Novel
The Caliph's Sister
العباسة أخت الرشيد
Jurji Zaydan · 1906
Synopsis
In 803, in Baghdad, the caliph Harun al-Rashid, who does not want to do without either his sister Abbasa or his vizier Jaafar the Barmakid, marries them on one condition: Jaafar will see her only in his presence and will have no conjugal life with her. The couple nevertheless unite in secret, and the two sons born to them are sent to the Hejaz. Around them, Zubayda, the caliph's wife, who is hostile to Jaafar, and those who covet the vizierate wait for the moment to bring down the Barmakid family.
Context
The book appeared in 1906 in the series of historical novels on Islam that its author published from 1891 to 1914. It weaves a love story into the political manoeuvres that lead to the fall of the Barmakids, a Persian family that administered the Abbasid empire, and describes life in the palaces of Baghdad. A translation by M.-Y. Bîtâr, put into French by Charles Moulié and prefaced by Claude Farrère, appeared in Paris from Fontemoing in 1912; the English translation by Issa J. Boullata, published by the Zaidan Foundation, is dated 2010 or 2012 depending on the sources.
Who it is for
A historical novel written for a wide readership, which can be read in English and, in French, in a 1912 translation that has no known reissue.
Prizes and reception
One of the five novels by its author chosen by the foundation that bears his name for an English translation; reissued several times in Arabic.
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