{"id":23,"date":"2020-09-08T07:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T07:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/authorwebservices-vip.net\/gem\/AuthorHouse\/807755\/Seventh_treassure\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2020-10-19T08:10:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T08:10:39","slug":"excerpt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lencamarda.com\/seventh_treasure\/excerpt\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BOOK EXCERPT<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo understand the story of the sultana,\u201d Aracelia Zahor\u00ed began, \u201cone has to understand the legacy left by the Moors in these lands.\u00a0 These were times of enlightenment in commerce, art, medicine, agriculture and literature.\u00a0 The Caliph-Al-Hakam is credited with founding a library of thousands of volumes of literature, the greatest in Europe at the time.\u00a0 Within the library of the Alhambra palace, amongst many glorious manuscripts, there was a fourteenth-century Syrian manuscript known as Alf Layla \u2014 The One Thousand and One Nights \u2014 containing collections of fables and stories written by many authors over hundreds of years.\u00a0 These folk tales were later known as The Tales of the Arabian Nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zora nodded, familiar with some of the stories of The Arabian Nights, but remained silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early hand written manuscripts,\u201d her mother continued, \u201cwere based on tales that the woman Shahrazad told to King Shahrayar on successive nights.\u00a0 You see, the king\u2019s wife had been unfaithful to him; and her infidelity poisoned his view of marriage.\u00a0 He was convinced that there was not a single chaste woman anywhere in the kingdom.\u00a0 After he killed his wife, he then vowed that he would wed for only one night and then would kill the woman the next morning \u2014 and so he did.\u00a0 The king\u2019s custom to take every night the daughter of one of his army officers, or of a merchant, or even a commoner, soon led to great unrest in the land.\u00a0 Mothers and fathers would cry to their God to bring evil upon the head of Shahrayar, before all the girls in the kingdom were gone.\u00a0 With a vow to save the kingdom, Shahrazad, the daughter of the king\u2019s most trusted vizier, volunteered to marry the king.\u00a0 Despite protests from her father, Shahrazad and the king were married; and with the assistance of her sister, Dunyazad, Shahrazad created her clever conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aracelia bent closer to her daughter, who was mesmerized by her mother\u2019s words, enhanced by the flickering shadows and the intoxicating aroma of frankincense that permeated the air.\u00a0 Almost in a whisper, Aracelia continued her tale.\u00a0 \u201cThat night, and what transpired to be many nights, Shahrazad comforted the king with a special story.\u00a0 The tales Shahrazad told to the king were actually a labyrinth of stories within stories, each successive tale taking elements from the previous story to build a new one, making elaborate use of metaphors to beguile the king.\u00a0 The nights carried into days and weeks and months, as Shahrazad tantalized the king with the promise of an even more enchanting story the next night, if he permitted her to live.\u00a0 Legend has it that over this time, Shahrazad bore the king three sons.\u00a0 The king learned to love her and, more importantly, trust her.\u00a0 He spared her life and kept her as queen, saving the lives of the young women of the kingdom and saving the kingdom itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd why do I tell you of these tales, my daughter?\u201d Aracelia said, her voice strengthening.\u00a0 \u201cBecause they are the keys to the return of the Kingdom of Granada. Boabdil, you see, was a young and inexperienced leader.\u00a0 Upon his ascendency to the throne he sought to gain prestige by invading Castilla.\u00a0 The king was taken prisoner and only gained his release by consenting to make Granada a tributary kingdom to the Christian monarchy.\u00a0 With her son\u2019s capture and capitulation, the sultana realized that the kingdom was lost.\u00a0 But the stories of Shahrazad intrigued and inspired her, and she spent many hours in the Alhambra library, reading of the wiles and bravery of this woman.\u00a0\u00a0 She recognized the cleverness of Shahrazad to save her kingdom.\u00a0 This was the seed that led the sultana to build her own plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOK EXCERPT \u201cTo understand the story of the sultana,\u201d Aracelia Zahor\u00ed began, \u201cone has to understand the legacy left by the Moors in these lands.\u00a0 These were times of enlightenment in commerce, art, medicine, agriculture and literature.\u00a0 The Caliph-Al-Hakam is credited with founding a library of thousands of volumes of literature, the greatest in Europe<\/p>\n

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