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"Heikal Searching for Pharaoh" is a book that invites you to get rid of your excessive sensitivity while reading about "Heikal" the professor. The author of the book admits that he was immersed in delusion for years and he eagerly read everything written by the hand of the professor who has become a journalistic symbol approaching sainthood.
Journalist Ayman Sharaf - in his new book issued by Sama Publishing and Distribution House - is trying to get rid of his and his generation's contract by dealing with "Heikal" critically, as removing holiness from the symbol of "the professor" is not an easy matter, because his book, as journalist Abdullah Al-Sanawi describes it, is merely " He scribbled on the platform of Heikal's statue." Sharaf is not the only one who has suffered for years from breaking this taboo regarding talking about Heikal, but he was preceded by many prominent and influential pens who did not dare to criticize him, such as the late Ihsan Abdel Quddus. When Musa Sabry was editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Youm, he refused to publish an article criticizing Heikal, and the article remained removed from print until Musa Sabry appealed to President Sadat, who settled the dispute between them and convinced the latter to publish the article.
In its pages, the author of the book reviews the most important criticisms he directs at the professor, the first of which is his categorical refusal to address his rural origins or talk about his father, a grain merchant. However, the author does not deny that this dimension is due to the aristocratic tendencies that he inherited from his mother, who belonged to a well-off family, and her upbringing of him. It was a distinguished upbringing, and his father contributed to this distinction when he designed trousers for him every month so that he would be the most elegant student in his school. This luxury that accompanied his childhood made him look with admiration and was influenced by the classic English style that dominated his way of life in his home. It is enough, for example, to know that - in his apartment. The elegant apartment overlooking the Nile - he sits waiting for his servant, who brings him a cup of tea at five o'clock, according to the British tradition. The servant comes in a full formal suit with a white shirt underneath and a black banner around his neck. This scene is not mentioned by the author in passing, but he highlights it in the first chapter of the book under the title " "The early relationship with the English," to present it as something like a small detail, but whoever contemplates it will find that there is a psychological relationship linking Heikal with the English - as he put it in his book - and making him fall in love with them, because he loved an English girl in his youth, and was influenced by her way of life and was fascinated by her servant who was attending. Tea is at her house at five o'clock.
The author also confirms in his book that he stayed away from this English girl for fear of being suspected during a period in which politicians who had friendly relations with the English were targeted for assassination. Before you delve into the chapters of the book, your attention will be drawn by the cover of the book drawn by the distinguished artist Karim Sayed, and Very high on its content, and you will tremble in fear of the professor's calm eye that indicates constant planning as he holds in his right hand a luxurious Cuban "Havana" cigar, and in his left the priest's staff with a flame of fire on top of it.