A passionate tale, woven from personal stories of heroic betrayal and love, The Naqib’s Daughter is based on historical characters, and set during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt.
Lady Nafisa, aristocrat, philanthropist and wife of Mamluke leader Murad Bey wakes one morning to find her worst fears confirmed. Cairo is under threat from the French, whose mission is to liberate the most ancient civilisation in the world from what they see as superstition and darkness.
For Nafisa it means that her husband will go to war and she will be widowed a second time. She will have a new role as an intermediary with the French and as a refuge for vulnerable civilians form both sides.
For fourteen year-old Zeinab, daughter of a respected Naqib, it is the end of her childhood. To save her family she is married to Napoleon. Life in the French court in Egypt is a game to her, one with many pleasures, including the love of one of Napoleon’s trusted entourage. When the occupation fails, and the French begin to withdraw, only Nafisa can protect her from the wrath of the mob.
Elfi Bey, the ambitious new Mamluke leader who is also in love with Lady Nafisa, has to risk being an outcast, for the land he so dearly loves, and loosing all the wealth and status he has worked for because he fears the only way to save Egypt from the occupiers is to seek support from the court of King George III.
Samia Serageldin brings to life the vanished world of the exotic Mamluke warrior-slaves and so doing, explores the complex, often dangerous relationship between occupier and occupied. The Naqib’s Daughter reveals the high price paid by Egyptians for their occupation.
Book Info:
:: Gloomy Monday.hari ni minggu kedua bergelar ibu bekerjaya..dan hari ini hari pertama my mia dan my naqib hantar ker nursery..Adoii jangan tanyalah apa perasaan ,His Birth and Lineage. He is the caller to Allah, the erudite scholar, al-Habib Umar the son of Muhammad, bin Salim, bin Hafiz, bin Abdullah, bin Abu Bakr, bin ,While it needs to be acknowledged that atrocities have been committed against women overseas in the name of Islam, it also needs to be acknowledged that such ,Most of the books under review at the complete review are contemporary titles. Most were first published in the past few years, and the vast majority were first ,We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for the guidance and patience in coaching Gabriel all this while. The prelims results have given him a new found ,Amir Arsalan-e Namdar is a popular Persian legend which was narrated to Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, the Qajar Shah of Persia in the 19th century, (though the legend ,the ratib of sayyidunal imam qutb al-anfaas al-habib ‘umar ibn ‘abd al-rahman al-’attas rady allahu ‘anhu,Ali al-Uraidhi ibn Ja’far al-Sadiq, better known simply as Ali al-Uraidhi, was the son of Ja’far al-Sadiq and the brother of Isma’il, Musa al-Kadhim, Abdullah al ,INDIA. The Timurid Dynasty. GENEALOGY. continued from the previous page. Copyright© Christopher Buyers 1530-1539 and 1555-1556 H.M. Al-Sultan al-’Azam wal Khaqan al ,The Koran, Islam’s holy book and treated as the literal word of God, tells Muslims – men and women – to dress modestly. Male modesty has been interpreted to be
* Books Details:
- Sales Rank: #1581562 in Books
- Published on: 2009-02-05
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.30″ h x
6.30″ w x
9.30″ l,
1.20 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
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the ratib of sayyidunal imam qutb al-anfaas al-habib ‘umar ibn ‘abd al-rahman al-’attas rady allahu ‘anhu
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DeAr DiArY nAsYraH nAiM
:: Gloomy Monday.hari ni minggu kedua bergelar ibu bekerjaya..dan hari ini hari pertama my mia dan my naqib hantar ker nursery..Adoii jangan tanyalah apa perasaan
- Sales Rank: #1581562 in Books
- Published on: 2009-02-05
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.30″ h x
6.30″ w x
9.30″ l,
1.20 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
A passionate tale, woven from personal stories of heroic betrayal and love, The Naqib’s Daughter is based on historical characters, and set during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt.
Lady Nafisa, aristocrat, philanthropist and wife of Mamluke leader Murad Bey wakes one morning to find her worst fears confirmed. Cairo is under threat from the French, whose mission is to liberate the most ancient civilisation in the world from what they see as superstition and darkness.
For Nafisa it means that her husband will go to war and she will be widowed a second time. She will have a new role as an intermediary with the French and as a refuge for vulnerable civilians form both sides.
For fourteen year-old Zeinab, daughter of a respected Naqib, it is the end of her childhood. To save her family she is married to Napoleon. Life in the French court in Egypt is a game to her, one with many pleasures, including the love of one of Napoleon’s trusted entourage. When the occupation fails, and the French begin to withdraw, only Nafisa can protect her from the wrath of the mob.
Elfi Bey, the ambitious new Mamluke leader who is also in love with Lady Nafisa, has to risk being an outcast, for the land he so dearly loves, and loosing all the wealth and status he has worked for because he fears the only way to save Egypt from the occupiers is to seek support from the court of King George III.
