''Samarkand'' (french: Samarcande), written by French-Lebanese writer
Amin Maalouf, is a 1988
historical fiction novel that revolves around the 11th-century Persian poet
Omar Khayyám and his poetry collection ''
Rubaiyat''. The novel received the
Prix Maison de la Presse.
Plot
The first half of the story is set in Persia (present day
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
) and Central Asia in the 11th century, and revolves around the scientist, philosopher, and poet
Omar Khayyám. It recounts the creation of his
Rubaiyat throughout the history of the
Seljuk Empire
The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to ...
, his interactions with historical figures such as
Vizir Nizam al-Mulk and
Hassan al-Sabbah of the order of the
Assassins
An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder.
Assassin may also refer to:
Origin of term
* Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins
Animals and insects
* Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviida ...
, and his love affair with a female poet of the
Samarkand court.
The second half of the story documents the efforts of a fictional American named Benjamin Omar Lesage to obtain the (fictional) original copy of the Rubaiyat, witnessing Persian history throughout the
Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1907, only to lose this manuscript in the sinking of the
RMS Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
.
Reception
Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid (Urdu:; born 1948 in Pakistan) is a journalist and best-selling foreign policy author of several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
Life and career
Ahmed Rashid was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He attended Malv ...
reviewed the book for ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', and wrote:
Maalouf has written an extraordinary book, describing the lives and times of people who have never appeared in fiction before and are unlikely to do so again. The book is far more than a simple historical novel; like the intricate embroidery of an oriental carpet it weaves back and forth through the centuries, linking the poetry, philosophy and passion of the Sufi past with modernism.
See also
*
1988 in literature
*
20th-century French literature
*
Malik-Shah I
*
Alp Arslan
References
1988 novels
Novels by Amin Maalouf
French historical novels
Novels about writers
Novels set in the Middle Ages
Works about Omar Khayyam
Samarkand
Novels set in the 11th century
Novels set in the 1900s
Novels set in the 1910s
{{1980s-hist-novel-stub