AUTHOR’S NOTEShamyl, Imman of Daghestan, fought against the invading Russians in a terrible bloody war that lasted from 1804 to 1861.
In one battle he lost his precious Koran and it was picked up on the battlefield by Prince Alexander of Hesse. When I held it in my hands, I felt as if I had stepped into a momentous and thrilling piece of history.
The hero in this story follows in some ways the dramatic romance of Prince Alexander’s elopement and marriage, which began the famous Royal Line of Battenburg to Mountbatten.