Crescent in the Sky — Donald Moffitt

BLUES FOR ALLAH

For a thousand years the Great Awakening had spread the word of Allah to the stars. And for a thousand years there had been no Caliph to unite the disparate Islamic planets-the vast interstellar distances made the required pilgrimage to Mecca nearly impossible for the more far-flung rulers.

Then the Emir of Mars announced his plan to travel to Islam's most holy shrine and to capture the prize of the Caliphate. Thus all Mars was plunged into a whirlwind of plots, intrigues, assassination, and revolution.

Young Abdul Hamid-Jones cared little for politics. But in spite of himself, the cloning technician was unwittingly caught in a vicious power play and a political game in which there were more players than rules-a game in which the least he could lose was his life!