بطن البقرة

Batn al-Baqara ("The Cow's Belly") is Khairy Shalaby's documentary-style historical novel treating the genius loci of old Cairo as its true protagonist. Named for the swampy basin — shaped, it was said, like a cow's belly — that later became the Azbakeya district, the novel moves through several of the city's ancient quarters (including Qaitbay and al-Bataliya alongside Azbakeya) tracing how successive eras reshaped them, blending documented history with narrative into what the author called a "geo-novel."