Since the broadcast of the HBO production Game of Thrones in 2011, this epic TV drama has had a huge impact. It became a central reference and inspiration for anyone interested in the Middle Ages or the fantasy genre. This is both because the writer George R Martin created a complete world with its unique history and geography, with a multi-perspective and non-linear narrative that follows numerous characters and because its storyline was extremely unpredictable and driven by shocking twists. Main characters in the spotlight could nonetheless be killed. The series also destroyed many TV drama taboos and restrictions, featuring explicit nudity and sexuality (including incest) and excessive gory violence not restricted to battle scenes. Characters could, in addition, transition from the role of hero to that of villain depending on situation and motive.
The recent 10-episode Egyptian series Mamlaket Al-Harir (The Silk Kingdom), broadcast on Yango — written and directed by Peter Mimi, and starring Karim Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Asmaa Abul-Yazid, Ahmed Ghozzi, and Amr Abdel-Gelil — shows a strong GoT influence.
The series opens with the voice of the actor Hassan Al-Adl, who also plays the role of the wise man-physician, Al-Hakim Omar, saying two sentences that are not related at all. He mentions the silkworm’s life cycle, then he mentions the tale of Adam’s two sons, Habil and Qabil (Abel and Cain), saying that since then Adam’s descendants have been cursed. This narration explains the two main parts of the drama: Silkworm is a reference to the place where the action takes place, and fratricide is its principal theme.
The story unfolds in the Silk Kingdom. The series doesn’t show how or why this place is related to silk, and it seems to have been chosen simply because it evokes medieval fantasy.
It all starts when King Noureddin and his wife are killed by his brother Al-Dahabi (Amr Abdel-Gelil), who tries the two young princes Shamseddin and Galaleddin as well, though the servant Radwan (Mahmoud Al-Bezzawi) manages to escape with them in the nick of time, leaving behind only their sister, Galila, who is not a threat to Al-Dahabi.
The credits sequence at the start of each episode, a kind of signature for the series, puts the show in the zone of fairy tales or folk stories. It shows fixed frames of illustrations of the main characters in black and white or red, implying heat and gore. But the drama itself gives the feeling of illustrated comics for teens based on folktales. Composed, along with the rest of the score, by Sari Hani, the credits might be easily considered the most artistic and intelligent part of the whole series with their editing and gripping music.
The drama develops as the two princes are separated. The older Shamseddin (Karim Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz) has one brown and one blue eye. Since childhood he has been mistaken for a djinn or an evil wizard. That is why he always has a cloth over his blue eye like a one-eyed person. He is sold as a slave, then becomes a soldier in the slave army of the kingdom under the name Abul-Enein (the name means Eye Owner). The slave army is a militia assigned to do the dirty work so that the real army is not involved in acts like burning houses or killing civilians.
The writer took the scene when Abul-Enein first meets the king’s daughter, Fairouz (Sara Baraka) from a common fairy tale. While she and her guards are passing through the market, Abul-Enein is astonished by her beauty and caught staring at her, a crime for which he could lose his life. Abul-Enein is not like his brother and sister; he is abstaining, not eager to reach the throne of the Silk Kingdom. However, in the first episode when he is about to be decapitated for staring at the princess and the army soldier lets him go, Abul-Enein kills him and takes his uniform. That is one of many places where the motives and characteristics of the main characters change in random, incoherent ways.
Later Abul-Enein meets with the king’s niece Galila (Asmaa Abul-Yazid), when fate puts him in the battalion that accompanies her, not knowing she is his sister. The princess’s caravan is attacked by thugs and he is the only one who can save her. That is how he ends up at the palace. Each time he involuntarily moves a step closer to the Silk Throne, using his power and his experience as a warrior, until he becomes the commander of the king’s army.
As for his younger brother, Galaleddin (Ahmed Ghozzi), a thug named Gabal (Walid Fawwaz) abducts him as an infant knowing that he is a prince. Gabal raises him to become his assistant. After years, he becomes a thug who raids bars with Gabal’s daughter Ward (Nora Mahdi). When Galaleddin knows that he is the heir to the throne, he decides to gather the thugs of the lake and asks Gabal with his men to join him to overthrow the king and take the throne.
Those are two lines of drama the series follows. A third concerns Galila, whom the king is grooming to marry his son Soleiman (Youssef Omar), a shameless, frivolous and lustful person who spends all night drinking and whoring even though he is also effeminate and seemingly gay: perhaps a not-fully-realised version of Renly, the youngest brother of King Robert Baratheon in GoT. When Galila gets pregnant by a soldier and tries to deceive everyone by saying Soleiman made love to her while he was drunk, Al-Dahabi is sure the fetus is not his grandson and orders her killed. That is how she goes from being a princess to the leader of the slave army and returns to get her revenge, only to end up fighting her own brother, Galaleddin, who has now inherited the throne.
The fourth line follows one of the peculiar characters Rihana (Sara Tonsi), a whore from a district of nightclubs and brothels called Dakakin El-Tout (or the Berry Shops). She falls for Abul-Enein before he has laid eyes on Princess Fairouz, but then her story develops rapidly, filled with illogical coincidences. She meets King Al-Dahabi himself after spending the night with Prince Soleiman and Al-Dahabi later tells her he has chosen her to carry his child because he has given up hope on Soleiman, and he needs to have another son as an heir to the throne. She manages to gain control over the king using some sort of herbal drink, turning from a femme fatale to a kind of witch figure. When the king is overthrown by Galaleddin and his men, she escapes from the kingdom and is saved by the women of the Black Land, who seem to be working in witchcraft. She manages to kill their leader and sit in her place. Again the creator seems inspired by the GoT character Melisandre, also known as the Red Lady. Mimi even has her dressed in red.
The role of the palace physician Al-Hakim Omar is likewise based on the grand master character in GoT, since like the masters he is a keeper of the history, the documents of the kingdom. Dramatically, at many points he supports Abul-Enein, whom he knows to be Prince Shamseddin from the very beginning.
The whole drama revolves around the fight over the throne between three brothers, but its frequent, drastic changes and plot twists are illogical and contrived. After watching all 10 episodes, my sense is that this show has too many events and coincidences, and could have worked much better had its creator directly targeted a younger audience. It might be even wiser to stick to the romance and simplicity of folk tales, but GoT lies underneath almost every character and development. With good performances by Abdel-Aziz, Tonsi, and Ghozzi, the acting, costume and interior design were all sound, however.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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