Description
Rhadopis of Nubia is an early novel by the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz.[1]
It was originally published in Arabic in 1943.
An English translation by Anthony Calderbank appeared in 2003
published by American University in Cairo Press.
The novel is one of several that Mahfouz wrote at the beginning of his career,
with Pharaonic Egypt as their setting.
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz mines the riches of his homeland’s ancient past in Rhadopis of Nubia,
an unforgettable love story set against the high politics of Egypt’s Sixth Dynasty.
While the ravishing courtesan Rhadopis is bathing,
a falcon lifts one of her golden sandals and drops it into the lap of the Pharaoh Merenra II.
Upon hearing Rhadopis described as “beauty itself,”
the young pharaoh decides to return Rhadopis’s sandal himself.
When the two meet, they are immediately seized by a passion far stronger than their ability to resist.
Thus begins a love affair that makes them the envy of Egyptian society.
But blinded by their love and the extravagant attentions they lavish on each other,
they ignore the growing resentment
of the world around them in this extraordinary tale of star-crossed love.
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