Mad Mothers: Sultana Aisha of Moorish Granada

By Lisa J. Yarde

On January 2, 1492, when the Moors of Granada under Sultan Muhammad XI (commonly known as Boabdil) left their home of two centuries past at Alhambra Palace, legend has it that the monarch's mother Aisha upbraided him. "Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man." The place where this chastisement supposedly occurred in the Sierra Nevada mountains is called Puerto del Suspiro del Moro, the Pass of the Moor's Sigh.

El ultimo suspiro del Moro by Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz (1892) - Public domain

Over twenty years of research into Granada's last Muslim dynasty has revealed how much unreliable myth and anecdote tainted the available history. As with many personal interactions of the past, it's difficult to prove the event did nor did not occur. Of those who traveled with Muhammad and his mother into eventual exile in Fez, none included any chroniclers from the court of the Catholic monarchs, King Fernando and Queen Isabella. No Moors in the company who left Granada could have relayed the occurrence. Also, given Aisha's actions during her husband and son's reigns, it's hard to believe she considered women weak -- after all, she knew exactly what a woman with purpose could do. Through her influence, she had secured the throne for her son in a rebellion against his father. Perhaps disappointment over the loss of her heritage left her furious with her child, a mad mother.

Aisha's life began in turmoil as the daughter of Sultan Muhammad IX and an unnamed paternal cousin, one of three known children of the sovereign, who had no sons. He had lost and regained the kingdom of Granada no less than four times in clashes with his cousins over their legacy. Without a natural heir, he wed Aisha's elder half-sister to his paternal second cousin and successor Muhammad X, whose father had once been among the rivals for the throne. The marriage cannot have lasted because later Aisha found herself betrothed to Muhammad X. Fate denied them a future together when yet another cousin, Abu Nasr Saad invaded Granada. His son the future Sultan Abu'l-Hasan Ali (commonly known as Muley Hacen) killed Muhammad X along with his two young heirs and took Aisha for a wife. Abu'l-Hasan Ali likely regretted the choice for the rest of his life. Vengeance motivated Aisha's subsequent behavior.

Before she gained retribution, Aisha performed her duty and bore two sons for Abu'l-Hasan Ali, the eventual Muhammad XI, and Yusuf, as well as a daughter who shared Aisha's name. The Moorish queen bided her time while her husband refused to submit to demands for tribute from Fernando and Isabella. Aisha even endured the presence of her husband's beloved second wife, a former Christian slaved named Isabella de Solis, who converted to Islam and took the name Soraya. 

In the summer of 1482, Aisha's eldest son rebelled against Abu'l-Hasan Ali, who went into exile in Malaga and formed an alliance with the Catholic monarchs against Aisha and their child. The family Abencerrage supported the coup and Aisha. The clan had long reviled Abu'l-Hasan Ali after he and his father murdered many of their chieftains within Alhambra Palace. When young Muhammad became a prisoner of Fernando and Isabella after an ill-advised attack on the frontier during April 1483, Aisha helped negotiate the eventual release of Muhammad. As the enemy took city after city in a bid to destroy Moorish Spain forever, Aisha wanted even the women and children to fight in the defense of their homeland. But could she have also been desperate, maddened by the failures that bedeviled the kingdom? No one can know. 

History has relegated her to the role of a vengeful wife, a scheming mother, and a cunning rival for her husband's second wife. But for me, Aisha remains a true patriot of Moorish Granada. 

** An Excerpt from Sultana: The White Mountains**

Chapter 2

Uprising

Prince Muhammad

Gharnatah, Al-Andalus or Granada, Andalusia

8 Rajab 887 AH / Friday, August 23, AD 1482

An unbearable, dry heat hung over the vega of Gharnatah in the late afternoon. Despite the warmth, several dozen courtiers and a handful of advisors from the Diwan al-Insha gathered outside the courtyard of the council chamber. Ibn Kumasha stood among them, but not Abu’l-Hasan Ali’s secretary, Ibn Bannigash. With Abdul Wahid at his side, Muhammad stood apart from the ministers, wearied of the silent questions emanating from their intent gazes. They desired the answer to one inquiry. How could he respond?

Yusuf and his men mounted their horses and departed through the Bab al-Sharia. The gate remained open afterward. The Sarraj chieftains and their men waited along the wooded slopes of the Sabika hill.

