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    A Gift for the Sultan
    A Gift for the Sultan
    A Gift for the Sultan
    Ebook393 pages8 hours

    A Gift for the Sultan

    By Geoffrey Fox

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    About this ebook

    The 1402 Ottoman siege of Constantinople stands as one of the great conflicts of history, a prelude to the Muslim conquest of that famous Christian city and Europe’s turn westward to the New World. It is this historic event and the cast of characters who changed the course of modern history that drive the action of A Gift for the Sultan. When the Christian leader secretly offers surrender, and throws in the key to the city and the 14-year-old Princess Theodota, the results can only be catastrophic. In this compelling and beautifully crafted novel, Geoffrey Fox pulls us into a conflict that took place more than 600 years ago...yet makes us feel as if we're in the middle of the action. Sieges by fierce armies, competing faiths and warriors, deception, love, and passion, everything delivered as high drama and a memorable read.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeoffrey Fox
    Release dateMar 27, 2011
    ISBN9781458127044
    A Gift for the Sultan
    Author

    Geoffrey Fox

    Geoffrey Fox was born in Chicago, graduated from Harvard and worked as a community organizer in Caracas and in Latino barrios of Chicago before earning a PhD in sociology. Besides his books and articles in The Nation, The New York Times, The Village Voice, he has been writing and publishing fiction since the 1980s.

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    • 4/5
      In 1402 the city of Constantinople, last bastion of the once mighty Byzantine Empire, was on the verge of falling to the forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid. Simultaneously, however, there appeared on the Turk's eastern borders the hostile Mongol horde of Timur, known to the West as Tamurlane. This is the setting for Geoffrey Fox's historical novel A Gift for the Sultan. It was a time of intrigue and treachery, with Muslim fighting Muslim, and Christian betraying Christian, even at the highest levels. With Manuel II, the Emperor, abroad soliciting aid for his besieged city, his nephew, styling himself Ioannes VII, seeks to buy peace with the Sultan. Among his offerings are 200 Christian children to be the Sultan's slaves, and one teenage girl destined for a Turkish harem: Princess Theodota Palaiologina, the illegitimate daughter of the absent Emperor.The novel follows not only Theodota, but other characters representing the complex and intertwined ethnic and religious milieu of the time. Among the Turkish forces, for example, are Orthodox Serbians and Greek-speaking Janissaires, while Theodota's entourage includes English knights and a Russian slave. The author deftly represents not only the clash of cultures, but the blending of nationalities and religions: Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim and Pagan. A Gift for the Sultan is a fast-paced and entertaining novel, but also a well-researched one that takes its history seriously. It is a fascinating look at an important but little-understood era whose issues and conflicts mirror in many ways those of our own time.

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    A Gift for the Sultan - Geoffrey Fox

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