Autumn of Wrath

The book came less than two years after Sadat’s assassination in the platform incident on October 6, 1981, and after Heikal’s release from prison, where he had been imprisoned by Sadat. This arrest was part of a campaign of arrests that included thousands of political figures from various political factions and concluded on September 5, 1981. Heikal reveals: “I confess that I began thinking about writing this book from the first moment of my arrest on September 3, 1981, when I turned around and saw around me in prison all those who represented the living symbols of the most important political and intellectual movements influencing Egypt. I was convinced (almost subconsciously) that I was living through a drama that would one day, in one way or another, come to an end, and that I, as a journalist, might be required to tell its story before anyone else.” The book sparked an ongoing controversy. Heikal published his book considering that Sadat’s era was essentially a historical mistake.