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Historical Novels of the Middle EastFor news on the latest reviews, author interviews and additions to this website, see the blog.
The Arabian Peninsula
For novels set during Biblical times, see the Ancient History page. For novels about the Crusades which reflect primarily the viewpoints of European Crusaders (most of whom had little understanding of Arabic culture and considered the Islamic religion to be reprehensible) see the Crusades page. In general, novels reflecting a European or American perspective are listed on other pages, so if you don't see what you want here, try looking under the time and place of the main character's homeland.
The Arabian Peninsula
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Radwa Ashour, Siraaj (1992 in the original Arabic; 2007 in English), about a mother and son drawn into a nineteenth-century revolt on a fictional island off the coast of Yemen. John Elray, Khalifah: A Novel of Conquest and Personal Triumph (2002), about a forced convert to Islam, the son of an enemy of Muhammed, who embarks on a quest for power within the Islamic movement during the decades after Muhammed's death. Sherry Jones, The Jewel of Medina (2008), about A'isha, the youngest and most beloved wife of the Prophet Muhammad. Review Ghalib Lakhnavi & Abdullah Bilgrami, The Adventures of Amir Hamza (in English, 2007), a saga dating back to as early as the seventh century, about an uncle of the Prophet Muhammed; new translation into English by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy (2010), about a ten-year-old slum boy who in 1935 sets off from Aden in search of his father and journeys through Africa, Palestine and Britain amid the upheavals of war. Review at The Independent Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt, about the effects on an unspecified Middle Eastern country of Americans looking for oil beginning in the 1930s. Kamran Pasha, Mother of the Believers (2009), about Aisha, the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, and the early years of Islam. Review
Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon
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Rabih Alameddine, The Hakawati, about the stories from the Middle East, present and past, that a dying man in Beirut tells to his son. Tariq Ali, The Book of Saladin, about Salah al-Din, the Kurdish warrior and sultan who reconquered Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. Review Yehoash Biber, Adventures in the Galilee (1973), a collection of ten short stories set in northern Israel before 1948, about Arab, Druse and Jewish farmers and Bedouins living as peaceful neighbors. Sarah Bryant, The Sand Daughter (2009), about a young Bedouin woman during the Crusades in the Middle East. Talia Carner, Jerusalem Maiden (2011), about a young Orthodox Jewish woman in Jerusalem in 1911 who dreams of studying art in Paris until tragedy comes to her family. Richard Field, The Swords of Faith (2010), about the war for control of Jerusalem between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade, beginning with the Battle of Hattin. Noah Gordon, The Jerusalem Diamond Emile Habiby (also spelled Emil or Imil Habibi), The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist, a tragicomic novel about a hapless Palestinian who remains in Israel after its creation and becomes an informer for the state. Jack Hight, Eagle (2011), about the boyhood and young manhood of the future leader Saladin, taught the arts of war by his young Saxon slave; #1 in the planned Saladin trilogy. Alon Hilu, The House of Dajani (original Hebrew edition 2008; English edition 2010), about a Palestinian boy in 1895 with visions of a disaster about to befall his people, whose friendship with a Jewish man leads to tragedy. Dave Longeuay, Rebirth Amin Maalouf, Balthasar’s Odyssey, about a Levantine merchant in 1666 and his search for a mystical book said to contain the hundredth name of God. Amin Maalouf, The Rock of Tanios, about the disappearance of a Lebanese child during the late nineteenth century period of political struggle over the Ottoman Empire. Kanan Makiya, The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem (2002), about the building of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock by Jews, Christians and Muslims in a time when the distinctions between Islam and Judaism were still blurred. Sélim Nassib, The Palestinian Lover (1992), about the love affair future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier has with a wealthy Palestinian banker's son in the 1920s. Kamran Pasha, Shadow of the Swords (2010), about Saladin and Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade and the beautiful Jewish woman with whom both men fall in love. Review Meir Shalev, The Blue Mountain (1988; also titled Russian Romance), about an orphan raised by his grandfather on a kibbutz in the early twentieth century, who becomes a mortician and reflects on the people he has buried through the years. Leon Uris, Exodus, about the creation of Israel after World War II. Leon Uris, The Haj (1984), about Palestinians during the early to mid-twentieth century; has been criticized as a stereotyped and largely negative portrayal. Herman Wouk, The Hope, about the Arab-Israeli wars, beginning with the 1948 Israeli War of Indepedence.
