Tahir Shah's collection of three essays considers aspects of human society and culture that help us to understand both the world around us and ourselves. An extraordinary thought-provoking essay, CANNIBALISM: IT’S ONLY MEAT is certain to horrify a great many readers, and will leave all who reach the end with a sense of revelation at what is the last taboo. THE KUMBH MELA: GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH considers why so many people stake so much to get to the Kumbh Mela in India, and pledge devotion. He considers the logistical triumph of the vast makeshift tent city, speaks to sadhus, gurus, and to plenty of ordinary folk, and reflects on the role of the Kumbh Mela in the modern world. In his fascinating essay THE LEGACY OF ARAB SCIENCE, Shah discusses the often-forgotten contribution of the Arabs of the Abbasid Age, reflecting on how their breakthroughs helped shape the world in which we live. The three essays range in length from just under 5,000 words to over 6,700 each.
Author
Tahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up. Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin. Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire. After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published. In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House. In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing. www.tahirshah.com www.twitter.com/humanstew www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999 www.pinterest.com/tahirshah
