Download or read book A Sultan in Palermo written by Tariq Ali and published by Verso. This book was released on 2005-07-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The fourth novel in Tariq Ali's 'Islam Quintet' is set in medieval Palermo, a Muslim city rivalling Baghdad and Cordoba in size and splendour. The year is 1153. The Normans occupy Siqilliya, but Arab culture and language dominate the island and the court. Sultan Rujari (King Roger) surrounds himself with Muslim intellectuals, several concubines and an administration presided over by gifted eunuchs." "Tariq Ali charts the life and loves of the medieval cartographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi. Torn between his close friendship to the Sultan and his friends who are leaving the island or plotting a resistance to Norman rule, Idrisi finds temporary solace in the harem; but, confronted by the common people of Noto and Catania and the Trusted One, his conscience is troubled." "A Sultan in Palermo is a mythic novel in which pride, greed and lust intermingle with resistance and greatness. It echoes a past than can still be heard today."--BOOK JACKET.