اللي مالوش قديم مالوش جديد
Elli maloush qadim maloush gedid
Translation: He who has no past has no future.
Meaning: He who denies his past is living a lie, and will not be able to go far. This may denote the turmoil that happened in the educational system around the turn of the twentieth century, when modern, non-religious schools started competing with both the guild system and traditional religious schools. The migration from villages to cities also picked up around that time; making people doubt themselves, as modernity seemed to be too perplexing for newcomers in the growing urban metropoles. It is mostly a rural vs. urban saying.
Source: ُEgyptian proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center For Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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