The Saracen

On the Iberian Peninsula in the 1100s, Arabs fight Arabs, Christians from Aragon and Castile attack each other, and Christians from all groups battle the Muslims to reclaim Andalusian Spain. Against this tumultuous backdrop, Malenda de Balenguer, a novice at the abbey of Santa Maria in Lerida, and Barik ibn Hassam, who rules the last remaining Moorish stronghold in Aragon, fall in love but fear they can never be together. But God, or Allah, has a different plan. Strong-willed and independent, Malenda angers the Cathars, a Christian sect, when she helps a young woman deliver a child against their wishes. The mother dies in labor and Malenda barely escapes alive with the baby. She is rescued by a Saracen on horseback and delivered back to her abbey. Attracted to the young woman, but knowing there can never be anything between them, Barik ibn Hassam sends Malenda a gift of an Arabian pony. The gift becomes extremely valuable when the Cathars set Malenda’s abbey ablaze, and she escapes on the back of the pony, this time to Barik’s fortress where his people tend her. But life in Moorish Spain is seldom simple, and the tranquility that surrounds Malenda crashes when Catholic Aragonese threaten the fortress. In the chaos that ensues, Barik and Malenda separate, each thinking it is for the best. Can they overcome the strong divide of their religious backgrounds and survive the historical upheaval that serves as a background to this dramatic romance set in Medieval Spain? Or will the clash of civilization and beliefs prevent any spark between them from every flaming into something more?