Kingdoms of Fire
Kingdoms of Fire () is an Arabic historical drama television series about the reign of Ottoman Empire's Selim I and Mamluk Sultanate's Tuman bay II, created by Muhammed Abdulmalik and directed by British director Peter Webber. The 14-episodes series is produced by Genomedia Studios with a budget of $40 million, financed and supported by the government of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the originator of the movie, and filmed in Tunisia, debuted on MBC channels on 17 November 2019. The second season is under development process. Fatima Bhutto of "Foreign Policy" wrote  that the show is "an expensive salvo against Turkey’s cultural neo-Ottomanism" and that the director was chosen for "added cachet". Overview. The series depicts events that took place between Egypt, Syria and the Ottoman Empire between the 15th and the 16th century. It demonstrates the competition between the Mamluks and the Ottomans over the control of the Middle East, through the rise of two main characters, Tuman bay II, the last Sultan of the Mamluks in Cairo, and Sultan Selim I of Istanbul. Cast. Ahmad Harhash as Ahmed Reception. Bhutto, a Pakistani journalist, stated in 2020 that the  show in terms of an anti-Ottomanist production "has apparently failed; no one seems to be watching" in Pakistan. Criticism. Multiple comments from the Turkish side after the episodes aired characterized the show as harassment targeted at Turkey and as anti-Ottoman, reflecting recent tensions between Turkey and both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; This was during a time when Turkey had been trying to assert its Ottoman identity and its rule over Arabs.