Egypt in the ninth century AD: an Arab, Muslim ruling class governs a country of mostly Coptic-speaking Christians. After an exorbitant land tax imposed by the caliph’s governors sparks a peasant revolt, Bedeir is dispatched to the marshlands of the Nile Delta as an escort for a church-appointed emissary whose mission is to persuade the rebels to lay down their arms. But he is soon caught up in a swirl of events and concerns that alter the course of his life irrevocably, setting him on a path he could never have foreseen. The events that befall him and the insights he gains from them bring about a gradual but inexorable personal transformation, through which his eyes are opened to the fundamental commonalities—practical, spiritual, and existential—that bind Muslims and Copts, and he emerges as an emissary of a new sort.

Hailed as a groundbreaking treatment of otherwise neglected aspects of medieval history The Man from Bashmour is an exploration of the Egyptian character past and present, and offers insights into Egyptian thought on everything from love, philosophy, and religion to life and death.

SALWA BAKR was born in Cairo in 1949. She is the author of seven volumes of short stories, seven novels, and a play. Her work has been translated into nine languages.

NANCY ROBERTS, translator of Ghada Samman’s Night of the First Billion and Mohamed El-Bisatie’s Over the Bridge (AUC Press 2006), has also translated works dealing with Islamic history, jurisprudence, Sufism and modern Islamic though and practice.