A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself "Mogor dell'Amore," the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara Kèoz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbeg warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan. When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerised by her presence, and much trouble ensues. But is Mogor's story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he's a liar, must he die?--From publisher description.
Booker Prize-winner Sir Salman Rushdie allows his fantastical tendencies full reign in his sprawling and whimsical ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE, a literary riff on the THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. By setting his tale in Florence when the Italian town was ruled by the Akbar Empire, Rushdie allows himself to possess the entirety of both Western and Eastern culture, and his novel includes Persian princesses and European knights alike. Familiar historical figures such as Machiavelli make appearances, as does Vlad the Impaler, and the book churns itself into a stew of styles, fairy tales, and cultural and literary allusion.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres, Fiction + Literature Themes
- Subgenre: Literary, General, Historical Fiction
- Publisher: Random House, Inc.
- Pages: 355
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: January 6, 2009
- Date Published: January 6, 2009
- Author: Salman Rushdie