Tahir Shah

Eclectic and beguiling observations by bestselling author Tahir Shah, Three Essays considers three quite different subjects in ways they have never been considered before. The first piece looks at cannibalism, noting how prevalent it has been throughout human history. Only frowned upon in relatively recent times, Shah makes the point that cannibalism was never regarded as shocking. The second essay considers the Kumbh Mela - an Indian cultural extravaganza and the greatest human gathering of all time. The third text looks at the way Arab Science from the so-called Golden Age of Islam shapes the world in which we live - making everything from mobile phones to medical transfusions possible.

Inspired by a true story: In October 1815, an illiterate American sailor named Robert Adams was discovered roaming the streets of London, half-naked and starving. In the months that followed, high society was rocked by his tale. At a time when the European powers were posturing for empire, there was one quest above all else, one destination to which no Christian had ever ventured and returned alive - Timbuctoo. Regarded as a golden metropolis par excellence, an African El Dorado fashioned from the purest gold, it was for centuries a European obsession. The British, Germans, French, and others dispatched their most capable explorers to seek it out and to sack it. Most of them never returned. The only nation uninterested in the mania for Timbuctoo was the fledgling United States. And so, when a young American sailor claimed to have visited the city as a guest of its king, while a white slave in Africa, it caused uproar on an unknown scale. More shocking still was the sailors description of the El Dorado - as a poverty-stricken and wretched place - and the fact that he seemed blase and uninterested at having been there at all. Set against a backdrop of the British Regency, a time of ultimate decadence and avarice, of haves and have-nots, Robert Adamss tale has been all but forgotten, until now. An astonishing story of survival and hardship, its a one touched with irony. A man who had set out to make his fame and fortune through trade, Robert Adams gained both, but by selling the tale of his journey. Almost twenty years ago, Tahir Shah noticed an inch-thick quarto-sized book propping up a water pipe in the basement of the London Library. Pulling it out, he first set eyes on Robert Adamss Narrative, published by John Murray in 1816. The book became an obsession to Shah, just as Regency London was itself fixated with the golden metropolis of Timbuctoo. Packed with well-researched detail of the time, and inspired by Adamss ordeal, Timbuctoo is a fast-past and compelling read. Its a tale of treachery, greed, love and, above all else, of survival in the face of insurmountable odds.

With communication faster and easier than its ever been, we are better informed than ever about cultures from every corner of the earth. But rather than merely observing other societies - from books, documentaries, and internet sites - award-winning author Tahir Shah believes we must learn about them in a deep-down way. As he says, Only by studying the ancient methods of cultures that have endured for millennia do we have a hope of solving the problems we ourselves face.Our society is constantly bombarded with trials and tribulations of all kinds - dilemmas that never existed before globalization propelled us into the frantic hyper zone in which we live. Perhaps most worrying of all is that the predicaments and problems that face us are now endemic in fragile cultures that we have influenced and changed. The fascinating papers in Cultural Research illustrate a sense and a sensibility that we have lost, but which we can and must re-learn. Through reading of the experiences of others, we can understand our own society and the challenges it faces - so as to seek answers, not only to our own problems, but to those of the wider world.

Dentro de la tradición de Un año en Provenza o Bajo el sol de Toscana, el aclamado escritor de viajes inglés Tahir Shah comparte el relato, enormemente entretenido y a veces conmovedor, del traslado de su fmilia desde la brumosa Londres a la ciudad de Casablanca empapada de sol, donde convergen la tradicion islamica y el folklore africano, y donde nada resulta tan facil como parece...

First published thirty years ago, The Middle East Bedside Book illuminates lesser-known facets of Arab culture and folklore, presenting the region from the inside out. Considering the observations of writers, artists, philosophers and kings, the book is an invaluable and spellbinding resource. All manner of areas are covered - from the origins of chess as a courtly game in battle strategy, to costume, politics, music, and even the history and folklore of the humble toothpick. The contribution of Arab knowhow on the world around us is a theme running through The Middle East Bedside Book. Breakthroughs during the so-called Golden Age of the Abbasids shaped the technologies we take for granted - whether they be in the fields of mathematics, medicine, or computer science. The treasury offers a cornucopia of unlikely insights - such as the way Chaucer, Shakespeare, Churchill, and many others, drew liberally for inspiration from Arab literature. Perhaps most remarkable of all are the sections of facts and fallacies. King John of England, for instance, supposedly offered to convert to Islam and hand over fealty of his kingdom in return for support from the Moors. The British Museum holds in its collection an eighth-century gold dinar from the rule of King Offa of Mercia, bearing the Arabic inscription There is no God but Allah, and the eleventh-century Persian poet and philosopher Hakim Sanai propounded theories on dreams and dreaming 900 years before Freud.