The lone woman amid the crowd lowered her small hand and rested it on Muhammad’s forearm. Her fingernails, sharp and curved like the talons of a hunting hawk, pressed against the silk. She had remained at his side with her faithful eunuch Al-Siddiq since Yusuf gave his formal farewell, knelt at Muhammad’s feet, and kissed their mother’s hands. A fine display for the courtiers, some semblance of unity within their fractured family, and a son’s reverence for his honored mother. Lies but Muhammad would have none of them. His stare traveled up the length of her limb until at last, he saw the mirror of himself in her eyes. He blinked twice and turned away.

Her nails dug deeper. “You cannot relent now.”

“Unlike you, I don’t withdraw my pledges once given.”

She reached for his cheek and turned his face to hers. “You despise me now, so you speak petty cruelties. You will perceive the truth when your anger has faded. This is the correct choice for our futures and for Gharnatah.”

“Eight years ago, you would have plunged the khanjar of our illustrious ancestor, my namesake, into Father’s heart. For your folly with the dagger, he imprisoned you.”

When she would have withdrawn her touch, his hand covered hers. Although she gasped and pulled away, his hold tightened on her thin wrist. Bones so fragile he might have snapped them if he wished.

“After your release six months later, you made a promise. Do you remember, Ummi?”

“Muhammad, this time is different. Back then, your father had wronged me and taken the lives of two trusted companions. I struck out at him for vengeance’s sake, but today, I look to the future. Your destiny.”

“Lie to yourself if you wish. But your falsehoods will not sway me. I know you, likely better than my father did. Eight years past, I warned you not to make us, your children by Abu’l-Hasan Ali, choose between our parents. Now you have forced the decision on me. I will never forgive you. Keep far from me and my family. I forbid your presence wherever I am or may reside. Furthermore—”

Her fingers shook. “Muhammad, don’t….”

“You will not see my wife for any reason. You shall never hold my son again. You’ve deceived more than my father. You’ve betrayed every principle of family and love, which you taught my brother, sister and me in our childhood.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “My son, don’t hate me. Please.”

He pressed his lips to her lined brow, just below her veil. He whispered against her flesh, “I could never. But I won’t rely on you again. You’re a viper, vicious and ruthless. I’ve learned the lesson of your true nature, which my father would not accept. Stay away from me and those whom I love. I won’t let you destroy them, as you’ve ruined my father and our fates.”

As they drew apart, he caught the intent scrutiny of several courtiers and the ministers. He smiled and caressed Aisha's damp cheeks. “These tears. Beautiful. Purposeful. Those who observe would think you a loving mother, comforted by one dutiful son in the absence of another. The deception is complete. Well done, Ummi.”  

 

---

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon's Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings. Lisa has also completed a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price, Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, and Sultana: The White Mountains, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. Her short story, The Legend Rises, which chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd’s valiant fight against English invaders, is also available.         

  

My Characters Lived In Moorish Spain

By Lisa J. Yarde

Would you believe that during the 700 hundred years of the Moorish period in Spain, Arabic was the predominant language of political courts and literature, Cordoba had paved streets and lighting at night, and trade with eastern Islamic societies brought the wealth of gold and spices into the country?  Just some of the aspects of a fascinating history, which took place  between 711 and 1492, and inspired my writing of the Sultana series, set in the 12th through 15th century in the last Moorish kingdom of Spain at Granada. Moorish Spain was a diverse society along ethnic and religious lines in which families descended from the Christian Visigoths, who originally held control, intermarried with the new Muslim Arab and North African Berber monarchs, who  also sometimes choose Jewish brides from influential families. The Moors influenced culture and society, which is expressed today in almost every word of the Spanish language prefixed by 'al' and by some of the finest examples of their architecture at La Mezquita in Cordoba, the palace of Alhambra in Granada, and the tower of Giralda in Seville.  

The period began with the conquest under the general Tariq ibn Ziyad, who served Abu Walid, the eastern ruler of the Ummayad caliphate established in Damascus, Syria within 30 years of the spread of Islam out of Arabia. In April of 711, while in the command of less than 15,000 warriors landed at Gibraltar and began the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. From Gibraltar, Tariq moved on to capture Algeciras on Spain's coast, then north up to Seville. When Tariq met the army of the unpopular Visigothic King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete on July 11 in 711 or 712 (chroniclers disagree), supposedly the defenders outnumbered the Muslims by eight to one. Roderic's subsequent death in the battle along with the demise of several noble families paved the way for the conquests of Toledo, Cordoba, and Granada. Roderic's widow became the wife of the first Muslim governor of Spain within four years after the death of her first husband. Eventually, the conquered lands of the peninsula stretched as far north as Zaragoza  and encompassed the whole of Portugal, forming the basis of the Ummayad caliphate of Cordoba. 

