As the story opens Idrisi, a scholar and mapmaker, is on a sea voyage putting the finishing touches on his world map and readying to return to Palermo and turn the completed work over to the Sultan Rujari. Though most of the population of the island of Siqilliya (Sicily) are Muslim, Rujari (Roger II) is Christian, and and Idrisi feels torn between his friendship of many years with the sultan, and the indignities and violence carried out on the locals by Christian authorities, resulting in a simmering unrest. To add to his heartache, the woman he's loved for decades is a permanent member of the sultan's harem.

Though I am a fan of Ali's writing, this novel is probably my least favorite of the four I've so far read in his Islam Quintet (I'd rank them 1, 3, 2, 4). I am looking forward to rounding out the series with the final installment soon. ( )

Interesting setting. I think we can all agree on that. However, the plot and love story (if you can call it that) would be improbable in a porno, let alone a novel that takes itself (way too) seriously. Also, Arabs didn't drink tea in middle ages and we aren't impressed that Idris bathed a lot. His treatment of his disabled son was cruel, and his lust for breast milk gross. My last Tariq Ali book... ( )

Five Stars for the history of Sicily and the balanced contrasts of religions.

Two Stars for the improbable and tedious romantic entangles of Muhammed Idrisi.

One Star for my disappointment after bring inspired by al-Idrisi in [The Map of Salt and Stars]
and so looking forward to reading about his compelling eleven years to create the astonishing
maps and geography in his Book of Roger and the unbelievable silver disc.

A Sad Star for his lack of courage to protect the young man on his ship.

Back to WIKI. ( )

I thought this book was fantastic. Taking place in Sicily in 1153 this historical novel explains what takes place between the Christian King Roger II and the huge Muslim population on the island. Told through the main character, the Muslim geographer and cartographer, Idrisi, the reader learns the history of the island and the rich legacy of the Muslims. ( )

I liked A Sultan in Palermo, set in Sicily in 1153-54, at the beginning of the book. The novel follows the life of Muhammad al-Idrisi, a cartographer also known as Amir al-kitab for his learning. Idrisi is a close confidant to Sultan Rujari whom he admires for his openness to, and support of, learning and for his tolerant rule in which Muslims and Christians live together, sometimes uneasily, but without bloodshed. The Sultan, also known as King Roger, lives with a harem and has both Christian and Muslim advisors, but he is in failing health and under increasing pressure from Christian bishops and landowners to clamp down on the Muslim population, beginning with the execution of one of his most trusted advisors on obviously trumped-up charges. The Sultan agrees to the farce hoping that he can stave-off a bloodbath. The advisor himself, Philip al-Mahdia (purportedly Christian, but a practicing Muslim) agrees to his own death and argues against reprisals because he does not believe the Muslim community is ready to rise up against the strength of the Christian knights and population. The Sultan's decision causes a rift with Idrisi and they drift apart before the Sultan dies. Meanwhile, Idrisi's life is complicated with his reunion with a long-lost love who has been part of the Sultan's harem, but with whom Idrisi had a daughter raised as the Sultan's own, and his falling in love with this woman's married sister. The sisters are well aware of what is going on and Idrisi impregnates both of them.

Concern about the "clash of civilizations" is very much in vogue these days and this novel illustrates quite clearly that the relationships, and clashes, between Muslims and Christians bear very long, and very violent histories. The novel unfolds from the Muslim perspective, but Ali is no fan of that religion over any other. Islamic warriors are described as "fearing knowledge more than death", a Muslim sermon is described as "mutilated excerpts from al-Quran" through which the qadi overwhelms the faithful "with a confusing mixture of dogmatic counsels and endless rhetoric, which flowed like a stream", and Ali gives this description of how True Believers perverted the message and the accomplishments of the original faith:

"...the contrast between what they had once been and what they had become meant they could not build a lasting structure on these new foundations. Thus the waves of rebellion that arose from the desert and the mountains ranges of the maghreb, the rebels with long beards belonging to sects that preached the virtues of purity and abstinence, men who came on horseback with raised swords, screaming ‘Allah Akbar' destroyed the cities that had been so carefully built by the first wave of Believers. The puritans burnt books of learning, outlawed philosophical discourse, punished scholars and poets, thus beginning the process that would allow the enemy to enter through the pores of our weaknesses and destroy everything. They did all this for noble motives. They genuinely believed they were acting on behalf of Allah and his Prophet. Naturally, they did not see themselves as a monstrous aberration: that was how they regarded the heretics and softheaded Sultans they slaughtered together with the soldiers who defended them."

At the same time, Ali is no fan of the Christian religion and he invariably portrays its supporters as cruel, manipulating, and every bit as blinded by their "faith" as the Islamic puritans. Perhaps his general belief in the veracity of religions is nicely summed up in a conversation Idrisi has with one of his grandsons who asks whether the Greek gods really existed, to which Idrisi replies, "If people believe in them, they exist."

The writing and the atmosphere are good, characters are well defined, the conflicts within and between the religious groups well presented, and despite the tensions and the violence there is a thread, an undercurrent of hope, or even belief, that something as simple as empathy and tolerance can lead to harmony of peoples. I thought the novel strayed a bit in the last quarter too much into Idrisi's personal life and away from the political intrigues and clashes that I found interesting in understanding the history of the region and for thinking of the larger issues that are still very much with us today.