Middle Eastern Fiction

The prophet Al Mustafa has lived in the city of Orphalese for 12 years and is about to board a ship that will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people with whom he discusses topics such as life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it's not just a story. As the day of her twin brother's wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she's willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom.

A family secret revealed 40 years ago by a grandmother to her grandson is now an acclaimed Russian historical fiction novel. A Hundred Sweet Promises is the tale of the author’s grandfather, Nasrosoltan, a famed composer, who on the eve of World War I travels from Persia to Russia to study classical music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with such masters as Rimsky-Korsakov.

The remarkable Gertrude Bell, one of the great scholars/adventurers of the late 19th and early 20th century, translated the poems of Hafiz of Persia and introduced the English world to one of the great minds of the 15th century. This is her work in an inexpensive and highly understandable new edition.

A rich and varied collection of contemporary short stories, extracts from novels, and poetry that will go a long way toward informing the English-speaking world of the latest developments in Iranian literature. This sampling - or to use the Farsi term golchine, a bouquet - provides a window onto an important but sorely neglected segment of world culture. We hope it will also serve to awaken further interest in the work and in translations of Iranian novelists and poets.

After the battle on Sharr that closed We Hunt the Flame, Zafira and Nasir return to a ghostly Sultan’s Keep, low on resources and allies alike. The dark forest has fallen, but the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return. As Nasir fights to command the dark power in his blood, Zafira fights against a very different darkness festering through her bond with the Jawarat.

The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, Sufi teachings, and classical writings as a basic course of Sufi study. The author begins with the outward aspects of the teaching most likely to puzzle the student coming fresh to the subject. He considers various attitudes to Sufi ideas and evidence of their absorption into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, and modern philosophical teachings.

The Last Refugee by Zahara Schara is a powerful and deeply moving novel that spans generations, weaving together the lives of two families forced to flee their homes in search of safety. Elijah, an aging man living a quiet life by the sea in Calais, rarely dwells on his past—on the horrors of fleeing Nazi persecution as a child or the sacrifices that ensured his survival. But when his garden is mysteriously disturbed night after night, he stays awake to catch the culprit, expecting a rabbit. What he discovers instead stirs long-buried memories, forcing him to confront the past he thought ...

Together, Hafez, a giant of world literature; Jahan Malek Khatun, an eloquent princess; and Obayd-e Zakani, a dissolute satirist, represent one of the most remarkable literary flowerings of any era. Here Dick Davis, an award-winning poet widely considered "our finest translator of Persian poetry" (The Times Literary Supplement), presents a diverse selection of some of the best poems by these world-renowned authors and shows us the spiritual and secular aspects of love, in varieties embracing every aspect of the human heart.

A Tale of Passion, Poetry, and Rebellion in 10th-Century Persia In the grand palace of Balkh, where power is absolute and tradition unyielding, Rabia bint Ka‘b—a noblewoman of striking intellect and beauty—dares to dream beyond the gilded cage of her birth. A gifted poetess, she weaves verses of love and longing, secretly pouring her heart onto parchment. But when her heart finds its true muse in Baktash, a captured Turkish warrior, their love becomes a crime punishable by death. Baktash, once a slave in the palace, rises to power as a commander, his unwavering spirit earning the ...

مرداد‬ يُحكى أنّ نوح، بعد الطوفان، سأل ابنه أن يبني هيكلًا يشبه الفلك، في وسطه مذبح تشتعل فيه نار لا تنطفئ، وأن يجمع فيه تسعة رجال يسمّون "رفاق الفلك". نفّذ الابن الوصيّة، ومضت السنوات والفلك على حالها، إنّما رفاق الفلك على تغيّر: فبدل أن يكتفوا بما هو ضروريّ، جمعوا أملاكًا، وذهبًا، ومالًا، وتحوّلوا كهنة منكبّين على حماية قشور الدين وسطحية كهنوته.

