At the event, organized by Casa Árabe and HarperCollins Ibérica, he will be accompanied by David Yagüe, a writer and journalist for the newspaper “20minutos.”Subh Walad, the favorite of Caliph Al-Hakim (or Alhaquén) and the mother of Caliph Hixem, was surely the most unique and exciting personage in the Cordoba Caliphate. A native of the Christian kingdoms to the north, she was beautiful, intelligent and cultured, but she was forced to live the reality of palace life, subjected to the regime of the harem. She rebelled against her fate, though, and became someone decisive within the complex family atmosphere of the Umayyad royalty then residing at Medina Azahara. Nothing is as it seems, and everything is confounding inside that unique, shining, frenzied metropolis. It was a time of creative exuberance and intellectual brilliance in Al-Andalus, and poets like young Farid, who harked from Alexandria, become exceptional characters who are able to make the most of their talent to stay close to the powerful.

Jesús Sánchez Adalid (Don Benito, Badajoz; 1962). With a degree in Law from the University of Extremadura, he completed his PhD at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He sat as a judge for two years, after which time he studied Philosophy and Theology. He has a bachelor’s degree in Canonical Law from the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. He is now a practicing priest in a town in southern Badajoz province (Llerena). He was a finalist for the Felipe Trigo Award in 1998, with his book La fuente del Atenor (Atenor’s Fountain). He next two novels, La luz del oriente (The Light of the Orient) and El mozárabe (The Mozarab) were received enthusiastically by critics and the public. Also notable amongst his works are La tierra sin mal (The Land Without Evil), El cautivo (The Captive), En Compañía del Sol (In the Company of the Sun) and La sublime puerta (The Sublime Porte). He earned the twelfth Fernando Lara Novel Award and the tenth Alfonso Award for a Historical Novel in 2012, as well as other acknowledgments.