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction.Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah.Spanning a number of distinct genres in both fiction and non-fiction work the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shahs own outlook as a bestselling author.Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions, and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

On the morning of her fifth birthday, Miki Suzukis aged grandfather gave her an unusual gift the fragment of a story. The tale told of a magical realm where all the women were beautiful, dressed in the finest gowns, and where the men had the looks of movie stars. The trees were covered in ivory-white blossom all year round, and everyone was joyful and proud. This place, young Miki learned, was a city in far off Europe a city called Paris. The story took seed in Mikis mind and, over twenty years, she became quite obsessed with the French capital. Having studied its history, language, and traditions, she vowed that one day she would venture there. Winning a competition at her work, where she sold low-grade beauty products door-to-door, Miki embarked on the journey of a lifetime to her dream destination. Feverishly excited, and exhausted after a long flight, she hit the ground running, in her desperation to see every last tourist sight in town. But, as the others in the tour group looked on in horror, the telltale signs of a rare condition began to manifest themselves a condition known as Paris Syndrome. Made crazed by a stream of unfavourable events, Miki went on a riotous rampage, which ended in her mooning the sales clerk in Louis Vuitton an assault that gripped the French nation. And so began the treatment in the most bizarre of clinics a refuge for fellow sufferers of Paris Syndrome. All this set against a backdrop of vigilante groups, trade wars, bounty hunters, and true love. Both hilarious and toe-curling, Miki Suzukis psychological rollercoaster ride gets under the skin like nothing else, as the novel explores the real condition that afflicts dozens of Japanese tourists each year. Tahir Shahs mastery as a storyteller and his knowledge of both East and West makes Paris Syndrome a novel touched with real magic a story within a story thats worth its weight in gold.

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction. Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah. Spanning a number of distinct genres - in both fiction and non-fiction work - the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shahs own outlook as a bestselling author. Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

It all began with a little black seed - the seed of a watermelon. Yahya, the self-styled Melon King, presented it to Tahir Shah, urging him to plant it in the courtyard garden of his home, the Caliphs House. The seed was duly planted, watered, and tended lovingly. Eventually it began to grow... First sprouting into a little green shoot, then into the beginnings of a plant, and at last giving birth to a watermelon. As the fruit grew and grew, the Melon King imparted a line of secret advice: Tell stories to the melon... stories about melons. Uncertain what stories to recount, Shah took to his desk and wrote a manuscript of tales to be told to the melon - a manuscript which, with time, became this book. In all probability the only book of stories ever written in awe and devotion to a melon, Tales Told to a Melon is a work of the purest imagination... ...and affection for the finest melon that ever lived.

As a child in rural England, Tahir Shah first learned the secrets of illusion from a visiting Indian magician, the hereditary guardian of his ancestors tomb. More than two decades later he set out to India on a quest: to study the form of magic used across the subcontinent on a daily basis by so-called godmen. Making his way to Kolkata, Tahir is taken on by Hakim Feroze, magician, illusionist, sadist, master, and irrepressible polymath, before embarking on what is described as a journey of observation. Shahs initiation into the brotherhood of Indian magicians makes for one of the most adventurous, enlivening, and downright bizarre travel books of its time. Lifting the lid on age-old illusions - such as human hibernation and levitation - Sorcerers Apprentice established Shah as one of the leading travel writers of his generation. Nothing is what it seems in this spellbinding tale. A rollercoaster of a read from start to finish, the travelogue reveals a secret underbelly of life that thrives across India, but which most authors hardly ever notice exists.

This fourth book of Nasrudin tales from the acclaimed storyteller, Tahir Shah, concerns the trials and tribulations of the inimitable wise fools life in the Land of Fools. Some Nasrudin stories are overtly hilarious, while others are downright odd, yet all of them get the listeners brain working in new ways. For a thousand years, stories such as these have been relied upon - from Morocco in the west to China in the east - to impart wisdom, while challenging conventional thinking. GENIUS MACHINE Nasrudin invented a device to turn fools into geniuses, and geniuses into fools.As word of the machine spread, Foolslanders hurried to the capital and stood in line.Paying their money, some of the dimmest fools in existence became geniuses in the blink of an eye.But, one at a time, the geniuses queued up again to be turned back into fools.Nasrudin asked one of them why he wanted to be turned back.I always wanted to be a genius, he said, but now I have experienced it, I realize its so much less exhausting to go through life as a fool.

