About the book: 1999 / Since ancient times, the Balkans, the Caucasus and many other regions of the world have been a zone of contact between Christian and Muslim cultures - contact that developed on the substrate of ancient, pre-Islamic and pre-Christian cults. In some historical periods it was peaceful, in others it turned into an armed conflict. Every touch to this area today looks like unwinding bandages soaked in dried blood on a non-healing wound, and can be perceived painfully by both sides. But in the name of a peaceful resolution of geopolitical, ethnic, religious and many other controversial issues, someone must start this dialogue... Beginning of the 14th millennium AD. There is no Ottoman Empire yet. The second sultan of the dynasty, Orkhan ibn Osman, just began to collect it from scattered beyliks. His wazir, Chandarly Khair ud-Din, forms a “new army” - the Janissary corps. The book focuses on the fate of one of the Janissaries, Abdallah al-Haddad...