impressed by social status
and crushing Kirsha beneath a train and feeding him to dogs. When he cripples a customer, Zaita is cunning and vicious. His eyes light up at their screams of pain. Still, he considers beggars the best of people and wishes they would form the majority of humankind. He begins work at midnight, leaving quietly and making his rounds about the Mosque of Hussain, where beggars pay their daily due.
Zaita buys provisions and returns to his room, where the extinguished light has been relit and Booshy sits with two prospective clients. One is a giant, down on his luck, unable to understand or remember anything, and too kind to be a highwayman. He weeps when Zaita says he cannot twist or break his limbs, and even if he could, it would elicit no sympathy. Instead, Zaita will teach him ballads in praise of the Prophet. The second man is “good material”: short and frail. Zaita suggests making him appear blind and warns him of the risk of accident. The man calls this a blessing from God. Zaita explains his standard rate plus surgical fee, and smiles, imagining the pain he will inflict.
Alwan’s company keeps Midaq Alley bustling all day with customers, tradesmen, employees, and trucks. It deals in perfumes, wholesale and retail, and wartime has made black market commodities trading profitable. Alwan sits behind a big desk positioned where he can observe everything. He is an expert in his trade, grown prosperous thanks to this second world war. He is healthy, but his vitality is compromised by worries about the future. His three sons scorn the business in favor of the law and medical professions. His four daughters are happily married. Overall, Alwan is inwardly content.
The loving sons fear inheriting the business and urge him to sell and enjoy life, but Alwan resents this. They suggest real estate investment, which Alwan sees as wise. He has heard of rich merchants dying penniless. Wartime conditions, however, demand he wait. His judge son, Muhammad, suggests he try to gain the title of “Bey”. Unlike most merchants, Alwan is impressed by social status. Some family members suggest he enter politics, of which he is entirely ignorant, but his attorney son, Arif, warns that campaigning is costly and a risk to his business reputation if his party loses. Alwan puts politics aside and also rejects suggestions he contribute money to charitable organizations as a way of getting his title; spending £5,000 on a title goes against his instincts. He is content to let the future bring whatever it will.
None of this upsets a life that revolves around work all day and sex all night. Engrossed at work, Alwan is a “crouching tiger”, mastering every adversary, whom he views as “useful devils”. He distracts them during negotiations and leaves them happy with whatever they can get. Every midday, Alwan has the same lunch and then takes a siesta. He eats vegetables, potatoes, and a bowl of husked green wheat mixed with pigeon meat and nutmeg. Every two hours after lunch, Alwan drinks tea, and at night is able to enjoy two hours of sexual pleasure. For a long time, only Alwan, the employee who prepares it, and Husniya, who bakes, it know the recipe. One day, Husniya tries it out on husband Jaada, substituting plain green wheat for the bit she removes from Alwan’s bowl. Alwan notices a drop in his nightly performance and ferrets out the reason. Once Umm Hamida hears the secret, it spreads everywhere and the whole