Within twenty years of Tariq's invasion, Europe managed to halt the spread of the Moors further north when the Franks under Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, defeated the Moors at the Battle of Tours in 732. Almost as soon as the Moors invaded, northern Christian kingdoms resisted. The Reconquista gave birth to the monarchies of Asturias, Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon once the descendants of the Visigoths fought against their Moorish masters to regain autonomy and relief from the poll tax the Muslims had instituted upon arrival. Women taken as captives from conquered territories, like the Navarran slave Subh in the 10th-century and the Christian Maryem as late as the 14th-century became the ancestors of generations of Muslim rulers. The caliphate later fractured in the 11th-century into several states called taifas, the largest of these formed at Zaragoza in the north, Cordoba, Toledo, Granada, and Valencia. During this tumultuous time, Christian armies supported and defended Muslim rulers as exemplified by the role of the Castilian warrior El Cid under the Muslim sovereigns of Zaragoza in the 11th-century and the 14th-century Christian guards of Muhammad V of Granada, 200 of whom went with him into exile in Morocco after a coup orchestrated by his stepmother Maryem. While many historians have portrayed Moorish Spain as the epitome of religious cooperation and toleration, persecution of Christians and Jews, as well as forced conversions to Islam often occurred, especially during the Almoravid and Almohade invasions from North Africa during the 12th-century.   

Moorish Spain officially ended on January 2, 1492 when the last Sultan of Granada Muhammad XI surrendered to the Catholic monarchs Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. The final Muslim ruler and his ancestors have been the source of my primary characters and the narrative of the Sultana series. Beginning with the 13th-century monarch Muhammad I, the series explores the turbulent epoch of the Nasrid dynasty. Christian kings and queens viewed the Nasrids as their vassals and while some of the Sultans paid tribute like Muhammad III or even formed genuine friendships with Christian leaders, such as the amicability between Muhammad V and Pedro the Cruel of Castile in the 14th-century, the last Moors of Spain would have been conscious of their fading glory and a vastly shrinking territory. The novels are as much a chronicle of Moorish Spain's political demise as they are a window into the private lives of the Nasrids, where their women had as much influence on the destiny of the kingdom as their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons who held power. The 13th-century queen Fatima is remembered by Moorish chroniclers as the well-educated daughter of Sultan Muhammad II, sister to the warring siblings Muhammad III and Nasr, and mother to the murdered Ismail I, as well as nurturer and protector of her grandsons Muhammad IV and Yusuf I. The mother of Muhammad XI, Aisha, descended from Muhammad V like her eventual husband Abu'l-Hasan Ali wanted her son and people to retain power over their small kingdom so much that she supposedly wished Muhammad XI to arm the women and children against the armies of Isabella and Ferdinand. At the demise of his reign, she allegedly rebuked her son with, "You weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man." How could I not write about such amazing characters?

For me, Moorish Spain will always remain a fascinating part of history.

Sources

Images from Wiki Commons; the map of Moorish Spain's borders and Muslims before the Battle of Tours. Other royalty-free images purchased and licensed from Fotolia; The Giralda tower in Seville and Granada's Alhambra. All data from numerous sources researched during the writing of the Sultana series.

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon's Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings. Lisa has also written five novels in a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price and Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. Her short story, The Legend Rises, which chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd’s valiant fight against English invaders, is also available.

New & Noteworthy: December 18

Happy Holidays from the Unusual Historicals crew! We are pleased to share two new releases with you this month.

Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, the fifth novel in Lisa J. Yarde's Sultana series, is featured this week at Unusual Historicals. Leave a comment for Lisa before Sunday, December 20 for a chance to win a digital copy!

You can also purchase Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree from the following  retailers:

Amazon - Kobo - Apple/iBookstore - Smashwords  

Heather Domin's new novel The Heirs of Fortune, the sequel to 2009's The Soldier of Raetia, is now available in ebook formats from the following retailers: 

Amazon - Smashwords - Barnes & Noble - Kobo

A paperback edition is coming soon from Lulu. Saturnalia Special: from now until January 1st, use coupon code WS76F at Smashwords to get Soldier of Raetia for  $1.99.