Turkey and the Ottoman Empire
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Barbara Chase-Riboud, Valide: A Novel of the Harem (1986), about harem women in the Ottoman Empire. Louis de Bernieres, Birds Without Wings (2004), about life in a small Turkish village at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Cornelia Golna, City of Man's Desire C.C. Humphreys, A Place Called Armageddon Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, The Lion of Janina: The Last Days of the Janissaries (1854), about Ali Pasha of Janina, an Albanian brigand who rose to power under the Ottoman Turks. Ismail Kadare, The Siege (1970), a literary novel about a Christian citadel in fifteenth century Albania and its defiance of the army of the Ottoman Turks and their inevitable conquest; awarded the first Man Booker International Prize. Ismail Kadare, The Fall of the Stone City (2012), about a physician in the Albanian town of Gjirokaster who meets with an old friend, now a Nazi officer, in 1943 as the Nazis prepare to invade the town. Review at The Independent Michael David Lukas, The Oracle of Stamboul (2011), about a child who stows away on her father's merchant ship when it leaves for Stamboul, where she charms the Sultan and changes the course of the Ottoman Empire. Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, a literary novel set in sixteenth century Istanbul about the disappearance of an artist involved in the Sultan's project to illustrate a book with representational artwork forbidden by Islam. Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle, a surrealistic literary novel about a seventeenth century Italian scholar who becomes the slave of a scholar in Constantinople. Lawrence Schoonover, The Gentle Infidel (1950), about a young member of the Turkish emperor's Janissaries and the two very different women he loves, one a seductive, married Turkish woman, the other a Venetian Christian. Barry Unsworth, Pascali’s Island, a literary novel about a Turkish spy on a small Greek island during the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
Mesopotamia and Afghanistan
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Maggie Anton, Rav Hisda’s Daughter: Book 1, Apprentice (2012), about the youngest daughter of the third-century Babylonian Jewish scholar Rav Hisda and her aspiration to become a sorceress. Gillian Bradshaw, Horses of Heaven, about a spiritually gifted woman forced into a political marriage with the ruler of Ferghana (now Afghanistan) in the second century B.C. Wallace Breem, The Leopard and the Cliff Marek Halter, The Wind of the Khazars, about a modern novelist challenged to find a subject worth writing about and a pair of tenth century lovers in Khazaria, the ancient Jewish nation in the southern Caucasus. Linda Holeman, The Moonlit Cage, about an abused Afghan wife who flees to India and then London in the nineteenth century. Howard Andrew Jones, The Desert of Souls (2011), historical adventure fantasy about a swordsman and a scholar in ninth-century Baghdad sent into the desert on a hazardous mission to recover a priceless golden artifact. Review or Author Interview Howard Andrew Jones, The Waters of Eternity Monroe S. Kuttner, The Rabbi King: David of Khazaria (2001), about a fictional leader of the Jewish kingdom of Khazaria in its waning days during the twelfth century; self-published. Amin Maalouf, The Gardens of Light, about the third century Mesopotamian artist, doctor and prophet Mani, whose philosophy in a distorted form came to be known as Manichaeism. Barry Unsworth, Land of Marvels (2009), about a British archaeologist, his wife, a handsome American geologist and an Arab con man in Mesopotamia in 1914 during the last days of the Ottoman Empire and the early days of the Western quest for oil. Review
Persia
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Anita Amirrezvani, Equal of the Sun (2012), about Princess Pari, who makes a dangerous choice when her father, the shah, dies in 1576 without naming an heir, and her despotic brother assumes the throne. Vladimir Bartol, Alamut (1938), about Hasan Sabbah, an eleventh century warlord who converted young men into fearless assassins by tricking them into believing he held the key to Paradise. Review
James Boschert, Knight Assassin (2010), about a Frank trained as a Hashshashin who returns to his homeland to find that his family estate is threatened and he may have to revive his skills as an assassin to save it; #2 in the Book of Talon trilogy. James Boschert, Assassination in Al-Qahirah (2012), about a Frank trained as a Hashshashin who is shipwrecked in Egypt while on his way to serve as a Templar Knight in Palestine; #3 in the Book of Talon trilogy.
