Daughter of Samarkand

Book One of the Ink & Gold SeriesIn the golden age of the Silk Road, seventeen-year-oldThuraya bint Yusuf harbours a dangerous secret. While the world sees only thedutiful daughter of Samarkand's most respected calligrapher, she is a giftedilluminator, working in shadows to master arts forbidden to women.When a prestigious commission from Baghdad's House of Wisdomarrives, Thuraya sees her chance to step into the light, but betrayal lurkscloser than she imagines. Forced into a desperate gamble, she must riskeverything she holds dear for a future that may already be slipping from hergrasp.As political tensions fracture the Islamic world and old loyalties crumble, Thuraya discovers that the Silk Road's greatest treasures aren't silk or spices: they're knowledge, friendship, and the courage to forge her own destiny. Yet in a world where books and ideas can be as dangerous as swords, her greatest triumph will demand a price she could never have imagined.

M.D. Ndogo is a debut novelist who brings the history of the Silk Road to vivid life. His historical fiction explores faith, culture, and the resilience of the human spirit at the crossroads where civilizations met and mingled. Ink & Gold: Daughter of Samarkand is his first novel and the beginning of a journey to illuminate the forgotten characters and evocative world of the Silk Road.