In Search of Identity

Free .mp3 AudioBook

by Hassan Rasheed

(48 MB)

(3.5 Hours)

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Hello. This is an historical novel about my great grandfather, Ahmed Pasha Rasheed. He was born on the Greek island of Chios as Dimitris Panzaris of Christian mother and father. During the purge of the island in 1822 by the Ottoman Empire Dimitris, who was then 6 years old, was abducted and enslaved. He eventually was sold to Ahmed Agha who was the Ottoman ruler of Kavala in Northern Greece as a play companion to his only son, Shaaban. Dimitris and Shaaban, as luck had it, grew up and attended school together in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria was where Ahmed Agha had accepted a position with the Egyptian navy offered to him by Mohamed Ali the supreme Ottoman ruler of Egypt who is considered the father of modern Egypt. Ahmed Agha's position was responsible for the modernization of the navy's fleet of ships.

Dimitris was given the Muslim name of Ahmed Rasheed and he was brought up embracing that religion. His adventures with Shaaban and many of Egypt's royals spanned the time until they were approximately 12 years old after which Shaaban attended a cavalry academy while Ahmed Rasheed followed his mater's line of work in agrarian reform which he had accepted after the naval fleet was completed. Ahmed Rasheed was given his freedom on his mater's death bed during one of the black plagues. He embraced the concept of agrarian reform where he made his first fortune in transforming fallow lands into productive ones. He did not forget his Greek family and set out one year to find them. He started this journey in Chios and followed the clues to the island of Syros where he found his mother and sister Ekaterini who by then was married and had one child.

During his lifetime he married five women. On account he was familiar with the royal family he was assigned several ministry positions including being elected the speaker of the House of Representatives. His life traversed the Mohamed Ali dynasty in Egypt from beginning to end for a total of 6 khedewes (kings) culminating in the end of an independent Egypt and the takeover by the British government. He died in Cairo Egypt in 1899.

 

 

 

(48 MB)

(3.5 Hours)