In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams [Paperback]

Tahir Shah (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 24, 2009

Named one of Time magazine’s Ten Best Books of the Year, Tahir Shah’s The Caliph’s House was hailed by critics and compared to such travel classics as A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun. Now Shah takes us deeper into the real Casablanca to uncover mysteries hidden for centuries from Western eyes.

In this entertaining jewel of a book, Tahir Shah sets off across Morocco on a bold new adventure worthy of the mythical Arabian Nights. As he wends his way through the labyrinthine medinas of Fez and Marrakech, traverses the Sahara sands, and samples the hospitality of ordinary Moroccans, Tahir collects a dazzling treasury of traditional wisdom stories, gleaned from the heritage of A Thousand and One Nights, which open the doors to layers of culture most visitors hardly realize exist. From master masons who labor only at night to Sufi wise men who write for soap operas, In Arabian Nights takes us on an unforgettable, offbeat, and utterly enchanted journey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (March 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384430
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384437
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Travel > Africa > Morocco
  • #27 in Books > Travel > Middle East > General
  • #54 in Books > Travel > Africa > General

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shah continues the story he began in his acclaimed memoir The Caliph's House, the tale of his family's move to Morocco, this time focusing on the traditional wisdom stories of Arabia, best known in the West through A Thousand and One Nights. Inspired by his family's long tradition of storytelling ("We have this gift," says his father, "Protect it and it will protect you"), Shah frames his search for identity with traditional Arabian tales, but also with the stories of the men who tell them. As such, he creates a bright patchwork quilt of stories old and new, including his own childhood memories, held together by an engaging cross-country travelogue. Shah's habit of frequently and abruptly switching between plotlines, though it keeps the story moving, can be aggravating, and his picaresque style makes it hard to tell where the real adventures end and the tall tales begin. In addition, women are conspicuously underrepresented, especially for audiences recalling Scheherazade. Still, his characters often prove charming, and his stories are steeped in feeling and a palpable sense of tradition. Illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Intensely felt…. Teeming with sorcerers, enchanted animals, jinns, and dervishes….Shah’s Moroccans and the shards of their tales create a brilliant literary mosaic.”—Booklist

"Creates moments of wonderment.... And worthy of note, especially in these times, is its illumination of a part of Arabic culture that is gracious, gentle and wise."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A spellbinding journey from Casablanca to Fez and Marrakech…unforgettable… Highly recommended for larger armchair travel collections and for collections on the Arab world.” —Library Journal

“Simply irresistible…bursts with quirky characters, Moroccan lore, desert and urban landscapes, odd encounters, an incisively curious and adventure-seeking mind, and a lust for and fascination with ancient tales.” —Providence Journal

“Mesmerizing …brings the sights, sounds, and smells of modern Morocco to vibrant life …an enthralling triumph.” —National Geographic Traveler

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (March 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384430
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384437
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Travel > Africa > Morocco
  • #27 in Books > Travel > Middle East > General
  • #54 in Books > Travel > Africa > General

More About the Author

Tahir Shah is the author of fifteen books, many of which chronicle a wide range of outlandish journeys through Africa, Asia and the Americas. For him, there's nothing so important as deciphering the hidden underbelly of the lands through which he travels. Shunning well-trodden tourist paths, he avoids celebrated landmarks, preferring instead to position himself on a busy street corner or in a dusty café and observe life go by. Insisting that we can all be explorers, he says there's wonderment to be found wherever we are - it's just a matter of seeing the world with fresh eyes.

In the tradition of A Thousand and One Nights, Shah's first 2013 release, SCORPION SOUP, is a treasury of nested tales. One linking effortlessly into the next, the stories form a cornucopia of lore and values, the kind that has for centuries shaped the cultural landscape of the East. Amusing, poignant, and thoroughly entertaining, the collection stays with you, conjuring a magic all of its own.

Shah's 2012 novel, TIMBUCTOO, is inspired by a true life tale from two centuries ago. The story of the first Christian to venture to Timbuctoo and back - a young illiterate American sailor - it has been an obsession since Shah discovered it in the bowels of the London Library twenty years ago.

His 2011 collection entitled TRAVELS WITH MYSELF is a body of work as varied and as any, with reportage pieces as diverse as the women on America's Death Row, to the trials and tribulations of his encounter in a Pakistani torture jail.

Another recent work, IN ARABIAN NIGHTS, looks at how stories are used in cultures such as Morocco, as a matrix by which information, values and ideas are passed on from one generation to the next. That book follows on the heels of the celebrated CALIPH'S HOUSE: A Year in Casablanca, lauded as one of Time Magazine's Top 10 Books of the year.

His other works include an epic quest through Peru's cloud forest for the greatest lost city of the Incas (HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING), as well as a journey through Ethiopia in search of the source of King Solomon's gold (IN SEARCH OF KING SOLOMON'S MINES). Previous to that, Shah published an account of a journey through the Amazon on the trail of the Birdmen of the Amazon (TRAIL OF FEATHERS), as well as a book of his experiences in India, as a godman's pupil (SORCERER'S APPRENTICE).

Tahir Shah's books have appeared in thirty languages and in more than seventy editions. They are celebrated for their original viewpoint, and for combining hardship with vivid description.

He also makes documentary films, which are shown worldwide on National Geographical Television, and The History Channel. The latest, LOST TREASURE OF AFGHANISTAN, has been screened on British TV and shown worldwide. While researching the programme Shah was arrested along with his film crew and incarcerated in a Pakistani torture jail, where they spent sixteen terrifying days and nights.

