Book
The Lanterns of the King of Galilee
First published 2011
On the shores of Lake Tiberias, Dahir al-Umar al-Zaydani rises from the Zayadina clan to become the dominant ruler of eighteenth-century Galilee. Through alliances with villagers, Bedouin tribes, merchants and religious communities, he takes Tiberias, Safed and Acre and attempts to turn local authority into an autonomous Arab polity within the Ottoman Empire.
Dahir’s project brings security, trade and urban renewal, but it also depends on warfare, dynastic marriages, family loyalty and dangerous bargains with regional powers. As his sons compete for succession and the Ottoman state moves to recover direct control, the novel combines documented people with imagined lives to examine power, tolerance, betrayal and the cost of political independence. Originally published in Arabic in 2011 as Qanādīl malik al-Jalīl, it was translated into English by Nancy Roberts.
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