Saracen Chivalry

Saracen Chivalry explores the space between Arthurian romance and the ethics and spirituality of Sufism. Framed as a medieval treatise penned by a fabled African queen, the book articulates a vision of life centered on the virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and generosity, illustrating these virtues with scriptural verses, prophetic sayings, sage maxims, and traditional legends and lore. Queen Belacane is dying. As a last act, she inscribes a book of counsels, or prince’s mirror, to guide her newborn son on his life’s path. The Queen’s counsels illuminate the way of futuwwa, a tradition of mystical chivalry traced to the Prophet Abraham. If the Prince would unite the chivalries of Christendom and Islam and attain the Cup Mixed with Camphor, he must fulfill the pillars of his faith, and uphold the universal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and generosity.