The Mad Ruler of Ibn al-Haytham

This novel takes the reader from our contemporary era to the Fatimid era, a thousand years ago. Through this rich and moving journey, it reveals the wonders of events and the curiosities of reality. The present meets the past, and the narrative unfolds, bringing together al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, his dangerous sister Sitt al-Mulk, the brilliant scholar al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, the storyteller Muti’ ibn Khalaf al-Sahmi, and many others who graced this historical period, filled with joys, sorrows, and surprising details. This literary work can be described as a “novel of knowledge,” but it can also be described as a vision of the present in light of the past, an understanding of the past based on insight into current reality. In this novel, time is cyclical, always returning to where it began, for there is no starting point or ending point in a circle.