“In the Pasha’s orchard, in the Manshiyya district, Sidi Youssef ordered the gathering of entertainers of all races: women from Tripoli, Jewish women, Black women, and even Turkish women. Narrators say that the orchards of Manshiyya had never witnessed in their entire history a celebration that could rival the extravagance of the one held by Sidi Youssef that night, rejoicing in his success in eradicating the ‘deadly tumor,’ as he had secretly called his brother, the Bey, throughout their long struggle. On that historic night, Sidi Youssef spared no expense on gifts for his henchmen, nor on the various aged wines he had seized from the cellars of Manshiyya’s notables, nor on the gunpowder that continued to shatter the silence of those fields from sunset until dawn. It was also said that he spared no expense on the beautiful women he had forcibly brought from their homes to complete the rituals of that wedding, which, as one of the kingdom’s wicked men liked to put it, was nothing less than the wedding of his soul to the realms of Satan.” Ghanem, that monstrous black man who had been instrumental in his nefarious scheme, rewarded him with a promise made before his assembled knights: to marry him to one of the kingdom’s most beautiful women, whose veins flowed with the blood of Anatolian lineage. This was a reward for his bravery and revenge against the remnants of the Turkish community who, in his estimation, had sided with the Bey during his years of conflict with this enemy. At the height of this uproar\u2014amidst the playing of flutes, the singing of female singers, the firing of guns, and the revelry of the intoxicated\u2014the wailing of mourners echoed through the garden adjacent to the Pasha’s. Ibrahim al-Koni uses the character of Sidi Youssef to weave a tale reminiscent of Cain and Abel. Sidi Youssef betrays his brother, the Pasha, for the sake of the throne, for power and influence. The story unfolds, culminating in a scene of Sidi Youssef with a guest, as if they were his conscience, judging him for his actions. Their conversation ends with Sidi Youssef’s last breath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A novel inspired by the story of Cain and Abel to depict the brothers’ struggle for the throne, power and influence, and the resulting betrayal, crime and internal conflict between ambition and conscience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[907,940,869,832],"product_tag":[1293,1276,1084,1343],"class_list":["post-31901","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-proverbs","product_cat-arabic-literature","product_cat-myth","product_cat-politics","product_tag-crime","product_tag-myths","product_tag-politics","product_tag-thought","pa_book-author-ibrahim-al-koni","first","onbackorder","sale","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/31901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=31901"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=31901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}