On September 7, 1695, an armada of five pirate ships attacked the great Mughal emperor’s treasure fleet returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The treasure seized was the greatest in all history. The attack launched a worldwide manhunt lasting over five decades, and a treasure hunt that continues to this day. The Blade of Safavid and its rightful heir, the granddaughter of both a Mughal emperor and a Safavid shah, are the prize of not just worldly wealth but the rights to one of the worlds great empires.

The Blade of Safavid delivers historical fiction lovers a feast of action and adventure as they're thrust into an odyssey through the five decades that brought the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, the collapse of the Great Persian Safavid Dynasty, and the fall of the Mighty Mughal Empires, as ruthless competitors traverse the continents and oceans hunting for the greatest pirate treasure every captured—a treasure that included not just millions of dollars of gold, silver, and gems, it included the priceless relic the Blade of Safavid as well as the Mughal emperor’s own granddaughter, both taken when pirate ships attack the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s treasure fleet on its return from its pilgrimage to Mecca.

Author Kent Merrell blends history and fiction together so convincingly, this historical fiction novel sends adults both young and old scurrying to the their dusty encyclopedias or the internet to meet legendary characters and decipher between fact and fiction.