
Accused of mocking the inviolate codes of Islam the Persian poet & sage Omar Khayyam fortuitously finds sympathy with the very man who is to judge his alleged crimes Recognising genuis the judge decides to spare him & gives him instead a small blank book encouraging him to confine his thoughts to it alone Thus beginds the seamless blend of fact & fiction that is Samarkand Vividly re-creating the history of the manuscript of the Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam Amin Maalouf spans continents & centuries with breathtaking vision the dusky exoticism of 11th-century Persia with its poetesses & assassins; the same country's struggles nine hundred years later seen through the eyes of an American academic obsessed with finding the original manuscript ; & the fated maiden voyage of the Titanic whose tragedy led to the Rubaiyaat's final resting place
- all are brought to life with keen assurance by this gifted & award-winning writer