Book Description | A Night in Hagia Sophia, written by Rana Demirel and translated by Suhail Al-Sarraj, with review and editing by the Center for Arabization and Programming in Beirut. Mehriema, while secretly working in Hagia Sophia, encounters a mysterious historical secret, which she shares with her friends Epek and Muhammad. Together, they work to solve this mystery and complete the missing pieces because revealing it means protecting Hagia Sophia. Their journey to uncover the mystery takes them to the walls of Diyarbakr, the streets of Rome and Ravenna, and the canals of Venice. When they realize they are not alone in this adventure, things become even more complicated. "Neither the water can protect the treasure, nor the one who hid it, when the star falls upon his eye. When the last knight breaks his promise, who will protect the temple?" This is the quartet that leads the heroes of the captivating tale, "A Night in Hagia Sophia." In the story: Mehriema and Muhammad are responsible for cleaning the contents of Sultan Selim IIs tomb in the Hagia Sophia Museum. While working, Mehriema discovers an ancient piece of paper written in Greek, no less than six hundred years old. She informs her friend Muhammad about it, and they agree to keep the matter a secret until they uncover the contents of this paper, which appears to touch upon sanctity in its symbolism. Epek, who knows Greek, joins Mehriema and Muhammad to uncover the secrets hidden in the paper. The three begin unraveling the threads of the mystery one after another, and after a tiring search journey and dangerous adventures, the friends discover that by uncovering "the riddle," they have become partners in a secret of the ruling imperial family that dates back 1500 years. At this point, they realize they must choose between fame, which would place their names alongside famous historical figures, or keeping the secret like their Ottoman ancestors to protect Hagia Sophia. The author, Rana Demirel, was born in 1995 in Istanbul, where she completed most of her education. She graduated from the Art History and Archaeology Department at Ko University. Rana Demirel is considered the first person in the world to write four novels before the age of seventeen, and she was titled the "Genius Turk" by the International Association for Youth Debates. Rana Demirel holds seminars on creative writing and has participated in activities to promote reading in Turkish schools across various provinces and regions since 2010. Her books include the following titles: Shadows of Light, A Night in Hagia Sophia, A Week in Andalusia, A Year in the Palace. |