The stolen prince

the long version

Unearthing lost documents and new clues that help to reconstruct the extraordinary life of Gannibal, the first black intellectual in Europe, this thrilling hybrid of a travelogue and detective story combines historical scholarship with a literary imagination to take us from tsarist Saint Petersburg and a half-forgotten Africa all the way to our present day. In the spring of 1703, a young African boy stepped off a slave ship in Constantinople, the gateway between East and West. Huddling in chains, with other frightened captives, the seven-year-old claimed to be a prince of Abyssinia, a "noble Moor" kidnapped and stolen out of Africa. His tragedy was shared by millions of black people caught up in the Islamic slave trade, but his destiny was unique: rescued by Peter the Great, the young African became Abram Petrovich Gannibal. - Jacket flap.