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Book Reviewed by:
Katharine Blatchford
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In this riveting take on One Thousand and One Nights, Shaherazade, at the center of her own story, uses wit and political mastery to navigate opulent palaces brimming with treachery and the perils of the Third Crusade as her Persian homeland teeters on the brink of destruction.
In twelfth century, Persia, clever and dreamy Shaherazade stumbles on the Malik's beloved wife entwined with a lover in a sun-dappled courtyard. When Shaherazade recounts her first tale, the story of this infidelity, to the Malik, she sets the Seljuk Empire on fire.
Enraged at his wife's betrayal, the once-gentle Malik beheads her. But when that killing does not quench his anger, the Malik begins to marry and behead a new bride each night. Furious at the murders, his province seethes on rebellion's edge. To suppress her guilt, quell threats of a revolt, and perhaps marry the man she has loved since childhood, Shaherazade persuades her beloved father, the Malik's vizier, to offer her as the next wife. On their wedding night, Shaherazade begins a yarn, but as the sun ascends she cuts the story short, ensuring that she will live to tell another tale, a practice she repeats night after night.
But the Malik's rage runs too deep for Shaherazade to exorcise alone. And so she and her father persuade the Malik to leave Persia to join Saladin's fight against the Crusaders in Palestine. With plots spun against the Seljuks from all corners, Shaherazade must maneuver through intrigue in the age's greatest courts to safeguard her people. All the while, she must keep the Malik enticed with her otherworldly tales—because the slightest misstep could cost Shaherazade her head.
This suspenseful first-person retelling is vividly rendered through the voice of a fully imagined Shaherazade, a book lover whose late mother bestowed the gift of story that becomes her power. Created over fourteen years of writing and research, Jamila Ahmed's gorgeously written debut is a celebration of storytelling and a love letter to the medieval Islamic world that brings to life one of the most enduring and intriguing woman characters of all time.
One
There are words and then there are words. Words that can bind hearts, break a marriage, rupture an empire. Words that burn in your mouth like black peppercorn, that crack the soul like bone, that linger in the air until the Day of Reckoning's trumpets shred mountains to cotton and break the earth like an egg. Words created the dizzying spiral of our worlds—The Creator of Heavens and Earth … He but says "Be" and it Is—and so too, will they destroy it.
But for now, I call out my sister's name and hope it draws my quarry nearer. "Dunyazade!" My slippers skid across the time-polished floor of Bam's citadel. "Dunya!"
As my call fades around a corner, I hear a protesting voice. "… The Khwarezmid forces and Oghuz armies have each been expanding into Persia. Seljuks are falling before them in battle. Your wife's father, Sultan Toghrul, and the Seljuk Empire itself stand on the brink of defeat."
"Do not forget the Franks, calling themselves Crusaders, ...
From the beauty of the Caliph's palace to the horror of the Third Crusade, the medieval Islamic world is richly depicted. Ahmed brings to life both the everyday details of 12th-century Persia and the people, places and events that still echo through history, all from a point of view not often seen in Western literature. Every Rising Sun builds on the framework of a beloved classic to create a brilliant new story that captures both the joys and sorrows of womanhood, storytelling and Islamic history...continued
Full Review
(549 words)
(Reviewed by Katharine Blatchford).
G. Willow Wilson, author of The Bird King and co-creator of the award-winning comic series Ms. Marvel
Richly imagined and sumptuously told... . Ahmed deftly interweaves history and myth to create a world that is as compelling as it is magical. Every chapter leaves you eager to sit at Shaherazade's feet once more. Leila Aboulela, award-winning author of The Translator and River Spirit
A sumptuous, delicious novel infused with the joys of storytelling. A bold, heady journey into the riches and passions of Crusader history, presenting a fresh and fascinating Muslim perspective. V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of Brotherless Night
Jamila Ahmed's Every Rising Sun is a beautifully imagined and fiercely feminist retelling of a cherished classic―and an audacious new invention all her own. You won't want to miss Ahmed's gorgeous writing, this rich and vibrant world, and of course, Shaherazade, a timeless heroine who speaks with an urgency it's impossible to deny. I turned the last page, grateful to be reminded of how during humanity's darkest nights, stories are what keep us alive.
In Jamila Ahmed's Every Rising Sun, Shaherazade remembers a story from the life of A'isha, third wife of the Prophet Muhammad. While traveling with her husband, she was separated from the group and became lost in the desert. Another man found her and helped her back to Medina, but she was unjustly accused of adultery as a result. Her name was only cleared due to a holy revelation. When Shaherazade finds herself in a similar situation, she defends herself by quoting a verse from the Quran that references A'isha's exoneration.
A'isha bint Abu Bakr was born in Mecca in the early 600s CE. Her father, Abu Bakr, was a friend and supporter of the Prophet Muhammad. She was betrothed and married to the Prophet at a young ...
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