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A Sultan in Palermo: A Novel (Islam Quintet)

A Sultan in Palermo: A Novel (Islam Quintet)

by TariqAli (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2005

    $12.18
Synopsis

The fourth novel in Tariq Ali's Islam Quintet is set in medieval Palermo, a Muslim city rivalling Baghdad and Cordoba in size and splendour. The year is 1153. The Normans are ruling Siqqiliya, but Arab culture and language dominate the island and the court. Sultan Rujari (King Roger) surrounds himself with Muslim intellectuals, several concubines, and an administration presided over by gifted eunuchs. The bishops, expecting to be at the pinnacle of power, are angered by the decadence of the court. In this captivating novel, Tariq Ali charts the life and loves of the medieval cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi. Torn between his close friendship with the sultan and his friends who are leaving the island or plotting a resistance to Norman rule, Idrisi finds temporary solace in the harem; but, confronted by the common people of Noto and Catania, his conscience is troubled. A Sultan in Palermo is a mythic novel in which pride, greed, and lust intermingle with resistance and greatness. Set in the past, it has haunting resonance today.

$12.18

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 246
 Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 31 May 2005
ISBN 10: 1844670252
ISBN 13: 9781844670253

Media Reviews
All human frailty and nobility is here ... an imaginative tour de force. -- Sunday Telegraph on Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree ?? Grippingly well told, brilliantly paced, remarkably convincing in its historical depiction of a fateful relationship, a narrative for our time, haunted by distant events and characters who are closer to us than we dreamed. -- Edward Said on The Book of Saladin ? Tales of anguish, longing, lust, and love all find their way to The Stone Woman--Ali paints a vivid picture of a fading world. -- New York Times Book Review on The Stone Woman??
Author Bio
Tariq Ali is a writer and film-maker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history an politics, as well as scripts for both stage and screen. The first novel of his Islam Quintet, Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree, was awarded the Archbishop San Clemente del Instituto Rosalia de Castro Prize for Best Foreign Language Fiction published in Spain in 1994. The novels have all been translated into several languages. He is an editor for New Left Review and lives in London.