C.J. Kirwin, Dawn of the Greatest Persian: The Childhood of Cyrus the Great, a novel about the childhood of Cyrus the Great which attempts to reconcile differing accounts of the Persian emperor's life story; #1 in a planned trilogy; self-published. C.J. Kirwin, Finding the Persian Way: Cyrus the Great Travels in Ancient Persia, a novel about the childhood of Cyrus the Great which attempts to reconcile differing accounts of the Persian emperor's life story; #2 in a planned trilogy; self-published. Amin Maalouf, Samarkand, about the eleventh century Persian poet Omar Khayyam. Scott Oden, The Lion of Cairo (2010), about an assassin from the Persian fortress of Alamut sent to Cairo to prevent the fall of its young caliph; #1 in a planned trilogy. Review or Author Interview Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love (2010), a dual-time novel about the thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi, and an unhappily married modern woman reading a manuscript about Rumi which transforms her life. Judith Tarr, Alamut Mysteries Set in the Middle East
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Jason Goodwin, The Snake Stone (2009), a literary mystery about a Turkish eunuch who is a detective, but becomes the chief suspect in the murder of an archaeologist in 1830s Istanbul; #2 in the Investigator Yashim series. Jason Goodwin, The Bellini Card (2009), a literary mystery about a Turkish eunuch in nineteenth century Istanbul assigned to track down a missing Bellini portrait of Mehmed the Conqueror which may have resurfaced in Venice; #3 in the Investigator Yashim series. Review Jason Goodwin, An Evil Eye (2011), a literary mystery about a Turkish eunuch who investigates the murder of a man whose body is discovered in the cistern of a Christian monastery in Istanbul; #4 in the Investigator Yashim series. Review at The Independent
Andrew Killeen, The Seven Voyages of Abu Nuwas (forthcoming in April 2010), a literary thriller set in eighth-century Baghdad in which a former thief, now a storyteller, tries to help his old friend, a noted poet, find out who is trying to kill him; sequel to The Father of Locks. Jenny White, The Sultan's Seal (2006), about a magistrate in the Ottoman Empire's new secular court system in 1886 and his investigation of the murder of an Englishman, which may be connected to the murder of the governess for the imperial harem; #1 in the Kamil Pasha mystery series. Jenny White, The Abyssinian Proof (2008), about a special investigator for the sultan of the Ottoman Empire who is investigating thefts of antiquities when he discovers a long-lost silver reliquary from medieval Constantinople that some will stop at nothing to obtain; #2 in the Kamil Pasha mystery series. Jenny White, The Winter Thief (2010), about a special investigator for the sultan of the Ottoman Empire who is framed for murder by the head of the sultan's secret police; #3 in the Kamil Pasha mystery series.
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(1979), about a modern dealer in diamonds who travels to Jerusalem in quest of a diamond whose past is part of the history of the Jewish people.
(2011), about a young American who leaves his father's anti-Semitic company and goes to Palestine at the end of World War II.
(2004), about five individuals in Constantinople in 1908 as the upheavals of the Young Turk Revolution change the city.
(2011), about Mehmet II, the Turkish sultan who conquered Constantinople in 1453.
(2011), a collection of adventure stories featuring the characters in The Desert of Souls.
(2013), about the dispossessed prince Darius (later to become Darius the Great), the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great, and Persia's war against Egypt.
(1989), historical fantasy about an immortal prince who travels to the Middle East during the time of the Crusades and becomes involved in a vendetta against the Assassins of Alamut.