Samia Serageldin brings to life the vanished world of the exotic Mamluke warrior-slaves and so doing, explores the complex, often dangerous relationship between occupier and occupied. The Naqib’s Daughter reveals the high price paid by Egyptians for their occupation.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Important, beautiful, or exotic?
By Aldo Matteucci
Two hundred years ago a Western power – France – invaded an Islamic country – Egypt – and tried to run it. A prise of idealism flavoured nitty gritty imperial ambitions mixed with cupfuls of arrogance and ignorance. The enterprise ended in military and political disaster. How were the invaders perceived, and how did people adapt to it? In the wake of today’s equally well-meaning invasion of Iraq Samia Seragaldin sketches an answer, both human and historical, of the upheaval that shook Egypt to the core and left Cairo in ruins. Rulers – the Mameluks – and high placed women are both given a voice. The ordinary people are a motley crowd, now gawking, now grumbling, and now revolting for reasons that remain inchoate. The result is a well balanced mix of fictious individual destinies against a well-structured historical backdrop. An entertaining read that is more than a ripping yarn, though less than a full-fledged historical novel.At the time of the invasion the Mameluks ruled Egypt – a self-replicating class of slaves brought at tender age from the Caucasus into the country and trained for eventual military and political power. The nominal rulers – the Ottomans – hade lost all influence, though the mullahs wielded moral power.Early in the novel Zeinab – the Naqib’s barely pubescent daughter – is given in marriage by her scheming father to a distracted Napoleon, who ignores her. Now part of the French camp, Zeinab is slowly given a role as translator to M. Conté, the brilliant, middle-aged Chief Engineer. Romance ends in a short-lived marriage. Conté is forced to leave together with the remains of the French Army of the Orient as Zeinab begins her pregnancy.In the second half of the book Egypt falls into in the hands of the rapacious Ottomans and their Albanian troops, from which Mehmet Ali, the eventual ruler of Egypt will emerge. Sitt Nafisa the White, the all-powerful widow of past ruling Mameluks, saves Zeinab from certain death at the vengeful hands of the incoming Ottomans only to send her to England as translator to Elfi Bey, one of the chief Mameluks, as he tries to enlist British assistance in repelling the Ottomans. Somewhere on the British coast she chances a brief reunion with Conté, but she realises that the romance has burned out. Zeinab returns to Egypt, where she marries another Bey and raises Conté’s child for eventual scholarship in France.The transition of French rule from naïve to inept to cruel is well sketched out. One wishes for more. The destruction that the French wrought on Cairo was horrific, though they are credited with helping to control an outbreak of the plague.Zeinab’s tale of budding love is fresh and with just the right measure of raciness and romance. After the French leave, however, her story begins to unravel. Improbabilities are stacked on improbabilities in order to keep Zeinab in the tale, despite her wish for homely anonymity.Written by a woman, the book focuses on the role and the plight of women caught between two civilisations as they clash. Their charms predestine them for bridge-building, to which on must add curiosity and adaptiveness. Others – like Zeinab – are pawns in the hands of male greed, manipulated and then discarded when they are no longer useful. Seragaldin’s homage to these victims of conflict and power struggles is most wonderful and welcome.Islam, whose role is predominant in coalescing resistance to the invaders, is lacking in the personal sphere. Zeinab hardly prays or takes the Koran as her guide. Sitt Nafisa’s vast good works might be interpreted as piety as much as her way to sustain her political role under changing rulers.As Zeinab watches Conté sketch, she asks him how he chooses his subjects. He answers: “It depends: sometimes they are important, beautiful, or then exotic.” This novel is a remarkable blend of all three. A good read.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A young girl’s story, as Napoleon attempts to conquer Egypt
By David S. Mason
The Naqib’s Daughter is a fascinating and absorbing historical novel, set at the time of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. The title character is a young girl from a prominent Cairo family who was married off to Napoleon for a political alliance. Ignored by Bonaparte, she fell in love with another Frenchman, who also abandoned her when the expedition returned to France. The girl’s story is one of adaptability, survival, loyalty, family and betrayal.There are many other dimensions to the book, too. It is rich in historical detail about this important but little known episode of French, Egyptian and European history, and how it related to the geopolitical rivalries of France, England, and the Ottoman Empire. It brings into focus the difficult cultural encounters of the West with the Muslim and Arab World, both then and now. Serageldin often hints at the parallels between Napoleon’s expedition and the U.S. invasion of Iraq as, for example, when the girl’s lover muses that “such arrogance, such ignorance on our part, the French, to think we could remake the world in our image.”The Naqib’s Daughter also has many intriguing parallels with Serageldin’s wonderfully evocative autobiographical novel, The Cairo House, which is set at the time of Nasser’s revolution in the 1950s–another wrenching and important chapter of Egypt’s history.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Mixture of good things.
By Anon
Very good book. Good characters are interesting and well constructed. The story is quite accurate historically and well researched. A good read that informs of the times.
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