Overview

In literary circles of the mid-twentieth century, father and son, Ikbal and Idries Shah, spread seductive accounts of a mystical Middle East. Pitching themselves as the authentic voice of the Muslim world, they penned travelogues and exotic potboilers alongside weighty tomes on Islam and politics. Above all, father and son told Western readers what they wanted to hear: audacious yarns of eastern adventure and harmless Sufi mystics--myths that, as the century wore on and the Taliban seized power, became increasingly detached from reality. This book follows the Shahs from their origins in colonial India to literary London, wartime Oxford, and counterculture California via the Levant, the League of Nations, and Latin America. Nile Green unravels the conspiracies and pseudonyms, fantastical pasts and self-aggrandizing anecdotes, high stakes and bold schemes that for nearly a century painted the defining portrait of Afghanistan. Ikbal and Idries convinced poets, spies, orientalists, diplomats, occultists, hippies, and even a prime minister that they held the key to understanding the Islamic world. From George Orwell directing Muslim propaganda to Robert Graves translating a fake manuscript of Omar Khayyam and Doris Lessing supporting jihad, Green tells the fascinating tale of how the book world was beguiled by the dream of an Afghan Shangri-La that never existed.

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Nile Green holds the Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at UCLA. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he is recognized as one of the world's leading historians of Islam. He has written numerous books, including How Asia Found Herself: A Story of Intercultural Understanding and Empire's Son, Empire's Orphan. Keval Shah started his voice acting journey in the remote plains of East Africa before moving to the UK. A professionally trained actor with a facility for accents, Keval uses his Indian/British/Ugandan cultural mix to bring diverse performances to his projects. Keval Shah started his voice acting journey in the remote plains of East Africa before moving to the UK. A professionally trained actor with a facility for accents, Keval uses his Indian/British/Ugandan cultural mix to bring diverse performances to his projects.

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