Synopses & Reviews
An Explorers Club Book
Classic tales of Westerners who crossed behind the veil
More than a century before the recent conflicts with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Islamic insurgents, an international crisis ignited between the United States and the Middle East. In May 1904, Moroccan warlord Mulai Ahmed el Raisuni kidnapped Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American resident of Tangier, in an attempt to extort money from the Sultan of Morocco. President Theodore Roosevelt responded by dispatching a squadron of seven battleships to the Moroccan coast with the order: Perdicaris alive or Raisuni dead. The nine-week standoff between U.S. troops and Raisuni exposed the impotence of emerging American power and revealed a critical misunderstanding about Moroccan politics. When it was discovered that Perdicaris was not an American citizen after all, the U.S. government kept the embarrassing episode a secret until 1933. Profiting royally from the conflict, Raisuni built his palace, the "House of Tears," soon after.
In this page-turning blend of compelling adventure and travel narrative, historian John Hughes reintroduces this and other vintage tales of Westerners who traveled to Islamic lands. Here we witness Englishman Thomas Pellow's rise from slave of a homicidal sultan- a man who kept the ears of his victims as
trophies-to commander of the Moroccan army in the 1700s. A century later, London Times correspondent and professional adventurer Walter B. Harris risks his life by entering the holy city of Chefchouaen, Morocco, in disguise. In his account of Constantinople in 1916, John Reed describes an empire teetering on the brink of collapse. And who could forget Lowell Thomas's legendary account of the man who would become known as "Lawrence of Arabia"? Woven throughout these stories is the collaboration between Muslims and Westerners as together they faced perilous journeys across deserts, mountain passes, and into forbidden cities.
House of Tears is a treasury of the most exciting and revealing narratives ever published about the Islamic world from the last several decades. Not only is this Explorers Club Book a fine compendium of true adventure stories, but it is also a collection that celebrates the fine nuances of cultural encounters, in times of peace as well as conflict.
Review
Named one of the top 10 adventure books of 2005 by
Men's Journal"This supremely timely treasury packs blockbuster firsthand accounts by adventurers, kidnapped slaves, explorers and spies--including marquee names like Sir Richard Burton and Mark Twain--of getting their first dry taste of some of the world's most insular Islamic cultures." --Men's Journal
"In this book you will be introduced to individuals whose courage and curiosity opened new channels of understanding across seemingly insurmountable cultural barriers. . . . This is
a fascinating journey." --Milbry Polk, author of Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World
"Each [excerpt] in its way provides a valuable historical snippet for those hoping to learn more about the history of Islamic Lands." --Booklist
A fascinating and valuable introduction to its subjects
”--Statesman Journal
About the Author
Dr. John Hughes was educated in Canada and the United Kingdom. He has written about British history and has taught European history in the United States and Canada. He is currently on the faculty at St. George's School in Vancouver, Canada.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: The Sultan's English Renegade
(from The Adventures of Thomas Pellow by Thomas Pellow, 1740)
Chapter Two: Timbuktu and Back
(from Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa by Heinrich Barth, 1866)
Chapter Three: Looking for the Perfect Arabian
(from The Bedouins of the Euphrates by Lady Anne Blunt, 1879)
Chapter Four: Through Deserts, Oases, and Mountains
(from Through Persia on Side Saddle, 1897, and Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia, 1920, by Ella Sykes)
Chapter Five: Bicycling to Marrakech
(from Life in Morocco by Budgget Meakin, 1905)
Chapter Six: Perdicaris Alive or Raisuni Dead
(from The Hand of Fate by Ion Perdicaris, 1921)
Chapter Seven: Rafting Through Iraq
(from My Journey Down the Tigris by Samuel Guyer, 1925)
Chapter Eight: Thin Air Islam
(from Across the Roof of the World by P. T. Etherton, 1911)
Chapter Nine: The English Doctor
(from Adventures in Tripoli by Ernest Griffin, 1924)
Chapter Ten: Twilight in Istanbul
(from The War in the East by John Reed, 1916)
Chapter Eleven: Selling T. E. Lawrence
(from With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas, 1924)
Chapter Twelve: Soldier of Fortune
(from Memoirs of a Soldier of Fortune by Rafael Nogales, 1932)
Chapter Thirteen: Bartels' War
(from Fighting the French in Morocco by Albert Bartels, 1931)
Chapter Fourteen: Rawlinson and His Machine Guns
(from Adventures in the Near East by A. Rawlinson, 1924)
Chapter Fifteen: The Last Oasis
(from Secret of the Sahara by Rosita Forbes, 1921)
Chapter Sixteen: Captive
(from In the Hands of the Arabs by Zetton Buchanan, 1921)
Chapter Seventeen: Desert Raid
(from Adventures in Arabia by W. B. Seabrook, 1928)
Chapter Eighteen: The Bean
(from Express to Hindustan by M. H. Ellis, 1929)
Chapter Nineteen: Crossing Islam by Half Truck
(from Black Journey by George Marie Haardt, 1928, and An Eastern Odyssey by George Lefevre, 1935)
Chapter Twenty: Confessions of a Hashish Smoker
(from Red Sea Night by William Makin, 1933)
Chapter Twenty-One: Baghdad Again
(from Dust in the Lion's Paw by Freya Stark, 1961)
Conclusion