1. Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree
Set in al-Andalus after the surrender of Granada in 1492, the novel follows the fictional al-Hudayl family as Castilian rule closes around the remaining Muslim population. Their household must respond to forced conversion, the destruction of Arabic books and the growing power of the Inquisition while…
2. The Book of Saladin
This fictional memoir presents Saladin’s life through the work of Ibn Yakub, a Jewish scribe commissioned to record the sultan’s memories and speak with members of his household. The narrative follows Saladin’s rise in Egypt and Syria, his struggle against the Crusader states and the campaign…
3. The Stone Woman
In 1899, members of an Ottoman family gather at the summer residence of Iskender Pasha outside Istanbul while the empire faces political decay, nationalism and pressure for reform. Confessions made before an ancient stone figure expose buried relationships, betrayals and divisions between generations. The family’s private…
4. A Sultan in Palermo (Islam Quintet 4)
Set in twelfth-century Sicily, the novel follows the geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi at the court of Roger II. Idrisi works on the great geographical survey later known as the Tabula Rogeriana while navigating a kingdom in which Arabic, Greek, Latin, Jewish and Norman traditions meet under increasingly…
5. Night of the Golden Butterfly
The final volume of the Islam Quintet follows a narrator who is called upon to repay a debt of honour by writing the life of Mohammed Aflatun, a Pakistani painter known as Plato. Moving between Lahore, London, Paris, Beijing and the United States, the novel reconnects…