I heard the name of Khalil Al-Rawaf frequently spoken by his nephew, Dr. Othman Yassin Al-Rawaf, when we were neighbors living in two houses adjacent to the university neighborhood of the faculty members at King Saud University. I could not determine the reasons for that admiration, and perhaps she explained it at the time that it was like every girl that her father liked !!
Then it happened that I got to know Dr. Assia Al-Rawaf, pediatric surgery at the Military Hospital, and learned from her that she is the daughter of Khalil Al-Rawaf, the uncle of Dr. Othman, and although the relationship between me and her strengthened after that, my knowledge of her did not add anything to my knowledge about her father.
A few weeks ago, I met Dr. Asya in the house of a mutual friend, and she told me that she brought me a gift for me and presented me with a book for her father, Khalil, in its second edition, including his diaries. I thanked her and carried the book home with me, and I thought that it would not gain me more than a hurried look, during which I would turn its pages. The book is very large, with nearly six hundred and fifty pages of large pieces, and I did not expect that I would find enough time to read it.
The title of the book (Folded Pages from Our Modern Arab History: My Memoirs Through a Century of Events). The book was topped by two introductions, one by Dr. Othman Al-Rawaf and the other by the daughters of the author, Dr. Asia and Ms. Omaima. In addition to the author''s own introduction, in which he indicates that his motive for publishing his memoirs is that he lived a long life until his age approached a hundred years, and that during those long years of his life he was able to experience many local, regional and global events, whether political or social, as well as He was interested in writing his memoirs since he was a fifteen-year-old boy, which makes it easier for him to remember events, names and dates, which he hopes will be a historical record that will benefit future generations.
When I started reading the book, I forgot myself, and found me pushing through the pages, and the more I moved on, the more I clinged to reading. The book, although simple in its style and language, is interesting because it depicts the nature of life a century ago, when the reader finds himself busy with following up on what the author draws with his pen from multiple pictures and snapshots of the conditions of people and the circumstances of their lives in those days, with all its seeming strange appearances For the children of this time.