Author Interview and Book Giveaway: Lisa J. Yarde on SULTANA: THE POMEGRANATE TREE

This week, we're pleased to welcome author and Unusual Historicals contributor Lisa J. Yarde again with her latest novel, SULTANA: THE POMEGRANATE TREE (Sultana Book #5). This next installment of a six-part series is set in fifteenth-century Spain as the last Muslim dynasty attempts to hold on to Granada's Alhambra Palace while the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand consolidate power and prepare for a final campaign against the Moors. The author will offer a free digital copy of Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree to a lucky blog visitor in his or her preferred format; this giveaway is open internationally.  Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's author interview for a chance to win. Here's the blurb.

In fifteenth-century Moorish Spain, Aisha, the descendant of the Sultans of Granada endures a life imperiled by dynastic warfare, loss, and cruel fate. 

Enemies descend on the kingdom from all sides and threaten to tear it apart. To preserve a fragile peace, Aisha suffers a sham marriage to a cruel tyrant, forever divided from the love that once ruled her heart. 

Years later, when a trusted confidante becomes a powerful rival, Aisha must fight for the future of the next generation or witness the destruction of her family and the last vestiges of Moorish rule in Spain.

**Q&A with Lisa J. Yarde**

You've written about the same family, the Nasrid Dynasty of Granada, in four previous books of your Moorish Spain series. What makes this novel different?

The heroine Aisha. She faces struggles that none of my prior heroines ever dealt with in the earlier books. All of them enjoyed close relationships with their fathers that influenced the course of their lives and eventual marriages, but Aisha starts out very different. She is the last of three daughters born to the tenth Sultan of Granada named Muhammad al-Aysar. Because her father lacks sons, he chooses an unlikely ally and successor in his cousin Muhammad al-Sagir, who marries Aisha's eldest sister. The union doesn't last long, and soon Aisha has the possibility to wed Muhammad al-Sagir herself. Unfortunately, their happiness isn't mean to be. As often happened during the history of the Nasrids, another cousin Saad invades the kingdom and Aisha is forced to marry his son Abu'l-Hasan Ali, a man she despises, who ruined all her hopes including those for the dynasty. Years later, under Abu'l-Hasan Ali's reign, Aisha forms a close bond with a captive named Isabel de Solis. She appears to be Aisha's devoted slave, but life in the harem changes their relationship dramatically. In the novel, Aisha explores the depths of her resilience. As a result, she learns more about the limits of pride, the importance of friendships, and the effect of choices within the harem outside its walls than any of my previous heroines.

What challenges, if any, did you find in writing about this period of Spanish history?

I knew long before writing this series that I'd encounter several challenges. The largest one has always been and remains to date, even with this latest book: getting at the right resources. The 15th-century Nasrid dynasty is better documented than any of the earlier periods I've explored in the series, but bias, plain misinformation, and legends still make the history murky. Hence my love and hate relationship with Washington Irving.

You hate Washington Irving? Why?

While his Tales of the Alhambra influenced 19th-century interest in Granada's Alhambra Palace and the lives of those who inhabited the place, Irving's popularization of existing legends made it harder to get at the truth. For instance, within the palace, there is this room called the Hall of Abencerrages. It was the southernmost gallery of the harem in Aisha's time.  Supposedly, members of the clan called Abencerraje were killed there because their chieftain Ahmet was having an affair with Soraya, the second wife of Abu'l-Hasan Ali. The water stains on the basin in the room are purported evidence of the blood that flowed because of this massacre. But the legend is all wrong; the wrong Sultan, the wrong reason for the murders. The deaths actually occurred during Saad's reign, not Abu'l-Hasan Ali because Saad wanted to rid himself of the clan's influence. Throughout the history of the dynasty, other clans helped keep the Sultans of Granada in power. Readers of my first novel in the series might recall the Ashqilula family and how the Moorish rulers of Granada dealt with them. So while I love Irving for having spurred awareness of Granada's Alhambra, and later conservation efforts, for a writer trying to get at the truth, the popularity of his version of events doesn't help the research.

Why might readers find your heroine compelling?

