the novel that are caused by previous events, and the most important is to discover the secret guarded by the house in the Casbah for a long time.

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