Shabak

The Pharaoh had two children: Princess Azize and Prince Shabak, twelve years her junior. When Azize turned sixteen, she married a general. However, she was never able to have children, and this broke her heart. One day, while walking along the banks of the Nile, she found a basket in the water. Inside was a beautiful, abandoned baby girl, crying from hunger, wrapped in a Hebrew mantle. Without hesitation, Azize took her to the palace and announced that she would adopt her as her own daughter. The Pharaoh did not like the idea. Like all Egyptians, he saw the Hebrews as dirty slaves. But after much insistence, he finally agreed. The general and the princess finally had their beloved princess, although the child was never accepted by the court, including the Pharaoh, who never hid his contempt for her. Shabak, on the other hand, was captivated by her from the first moment. For him, she was not just another dirty Hebrew girl... She was his princess. They became inseparable, and over the years the young Hebrew woman demonstrated intelligence and a great talent for dance and architecture. She was the only person whose opinion Shabak listened to without question; her word was sacred to him. On his 20th birthday, Shabak announced what he had always known since childhood: he was deeply in love. He dreamed of making her his queen when he inherited the throne. Marriages between members of royalty were common in Egypt. The Pharaoh objected; he did not want a Hebrew woman to bear children for the royal family. That decision further fractured his relationship with his children. Azize could not bear that he rejected her daughter, and Shabak was offended by the disdain shown to the woman of his life. The Pharaoh chose instead to betroth his son to a Hittite noblewoman, Sati. She took every opportunity to emphasize the princess's Hebrew origin, something Shabak did not forgive. But he was already determined to do whatever was necessary to remove Sati and his own father from his path in order to share the throne with the only woman he had ever loved.