Raḥmat Allāh; that is: The mercy of Allah

About “Raḥmat Allāh; that is: The mercy of Allah”

The Mercy of Allah is a satirical novel that follows the rise of the merchant Mahmoud from humble origins to immense wealth through a series of morally dubious actions, including fraud, theft, market manipulation, and profiting from war. The story, set in a fictionalized Middle East, uses Mahmoud’s justifications for his conduct—rooted in a belief in divine favor—to critique the greed and economic practices of the British business elite as perceived by the Catholic author Hilaire Belloc.