Dimensions
129 x 198 x 33mm
A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium.
William Dalrymple is a travel writer with an ear for conversation and in this book he offers a rich stew of history and travel narrative spiced with anecdote and opinion. He travels the Silk Route of ancient Byzantium through the present-day Middle East tracing the AD 578 journey of John Moschos, the great Byzantine monk, traveller and oral historian. His aim is to uncover the human archaeology of Eastern Christianity. In doing so, he paints wonderful sketches of twentieth-century landscape bedevilled by the conflicts of the past as he presents the case of the Middle East's downtrodden Christians.
While leavened with Dalrymple's characteristic jauntiness and humour, this book is also profoundly shocking. With terrorists, devil-worshippers and nights spent in monastery cells, he didn't have to search out troubles during his intrepid five-month trek through the Levant. He now bears witness to the final flourish of defunct Christian monasteries and sects of the Middle East, while also managing to recreate the world Moschos knew.
Energetic, thoughtful, curious and courageous, his threnody for Eastern Christianity ranks with the great modern travel books. Included are 12 pages of black and white photographs, and 4 pages of full colour photographs.
