Stranger in the land

Author: Wasini al-Araj

"The Book of the Emir: The Paths of the Iron Gates" (2005) achieved widespread readership. It was considered the first fictional novel about Emir Abdelkader. Shortly after its publication, it won two major awards: the Librarians' Award (2006), given to the most widely read book, and the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2007). The novelist's ambition to write a second part to this epic of struggle and humanity remained a cherished dream. After twenty years of research, perseverance, and travel, this second part of the book "The Prince: [Stranger in the Land]" was completed. In it, Wasini continues the Prince's ordeal in exile, his confrontation with successive injustices, from the prison of Château d'Amboise (France), to his exile in Bursa (Turkey), before finally settling in the Levantine exile that witnessed pivotal moments in his life: his protection of Damascus's Christians from the massacre of 1860, his dialogue with leading Freemasons, and his immersion in the Sufism of the great Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, in which he debated with the scholars of Damascus and worked on editing his manuscript "Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya" (The Meccan Revelations). In the final chapter of his life, he requested to be buried next to his Sufi teacher and mentor.

The figure of Emir Abdelkader permeated the entire 19th century, a century of wars and brutal colonialism that shaped much of our current tragedies and maps. The Emir did not merely live in his time, but worked to change it, and the price was high.