This guy is like a ‘sorcerer’!, he overwhelms you with fairy tales and legendary characters to prove some obscure myths, but yet you believe him and you give him all your senses!
This is a masterpiece of literature that nobody should miss, Although I’m more into ‘non-fiction’, but the journey is inspiring and entertaining and yet so deep in meaning and philosophy, however, I’ve detected a few ‘goofs’ where the writer is obviously didn’t dive deep enough in the Egyptian Culture, Sociology and yet Geography:
1. Al-Fayoum is not actually an oasis, it’s an urban region with a large lake and it’s connected to the Nile Valley, I guess the writer meant (or should have meant) the famous oasis of ‘Siwa’ or any of the scattered Egyptian/Libyan oases of the Great Sahara.
2. Al-Fayoum is not that far from the Pyramids, it should be less than a single day by horse.
3. Fatima of Al-Fayoum is supposed to be a Muslim, Muslim females never marry non-Muslim males, especially in an oasis where traditions are most respected.
4. Beduins of Egypt don’t dress in blue, the characteristics of the tribal men who hijacked the boy and the alchemist in Egypt are more related to ‘Tuareg’ tribes who live in the middle of the Great Sahara to the south of Algeria, not in Egypt.
