Israfil and the City of Islam: A Sufi Tale of the Conquest of Constantinople

In the summer of 1448, the young Israfil is called to take his hereditary place in the cavalry of the Osmanli Sultan Murad II. He is immediately enmeshed in dueling ambitions. On one side: the crusading armies of the West, determined to push the Osmanli from Europe. On the other side: the young Osmanli Prince Mehmed, determined to build a City of Islam on European soil to rival the great cities of Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad. At the center of these dueling ambitions is the city of Constantinople. Once the center of a great empire, by the 1400s Constantinople had been reduced to being a center of intrigue, plotted assassinations and continuous calls for crusades. The West was determined to keep Constantinople as a thorn in the side of the Osmanli. Prince Mehmed was determined to make Constantinople great again-but this time as a City of Islam; or, in the Turkish language: Islambul. At the passing of Sultan Murad II and the coronation of Prince Mehmed, all knew the inevitable clash of ambitions would come. And like Constantinople, the young Israfil found himself at the center of this clash. From his first battle, a skirmish along the Danube River against the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracula, to the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Israfil is mentored by one of the greatest warriors ever to ride for the House of Osman, Ulubatli Hasan. Through the gloriously gory battles scenes of war and the sublimely picturesque ceremonies of the Whirling Dervishes, Ulubatli Hasan not only protects Israfil, but guides him in the Sufi path of self-discovery.