The captivating saga of an American nurse uncovering her mysterious past in a land far away. As an orphan who aged out of the system, Adira beat the odds, earning a nursing degree and finding a job at the California hospital that once saved her life. After being forced out, she turns to an enticing position in the Middle East. Enchanted by the turquoise sea, towering mountains, and golden sands, Adira falls in love with the culture and welcoming people of Oman. But beneath the surface, the nation’s fabric is being torn apart. And she is one of the threads. In a race against time and the ...

تدور على محور أساس هو الحبّ. يغرم الأرقش حتّى الجنون، وهو شابّ أرجنتينيّ مثقّف من أصل لبنانيّ، بفتاة فائقة الجمال. إلّا أنّ الأرقش المغرم لا يلبث أن يكتشف في الحبّ ذينك القطبين الدهريّين المتناقضين اللذين يتنازعان النفس البشريّة، فإذا به مصلوب بينهما؛ نحبّ فنسمو، ونشفّ نشفّ روحًا حتّى لنكاد نلامس عرش الله.

Shaza, a Syrian-Canadian housewife, is happily married and living the Canadian dream with a beautiful house in the suburbs, a loving family, and amazing friendships. When shy and sweet Shaza decides to abandon her family and embark on a strange journey of her own, her friends—Najat, Sonia, and Reem— are left entirely baffled. Did her husband harm her? Did she try and go back to Syria? Is she tied to the conflict? They follow her journey which takes her to Istanbul, Jordan, Netanya, Mecca, Jeddah, and London. Her friends come to learn the secrets which Shaza has harboured all of her life...

In this recording are presented readings of all five editions of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, translated by scholar Edward Fitzgerald, as well as biographical material about Fitzgerald and Omar Khayyam and a laudatory poem by Andrew Lang.

"As the depth of truth of one's life can only be penned upon the pages of a diary, Jane Digby leads us through her passionate life . . . A wonderful piece of historical fiction that will delight your senses as well as your heart." - Peggy Lee Sprague, author of The Truth Hunters series. Jane Digby's Diary continues with Volume Three: Following an Eastern Star. Based on a true story . . . Bright, beautiful, and bold, Jane Digby led a remarkable life. Born to privilege in 1807 at Dorset, England, she soon scandalized Europe with her reckless pursuit of freedom. Kings, princes, barons, ...

Before Amir Zayne became a seeker of truth, he was just another lost kid in Cairo — smart, angry, and already circling the drain. When a classmate dies under mysterious circumstances, Amir’s investigation drags him into a world of pills, secrets, and surveillance. The deeper he digs, the stranger it gets: missing factory shipments, strange visions, and whispers about a drug that doesn’t just numb — it opens something. As Amir spirals deeper into addiction and paranoia, he starts to question everything — his friends, his teachers, even his own father. But some truths don’t want ...

À Kaboul, Mariam endure un mariage contraint avec un homme violent. L'arrivée de la jeune Laila sous son toit est une épreuve de plus. Mais, entre ces femmes que tout oppose, la rivalité va bientôt faire place à une indéfectible amitié... Et à l'espoir d'une autre vie. Par l'auteur des Cerfs-Volants de Kaboul, un chant d'amour poignant pour l'Afghanistan, déchirée par la barbarie.

The prolific writings of Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, continue to inspire a devoted international following and have transformed modern Arabic literature. In this volume of early writings, Gibran’s simple yet lyrical style crosses from prose to poetry and yields insight into his dedication and inner vision of beauty, including the tale of a strange hermit in “The Tempest”, the discovery of love lost to war in “The Mermaids”, and the long voyage of sea and soul in the prose poem “Between Night and Morn”.

A story of political ambition, greed, love and revenge, The Reluctant Trader is a fast-paced thriller following fictional events in just one week at the end of January 2016, the start of what, by any yardstick, was an extraordinary year in British politics. When disgraced former soldier, Adam Fraser, goes to work for well-connected tax-exile and billionaire, Ricky Al-Shawabi, as an oil trader, he finds himself at the centre of a British operation trying to expose Al-Shawabi as a criminal tax evader. However, the tentacles of Al-Shawabi’s operation reach high into the British political ...