Who is Salim Alwan from Midaq Alley and what is their importance?

The fifty-year-old owner of a large company whose office lies adjacent to Abbas's barbershop, Alwan is well built and well-off financially, with large Circassian mustaches, and a strutting walk. His wife is from the aristocratic Alifat family. His sons are professionals: judge Muhammad, attorney Arif, and physician Hassan. They want Alwan to sell his stressful business, retire, and take care of himself. Alwan, however, is both a workaholic and a sexaholic. His wife does not share his passion, which is deepened by daily lunches of husked green wheat mixed with pigeon meat and nutmeg, followed at two-hour intervals by tea.