For the reasons described above, but also, the time in which she lived. Aisha has often been portrayed in various ways; most often as a jealous wife motivated by Abu'l-Hasan Ali's affections for a younger bride. Watchers of the Spanish TV series Isabel were treated to a perspective on her life in season two, as the show featured Isabel of Castile's conquest of Moorish Granada. One of the most hilarious scenes I found was of Aisha discovering her husband's paramour, later second wife, would go to his bed. In a jealous fit, Aisha runs out of the harem screaming into the night. My knowledge makes the scene ridiculous; first because the real Aisha grew up in a harem and would have had every expectation that her eventual husband would sleep with other women. Second, the particular husband she had played a role in the end of her relationship with Muhammad al-Sagir. I found it hard to believe the real Aisha would have mourned her husband's interest in another woman. 

What are you working on now in the series and what can we expect in the future? Will you ever write about Moorish Spain again?

I'm working on the last book of the series, Sultana: The White Mountains. It's a bittersweet moment, in which I chronicle the last ten years of Moorish rule in Spain, as experienced by Aisha's eldest son and her daughter-in-law Moraima. I hope to have the first draft completed by mid-2016. Then I'm possibly collaborating with a friend on historical fantasy, which is slightly different for me while heavily researching my next series about Dracula's family. The current series, its heroes and heroines, and even the villains have inhabited my mind for over twenty years and I'm so pleased by how readers have reacted to them. Actually, I'm mostly glad to have them out of my head and on the page.

Available for pre-orders now at:

 Amazon

Apple / iBookstore

Kobo

Smashwords

About the Author

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, On Falcon’s Wings, featuring a star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois. Lisa has also written four novels in a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price, and Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of the last Muslim dynasty to rule in Europe. Her short story, The Legend Rises, chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd's valiant fight against twelfth-century English invaders and is available now.

Born in Barbados, Lisa currently lives in New York City. She is also an avid blogger and moderates at Unusual Historicals. Her personal blog is The Brooklyn Scribbler. Learn more about Lisa and her writing at the website www.lisajyarde.com. Follow her on Twitter or become a Facebook fan. For information on upcoming releases and freebies from Lisa, join her mailing list at http://eepurl.com/un8on.

Excerpt Thursday - SULTANA: THE POMEGRANATE TREE (A Novel of Moorish Spain) by Lisa J. Yarde

This week, we're pleased to welcome author and Unusual Historicals contributor Lisa J. Yarde again with her latest novel, SULTANA: THE POMEGRANATE TREE (Sultana Book #5). This next installment of a six-part series is set in fifteenth-century Spain as the last Muslim dynasty attempts to hold on to Granada's Alhambra Palace while the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand consolidate power and prepare for a final campaign against the Moors. Join us again on Sunday for an author interview, with more details about the story behind the story. The author will offer a free digital copy of Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree to a lucky blog visitor in his or her preferred format; this giveaway is open internationally.  Be sure to leave your email address in the comments of today's post or Sunday's author interview for a chance to win. Here's the blurb.

In fifteenth-century Moorish Spain, Aisha, the descendant of the Sultans of Granada endures a life imperiled by dynastic warfare, loss, and cruel fate. 

Enemies descend on the kingdom from all sides and threaten to tear it apart. To preserve a fragile peace, Aisha suffers a sham marriage to a cruel tyrant, forever divided from the love that once ruled her heart. 

Years later, when a trusted confidante becomes a powerful rival, Aisha must fight for the future of the next generation or witness the destruction of her family and the last vestiges of Moorish rule in Spain.

**An Excerpt from Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree**

On their return, Aisha plodded as if in a dreamlike state, forced along at Kissenga’s insistence. Meanwhile, Fatou took Aisha’s soiled garment to the laundress. In her rooms again, the eunuch would not let her return to the solace of the bed. Instead, he maneuvered her to the thick pillows arranged around the antechamber, pushed her down amidst them, and gripped her shoulders.

   She blinked and gawked as if seeing him for the first time in recent weeks. “Why did you lay such rough hands upon me? I don’t want to sit here. ”
   He muttered, “Why do you care? Bed or cushion. What matters most in your wretched state? Your feeble complaints mean nothing. The Sultana Aisha I knew, the one whom I've served since her birth would have upbraided me for such treatment. You’re not her.”

   She shook her head and dispelled the fog in her mind. “What are you saying? I am her, Kissenga.”

