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 beginning of the month of Ramadan, the people’s restaurants will open their doors to the poor to break their fast. That’s the king’s order. So the poor can be guaranteed to eat for a month. Long live the king and long live Ali Mahir too! “
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 reconnaissance flights, the Luftwaffe launched the first raid over France. French fighter planes chased and shot down some of the German planes. That new development caught the world’s attention; German planes were now capable of going beyond Alsace-Lorraine. Fears increased when German deployments extended from the French to the Dutch borders. The Germans said the French borders were too narrow and that they needed to reinforce their troops. They also said Germany had no designs on the Netherlands. Jaffa oranges appeared in the markets in Alexandria. It was said that the abundant crop in Palestine could not be exported to Europe because of the war, and that was why the fruit was so cheap.
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 Hermann Goering, chief of the Luftwaffe, visited Italy, and the world awaited the outcome of the visit with bated breath. Ismet Inonu, the president of the Turkish Republic, gave a speech in which he declared his country’s neutrality and its intention to stay out of the war. An embargo on foreign theater troupes was enacted, in order to cut down on expenses and to show appreciation for Egyptian troupes. Some cynics commented that international travel routes were already cut off because of the war. Serge Bujolosky, a foreign artist living in Paris, returned Watteau‘s painting L’indiffèrent, which he had stolen from the Louvre the previous June. He said that he loved the French eighteenth-century painter and especially that painting, which he had wanted to restore. The experts said that in fact he had damaged it, which earned him a two-year jail sentence. Memorial services were held at the French cemeteries in Alexandria for the French casualities of the Great War. The Consul General of France and notables of the French community attended the services. It seemed that Hitler was not going to attack the French front before the following spring.
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 announced, “Men of Egypt, science has come to you from faraway America. Perform like a twenty-year-old even if you are fifty. For eleven piasters, the price of one bottle of Re-Zex pills, you can say good-bye to being ashamed of your declining physical ability and vigor.”
Hitler gave a speech at the Munich beer hall where in 1923 he had shouted, “The National Revolution has begun,” and where he had announced that Germany was fighting for her Lebensraum. Then in 1937, he announced that Germany’s Lebensraum was Eastern Europe, and that Poland, White Russia, and the Ukraine should be wiped out of existence, along with their populations, and become part of Germany. That was why, when he invaded Poland, the Russians did not hesitate to invade it from the other side, to safeguard the Ukraine and White Russia, and if Hitler turned on them, the Russians would share Poland with him. After Hitler departed, a bomb exploded in the beer hail and its roof collapsed, but there were no injuries. His Majesty contributed the sum of three hundred Egyptian pounds to the charity fund managed by the ministry of social affairs. Belgium and the Netherlands began to fear that Hitler might violate their neutrality. The price of Egyptian eggs rose from 180 piasters per thousand to 280 piasters. Turkey observed the anniversary of Ataturk’s death. Amsterdam began to flood parts of its borders to slow down any German attack. Belgium declared universal mobilization. Joint maneuvers between the Egyptian and British armies were conducted in the Western desert.