Azazel - Yusuf Zaidan

The events of the novel take place in the fifth century AD between Upper Egypt, Alexandria, and northern Syria, following the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire, and the subsequent internal religious conflict between church fathers on one side, and newly converted believers and declining paganism on the other. "I don't think I have enjoyed a work like this... How wonderful this work is" — Yahya Al-Jamal "This novel is a creative and dangerous work, creative because it contains human dialogue areas written with delicate sensitivity where emotion blends with pleasure, and dangerous because it includes a study of the origin and development of the doctrinal conflict between Christian sects in the East" — Sami Khashaba "If we read the novel truly, we would realize the nobility of its goals and the nobility of its moral and spiritual purposes, which affirm the values of tolerance, acceptance of others, respect for the right to difference, and rejection of violence" — Dr. Jaber Al-Asfour "The language of the novel is poetic, echoing the mystical supplications, especially when reading a supplication of Heiba to his Lord" — Bishop Younan Jirji "Yusuf Zidan is the first Muslim novelist to write deeply about Christian theology in a novelistic manner. He is the first Muslim to attempt to provide solutions to major church problems. Yusuf Zidan has entered the life of monasteries, and with the brush of a monk, depicted real church events that had a great impact on the history of the Coptic Church" — Bishop Younan Jirji