King Solomon, the Bibles wisest king, also possessed extraordinary wealth. He built a temple at Jerusalem that was said to be more fabulous than any other landmark in the ancient world, heavily adorned with gold from Ophir. The precise location of this legendary land has been one of historys great unsolved mysteries. Long before Rider Haggards classic adventure novel King Solomons Mines produced a fresh outbreak of gold fever, explorers, scientists and theologians had scoured the world for the source of the kings astonishing wealth. In this book, Tahir Shah takes up the quest, using as his leads a mixture of texts including the Septuagint, the earliest form of the Bible, as well as geological, geographical and folkloric sources. Time and again the evidence points towards Ethiopia, the ancient kingdom in the horn of Africa whose imperial family claims descent from Menelik, the son born to Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tahir Shahs trail takes him to a remote cliff-face monastery where the monks pull visitors up on a leather rope, to the ruined castles of Gondar, and to the churches of Lalibela, hewn from solid rock. In the south, he discovers an enormous illegal gold mine, itself like something out of the Old Testament, where thousands of men, women and children dig with their hands. But the hardest leg of the journey is to the accursed mountain of Tullu Wallel, where legend says there lies an ancient shaft, once the entrance of King Solomons mines. Tahir Shahs account of his journey in search of the facts behind the fiction is every bit as exciting as Rider Haggards.

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction.Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah.Spanning a number of distinct genres in both fiction and non-fiction work the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shahs own outlook as a bestselling author.Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions, and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

In a career that has embraced fiction and non-fiction, and bridged West with East, Tahir Shah has frequently commented on his own work - or on that of other authors - in a series of supplementary essays. For the first time, the dozens of prefaces, introductions, forewords and afterwords produced by Shah have been collected and published in a volume of their own. Fascinating for admirers of his literary corpus, the texts illuminate how and why Shah structured each book as he did. Lifting the veil on an authors thought processes, the collection exposes layers and sub-layers through decades of work. Additional essays introduce material by other authors, such as the acclaimed and short-lived American adventurer Richard Halliburton, the medieval Arab explorer Ibn Battutah, and the fabulously evocative treatise on jinn, edited by Robert Lebling. A treasure trove of thinking, covering a vast spectrum of themes, The Clockmakers Box is an irresistible companion volume to Tahir Shahs extraordinary work.

The second book in Tahir Shahs trilogy of Nasrudin stories, The Peregrinations of the Perplexing Nasrudin follows hot on the heels of The Misadventures of the Mystifying Nasrudin, and the highly acclaimed Travels With Nasrudin. Although uproariously funny, Nasrudin tales are regarded as complex psychological machineries in their own right - the kind of tales that have simultaneously provided laughter and problem-solving for centuries across Oriental lands. A random selection of Nasrudins travels - through the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia - The Peregrinations act on many levels, providing wisdom, humour, and a full inside-out recalibration of the mind.

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction.Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah. Spanning a number of distinct genres in both fiction and non-fiction work the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shahs own outlook as a bestselling author. Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions, and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

Tahir Shah, fill i net de reconeguts escriptors de contes, decideix deixar la casa de Londres per establir-se a Casablanca, a la Casa del Califa, amb la seva família. S’instal·la al barri de Barraque

During a career of thirty years, Tahir Shah has published dozens of books on travel, exploration, topography, and research, as well as a large body of fiction.Through this extraordinary series of Anthologies, selections from the corpus are arranged by theme, allowing the reader to follow certain threads that are of profound interest to Shah.Spanning a number of distinct genres in both fiction and non-fiction work the collections incorporate a wealth of unpublished material. Prefaced by an original introduction, each Anthology provides a lens into a realm that has shaped Shahs own outlook as a bestselling author.Regarded as one of the most prolific and original writers working today, Tahir Shah has a worldwide following. Published in hundreds of editions, and in more than thirty languages, his books turn the world back to front and inside out. Seeking to make sense of the hidden underbelly, he illuminates facets of life most writers hardly even realize exist.

Eight strangers were clustered around the campfire of the distant caravanserai -- silhouetted, ragged, and ripened by adventure. As the flames licked the darkness, sparks spitting up into the deserts nocturnal firmament, a traveller cleared his throat and told his tale. One at a time, each adventurer regaled the others around the campfire with a story. Inspired by the pages of The Thousand and One Nights, the eight tales are woven together to form a magical tapestry of enchanted kingdoms and desert islands, sorcerers and jinns. First published in special handmade limited editions, this volume of The Caravanserai Stories brings all eight spellbinding tales together in one remarkable collection. Building on foundations laid down in scores of other published works, these stories recounted at the desert caravanserai have been hailed as Tahir Shahs finest work.