The Oracle of Stamboul
Michael David Lukas
Briefly, The Oracle of Stamboul is about a very intelligent, very precocious , gifted young Jewish girl of the Ottoman Empire, whose birth is heralded by a flock of purple hoopoe birds.
Eleonor's mother dies, as a result of childbirth. Eleonor's father is a rug merchant, and when he decides to travel to Stamboul in the hopes of selling more carpets, 8-yr-old Eleonor, not wanting to be left in the hands of an uncaring setp-mother, and not wanting to experience the loneliness of separation from her loving father, stows away on the ship that is taking him to Stamboul.
In Stamboul, her father is killed, and she becomes the ward of her father's business partner, an important, wealthy man, Monef Bey.
Her gifts and intelligence bring her to the notice of the Sultan, and she becomes his trusted advisor, much to the disdain of many in the palace.
I enjoyed this, but perhaps not as much as I'd hoped.
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