The Qatari Forum for Authors discusses (The Hours of Fate in the Human History). June 3, 2020

The Qatari Forum for Authors broadcast on Wednesday evening a new episode of the series “I chose for you from my library” presented by the writer Ahmed Al-Alawi, who chose to present the book “Hours of Fate in the Human History” in a recording on the forum’s YouTube channel.

Mr. Alawi considered that this book is important because the Austrian author Stefan Zweig chose to chronicle events and write them in a literary form, and he brought new things that are unusual in literature.

The writer reviewed the various writings of this author, who was interested in the world of creative people and was fond of pioneering personalities and famous writers, revealing the details of their lives with all impartiality and uncovering some of the secrets in their lives.

The Austrian writer lived a tragic life between France and the United States and stayed at the end of his life in Brazil to commit suicide after writing 92 farewell letters to his wife and his friends who are close to him, so that his life which was full of turmoil and conflicts became the subject of one of the films that revealed the last years of his life.

This book reveals the writer’s unique and distinguished perspective on the understanding of human nature and its subtleties, highlighting its complexities, and the reason is due to his great love for literature.

Zweig says about history: History does not have time to be fair, and this sentence looks at history in a wide and large scale and justifies it, showing that successes alone remain and that history does not do justice to the non-victorious and erases the memory of the loser, whatever his ideas, principles, or achievements.

This book, which was analyzed by Itaz Heloui, contains 14 historical stories in which he mentions articulated moments that left a mark in the history of mankind and changed its course in a literary style and deep hints, and the book was distinguished by the diversity of events such as the conquest of Constantinople and the Battle of Waterloo that Napoleon lost in 1815 AD, and the story of El Dorado J. A. Soter and it is a beautiful and funny story, but it is painful because the man who discovered gold in the land he owned, lost it after the news of his presence spread in it. The book dealt with history from an important point, which is the important moment that may change everything if we do not exploit it and behave well in it.

One of the important situations that the book observed in the Battle of Waterloo was that Napoleon was in need of assistance, and the commander Marshal Groshi, the commander of his forces, wanted to return the army assigned to a separate mission to the camp, but at the same time he insisted on implementing the instructions without taking into account the variables and fought on a second land other than the battlefield and it was an articulated moment that changed history.

Among the important chapters in this book is a chapter related to the Roman writer Cicero, who had been exiled to a distant region when Julius Caesar took power in order to move away from the political arena, which was the stage of renewing his ideas and an opportunity for him to write his most important books.

But when Julius was assassinated, the messenger informed him of the news, and it is considered a dreaming moment, because it broke his chains and freed him, and after that he returned to Rome to join the Senate and faced a great challenge and a difficult test in judging the Caesar’s killers. One of the supporters of Atonius, and here the Hour of Destiny was a witness to this fateful situation, and he could declare himself ruler until the matter settled in Rome, which might change the face of history, but he did not take advantage of the opportunity.

After the chaos reigned, the camp of Brutus and Cassius agreed with Antony, who was calling for their killing to divide the empire, and they ordered the killing of Cicero, and they succeeded in the end because he did not behave well, so he lost the history was written in a different way.

The book also talked about the conquest of Constantinople, which is considered one of the most important epics in Arab-Islamic history, as the hour of destiny in this epic was the forgotten door (Kirkaporta) in this siege.