Light of Anatolia is a historical romance that highlights the transformative power of an ancient women's movement

raks al shari (belly dance). During the First World War, aspiring dancer Neyla Zaroukian must flee her comfortable life in

Constantinople. As a twenty-year-old college student, she has lived in the capital since an ethnic cleansing that killed her

mother and brother seven years earlier, in the interior city of Adana. Her father, an Armenian rebel, then left her in the

care of her maternal grandparents, Americans who run a school for orphans. But Neyla's most profound learning has come

under the tutelage of two ethnic Turks, "Dayi", a Sufi teacher, and "Teyze", an aging dancer. Dayi teaches her meditation

as a healing from the trauma of her family's deaths. Teyze introduces her to raks al shari, and blesses her with a hamsa, a

pre-historic symbol of an ancient, harmonious way of life.

 

An Ottoman prince, Akhmet, has taken a fanatical interest in Neyla. She reminds him of his own mother, who died when

he was a child. As she deliberates whether to flee before the young Turk government steps in to restrict her, Neyla meets

Lieutenant Rahim Yalman. Through a certain influential general, Mustafa Kemal, he offers to help her escape the

inevitable persecution that her famous name will bring upon her. But their plans are thwarted and deportation reunites

her with her father, Tigran. As they travel, Neyla resolves lingering questions about his role in the attacks of 1909 that

resulted in her mother's death. She and Tigran draw closer, until he is executed before a crowd of deportees in Ezurum.

 

Taken away by car, Neyla is destined for a villa near Lake Van. Throughout her difficult journey, she is guided by

meditation, prayer and the friendship of a young Kurdish woman, Yasmin. There, Neyla re-encounters the dissipated

Ottoman Ahkmet. He attempts to make her his odalisque in this eastern province. But discovery of a centuries-old tunnel

beneath his villa and her timely escape through it leads her to a dangerous freedom. She unexpectedly comes across

Lieutenant Yalman again. Rahim arrests her and brings her with him, traveling toward the Syrian desert. Neyla is swept

up in the historic death march of the Armenian people. She protects a young boy as best she can while her people walk

onward at bayonet point.

 

Miserable about the role he is forced to play, Rahim allows love and morality to inspire him. He arranges to flee with a

fellow soldier, Aram, and Neyla and the boy. They cannot save everyone's lives, but Rahim and Aram will eventually help

the Armenian underground. Neyla's passage to freedom during the "Great War" unfolds with thr wavy, sense-enriching

body language of raks al sharki. She traverses the periphery of Anatolia and discovers deepening bond with ancient

feminine principle. Rahim and she share their pasts and the love between them grows. They talk of traveling to America,

where they both have family. Through the dangers they confront, Neyla learns to trust her own authority. She relies on the

Goddess within as well as the light in others who yearn for connection and life amidst devastation.

Neyla and Rahim hide in a remote caravanserai, a caravan palace from the ancient Silk Road routes. Here, a community of

diverse women lives self-sufficiently, healing themselves and wounded soldiers. They celebrated life through prayer,

music and dance. Rahim and his soldier friend soon leave so as not to be discovered as deserters. Within the walls of this

early “hotel,” it seems the very earth beneath the women is releasing secrets of bygone centuries. A sisterhood thrives,

enriching Neyla’s spiritual experiences. She learns to grow and tend plants and dances in a birth circle. She also dances

raks al sharki as she never has before. The community recovers from the ravages of war and genocide guided by the

wisdom of the elder, Barakah. They learn new ways to heal and to celebrate the Ancient Mother of Anatolia, believing they

can move in any direction they choose. Barakah encourages them to envision a harmony in the world outside that

transcends the male dominated violence of both Neyla’s ancestors and those of the Ottoman Empire. But one day General

Kemal and his troops intrude upon their world. He has seen Neyla dance back in the capital and has a particular interest in

her. She knows the energy between them will decide her fate. Meanwhile, Rahim and Aram find a refugee camp and

contract cholera after aiding sick and dying Armenians. Rahim is nursed back to health by the Armenian rebel, Gayane

and her cousin, Antran. He travels eastward with their group, retreating from Turkish advance. Prince Akhmet, pursuing

his obsession with Neyla, has now discovered the caravanserai. He brings her brother, Kourken, presumed dead since the

Adana attack that killed their mother. Kourken has spent the past seven years with an acquaintance of Prince Akhmet’s.

This man, Emin Bey, saved the boy’s life, but made him his lover. The tensions and cross-purposes of the pashas and the

women result in a waltz between Neyla and Mustafa Kemal, as well as the deaths of Akhmet and Emin. But General

Kemal’s glimpse of the light enables him to respect the women of the caravanserai, and offer them safe escort, with

Kourken and Darius, to the Persian border. On their own after that, the group makes their way to Yerevan, in Armenia.

In Yerevan, Neyla and Rahim find one another. Their dream to travel to a new life in America may yet come true.