His other documentaries include: HOUSE OF THE TIGER KING, SEARCH FOR THE LOST CITY OF GOLD, and THE SEARCH FOR KING SOLOMON'S MINES. And, in addition to documentaries, Shah writes for the big screen. His best known work in this genre is the award-winning Imax feature JOURNEY TO MECCA, telling the tale of the fourteenth century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta's first pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tahir Shah lives at Dar Khalifa, a sprawling mansion set squarely in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. He's married to the graphic designer, Rachana Shah, and has two children, Ariane and Timur. His father was the Sufi writer, Idries Shah.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another mystical journey January 8, 2008

By Kellyann Zuzulo

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

K.F. Zuzulo is the author of A Genie in the House of Saud: Zubis Rises
I thoroughly enjoyed Tahir Shah's previous book The Caliph's House and had anxiously awaited In Arabian Nights. I was not disappointed. Shah captures the Middle Eastern psyche and landscape and conveys both in lush and lyrical narrative. The starting point of his own harrowing captivity in a Pakistani torture cell layers another journey of contrasts on experiences that include such mystical figures as the djinn. In this case, who is worse? Shah's jailers or unseen cultural icons? This is a book that succeeds and enraptures on many levels. Captivating and enlightening!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Magical Book January 16, 2008

By S. Tak

Format:Hardcover

Upon finishing the book two nights ago, and closing it with satisfaction, I was not quite sure what happened to me. All I knew is that the very next morning, I opened the book again. I am reading it over, because I want to make sure I did NOT MISS A SINGLE WORD!

If such a thing is possible, Tahir Shah has written a book even better than his previous ones (all of which are spectacular). 'In Arabian Nights' bursts with incidents, observations, and stories that will make you weep or laugh out loud. It is an account of his ongoing adventures in Morocco, complete with jinns, cobblers, "number one fans", blind storytellers, and much more, all written from the point of view of a very humble yet powerfully perceptive observer.

The writer's style of writing makes one feel the book is alive, reaching out to you. When I was done with this book, I didn't feel I had read a book at all, but had been connected to something breathing, living, and changing, and drawing me in.

This book is more than a book. It is never explicitly stated in so many words, but this book is an invitation. An invitation to what, you ask? That question can be answered only if you read it for yourself.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tahir Shah has surpassed even himself! January 10, 2008

By Booklover

Format:Hardcover

Tahir Shah has done it again -- only better! Without sacrificing any of his usual madcap humor, he seeks out and illustrates for readers the qualities he finds most valuable in his adopted Moroccan homeland. He draws crucial distinctions between Islam and the counterfeit version fabricated by terrorists. Anyone interested in Morocco, Islam, Sufi teaching stories, or just some good laughs needs to read this riveting book.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What could be more compelling than the heart's storytelling? January 7, 2008

By ryan mccliment

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is wonderful. It's a reminder of what can be shared among friends, family, and strangers through the power of story telling. I especially enjoyed sharing in Tahir's journey toward listening to his heart, and what it might really mean to give someone the shirt off your back.
There's no cheaply earned laughs in this book-- it inspires one to find stories that are truly worthy of our children. It's an awesome book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, a book you'll want to hang on to! February 23, 2008

By Christopher Meyer

Format:Hardcover

The late Idries Shah, a masterful storyteller and Tahir Shah's father, left us a most impressive corpus of literature on the subject of sufism: dozens of collections of teaching stories, commentaries, expositions of sufism, histories, traditional question and answer passages, Nasrudin tales and travel literature. All of this was carefully designed as a comprehensive introduction to sufism.
I greatly enjoyed Tahir Shah's 'the Caliph's House' for it's fastinating details and delightfully interwoven storylines, but with 'In Arabian Nights' there is even more. I can really feel that the torch has been passed from father to son - and most successfully at that.
'In Arabian Nights' is one of those books you will want to keep by your bedside...

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Bit disappointing April 11, 2008

By Vijay K. Gurbani

Format:Hardcover

In Arabian Nights: A caravan of Moroccan dreams, Tahir Shah - Mr. Shah continues from where he left off at The Caliph's House: A year in Casablanca ... and the result is as uneven as that book was. The plague that haunted Mr. Shah in Caliph's House strikes here as well: untied loose ends, veering off an account just as when it was becoming interesting, etc. The book is a journey about a story -- every person has a story that is close to his or her heart. Finding that story is the hard part. Mr. Shah does indeed find the story, but guess what? The reader has no idea what it was! One aspect that struck me -- put me off, really -- was the almost feverent view of the author that anything to do with the Oriental culture is far more superior to the Occidental one. Thus we are treated to many reasons why Oriental culture is better -- some that I can still recall are depths of friendship; the treatment of guests; deep in-depth knowledge of things, not the superficial "expert" label that everyone sports in the west; strict adherence to principles, etc. -- all things that the west can (and should) readily learn from the east. Brushed aside almost indifferently are the instances where the east can learn from the west: things like not marrying off young girls to old men, or learning to go to the police if oppressed. The one sided romantic view of Mr. Shah was almost too much to take, more so since it appears that his only mode of income was coming from the west through the sale of his book! Mr. Shah can be a great writer -- his earlier work, Sorcerer's Apprentice was simply marvelous. Chances are that I will still read his next novel, but this one was a bit disappointing. (March 2008).