Nestor Pierrakos

Maktoub (25/ii/2012) Nestor Pierrakos

Maktoub describes the events and political upheavals that changed the Middle East from the demise of the Ottoman Empire to the eventual death of Colonel Nasser. These events are seen through the eyes of Peter Angelakis, an Ottoman Greek who left Constantinople for a more secure existence in British controlled Egypt. In Alexandria, Peter marries into a Lebanese family and the history of that period with all its upheavals unfolds through the lives of his four children. The Second World War provided Peter?s eldest daughter who is married to a British Officer, offers a peek into English reactions to Egyptian Nationalism. It also acted as a catalyst to the free Officer?s movement resulted in King Farouk?s abdication. Peter?s second daughter Alexandra marries a Greek businessman who escaped from communist Romania, and throws light into the socialist nationalizations that eventually wrecked the Egyptian economy. Peter?s two sons with his father-in-law are immersed in the Egyptian interior and provide a picture of life at the time that included acquiring business contacts; the reasons and results of the burning of Cairo; the Suez attack and the disastrous six day war of 1967 until the death of Nasser in 1970. All the events, once they had occurred, the Muslim population stoically accepted them. To them it was MAKTOUB (it is written).