Samarkand
This went over my head.
I did learn about the Sufi poet, sage, astronomer, mathematician, Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) of 11th century Persia and his famed Rubaiyaat, about life during the Seljuk empire before the Mongol invasion, about Nizam ul Mulk, Hassan Sabbah, the founder of the Order of the Assassins, and later about the Persian democratic struggle for a constitutional government. That is why I am giving this book two stars. I did learn something, but I also had to spend quite a bit of time searching on the net and in other literature! I was so often confused.
I did not enjoy the mix of fact and fiction. The fictional parts felt unbelievable. I didn’t enjoy the language used; it is wordy; it is highbrow. The story is told, rather than shown. The love affairs did not move me. I felt nothing for the characters. No, I did not enjoy this book; it was a chore. I am the oddball out! Perhaps you should go read somebody else’s adulatory review!