   “No. You’re not. You’re weak and beaten down by your losses, in the manner of your father. He let his enemies best him, too. They took Al-Qal’at al-Hamra from him and each time he fled, even as far away as Al-Tunisiyah. He sought his mother’s kin like a mewling boy.”

   Aisha struggled against his hold. “You attended my father loyally. Why are you saying such cruel things about him and me?”

   “I don’t want to spend my life in servitude to the causes of feeble cowards.”

   “I’m not a coward,” she murmured.

   His grip tightened as he hovered over her and pressed her down into the seat. “Then prove it! Get up if you wish.”

   “Have you lost your senses?”

   “Not as much as you’ve abandoned your will.”

   “I have not. Let me go now, Kissenga.”

   “Command me. The great Sultana, a princess of Gharnatah, eh? You’re pathetic! You can’t even rule a lowly eunuch of the harem. What would you do if Abu’l-Hasan Ali towered over you instead of me? Would you let him control you?”

   She gaped at him, aghast. How dare he be so callous?

   “I… I... wouldn’t.”

   “Liar! You hesitate because you’ve forgotten how to speak the truth. You only remember your misery and bitterness. You’re letting Abu’l-Hasan Ali have power over you now. He is not here to dictate your movements, but you have surrendered your will to grief and despair all the same. So what if you have lost? How many countless others before you have suffered? You sob and simper, a frightened kitten, no longer a lioness of Gharnatah. Abu’l-Hasan Ali killed the man you should have married. His father ordered the deaths of children whom you claimed to adore—”

   “I did! I loved them as only a mother could have! I still do.”

   “Their blood cries out for vengeance, and still you do nothing, but accept Abu’l-Hasan Ali’s dictates. He says you must remain in your chambers, so you stay. You’re no Sultana of Gharnatah. You don’t have the strength of the Sultanas Jazirah, Butayna, or Fatima before you, or even a tenth of the cunning of the viper Maryam. What happens next? You’ll let the mighty prince lock you away in a tower like your wretched mother. Will you become like her,  too, frail and frightened of your shadow?”

   Aisha drew back her fist and punched him in the throat. As he tumbled backward, she rose and stomped his belly twice, until he rolled away with a groan.

   “Don’t you ever talk about my mother in such ways! I’ll have your head! She was my father’s treasured queen, and he sought her love as a great prize. His enemies may have chased him away from the palace, but always, he returned to his throne. Only death could take it from him. I am my father’s daughter. Only death will rob me of what is mine!”

   She stood over him, enraged and panting, with her tiny fists shaking. A red haze, brighter than any envisioned in her angry outbursts, filled her gaze. Through it, Kissenga rose and clutched his midsection. He groaned and sagged once more.

   With a ragged breath, she uncurled her fingers. “Why did you say such horrible things to me? You’ve never hurt me before.”

   “I spoke so you would not forget who you are. You have a proud heritage and Nasrid pride, the pride of lions who lived and ruled for centuries before your existence, and the Sultanas, who would not let fate or circumstance bend or break them. Their blood flows in your veins. Prince Abu'l-Hasan Ali and his father have taken from you. Show them that you are as fierce as the Sultanas Jazirah, Butayna, Fatima, and even Maryam the viper. As strong as the lioness upon the plains. A lioness of Gharnatah. You have not forgotten. You do not forgive. You shall have recompense for the lives they have ruined and the blood they have shed.”

Available for pre-orders now at:

 Amazon
Apple / iBookstore

Kobo

Smashwords

About the Author

Lisa J. Yarde writes fiction inspired by the Middle Ages in Europe. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, On Falcon’s Wings, featuring a star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers before the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and The Burning Candle, based on the life of one of the first countesses of Leicester and Surrey, Isabel de Vermandois. Lisa has also written four novels in a six-part series set in Moorish Spain, Sultana, Sultana’s Legacy, Sultana: Two Sisters, Sultana: The Bride Price, and Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of the last Muslim dynasty to rule in Europe. Her short story, The Legend Rises, chronicles the Welsh princess Gwenllian of Gwynedd's valiant fight against twelfth-century English invaders and is available now.

Born in Barbados, Lisa currently lives in New York City. She is also an avid blogger and moderates at Unusual Historicals. Her personal blog is The Brooklyn Scribbler. Learn more about Lisa and her writing at the website www.lisajyarde.com. Follow her on Twitter or become a Facebook fan. For information on upcoming releases and freebies from Lisa, join her mailing list at http://eepurl.com/un8on.