If the unbridled desire for power were not accompanied, as is often the case, by great upheavals and sacrifices, this book would have become just entertaining reading, nothing more. But the endings of the biographies of the “kings of the world” are usually very deplorable. And no matter how hard this or that power-hungry tries to look like a god for his people, historians sooner or later get to the bottom of the truth and put it on public display. There are many more interesting things in life than the struggle for power. Therefore, let's preface reading this book with the immortal lines of Omar Khayyam: If all the states, near and far, Conquered, lie in the dust, You will not become, great ruler, immortal. Your destiny is not great: three arshins of land. Sergey Turko, editor-in-chief of the publishing house Alpina Publisher