Zayni Barakat - Softcover

Al-Ghitani, Gamal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9774248724 ISBN 13: 9789774248726

Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press, 2004

Synopsis

In the course of my long travels I have never seen a city so devastated. After a long time I ventured out into the streets. Death, cold and heavy, hung in the air. Walls have no value here, doors have been eliminated. No one is certain that they will see another day. The Egypt of the Mamluk dynasty witnessed a period of artistic ostentation and social and political upheaval, at the heart of which lay the unsolved question of the ruler's legitimacy. Now, in 1516, the Mamluk reign is coming to an end with the advance of the invading. Ottomans. The numerous narrators, among them a Venetian traveler and several native Muslims, tell the story of the rise to power of the ruthless, enigmatic, and puritanical governor of Cairo, Zayni Barakat ibn Musa, whose control of the corrupt city is effected only through a complicated network of spies and informers.

About this title

Review:

"A gripping, unforgettable work of prose fiction. It displays its author's originality of conception and execution at every step." - Edward Said, in his Foreword to the book; "Whether read as a colorful evocation of past times or as a bleak political parable, Zayni Barakat succeeds brilliantly." - Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement"

About the Author:

Gamal al-Ghitani, born in Upper Egypt in 1945, is the author of The Mahfouz Dialogs (AUC Press, 2007), Pyramid Texts (AUC Press, 2007), and The Zafarani Files (AUC Press, 2009). Farouk Abdel Wahab is Ibn Rushd Professorial Lecturer in Arabic at the University of Chicago. His most recent translation is Gamal al-Ghitani's The Zafarani Files (AUC Press, 2009).

About this edition

• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 9774248724
• ISBN 13: 9789774248726
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254