'In Xanadu' A Quest

WOB

 

At last!  One of the many books toppling over and crushing passers-by has been finished. This took a while as I just could not fit it in with my busy schedule...

In 1271 Marco Polo, along with his father and uncle set out on an expedition to Xanadu and Kublai Khan.  His father and brother had been there already, as mercantile traders they had worked their way across Asia and China, lands for the most part unknown in Europe.  They returned with messages for the Pope, as the Mongols had by this time a form of religion and such diplomatic communication was advisable to prevent war. 

William Dalrymple, a young Scot studying at Cambridge, for reasons of his own decided, accompanied by a thrusting, domineering young female, to follow the old 'Silk Road' and retrace the journey.  This book follows his efforts from Jerusalem to Xanadu and the details of the travels therein.

The journey during 1986 includes adventures in Iran, Pakistan, and misses out Afghanistan as the Russians had sealed the border with layers of landmines which even the Afghans could not cross.  Into Communist China and with 'help' from the security forces to their destination, the crumbled, flattened remains of the Khans Summer palace, where there was not much left to be seen.

Some of the travel was via bus, lorry, even Chinese army truck, and the manner in which the author claims to have avoided the security forces is often hard to accept.  His attitude throughout is not uncommon among certain types of well educated Scotmen.  

The book describes the History, architecture, climate, surroundings and people of the places passed through.  It is interesting to note great differences at the time between people often living close ot one another yet so different in their culture.  Islam dominant in one form or another except in Communist China where among other things the clocks are all based on Peking time, three hours different from some areas far distant.

In one sense the book is 40 years out of date, in another it captures the 'feel' of the time.  I suspect economic growth and the creation of concrete dwellings approached along vast motorways now predominates where camels and donkeys once shared the potholed rough tracks with the ageing lorries and buses.  However, I wonder have cultural attitudes changed much in the distant regions in that time, wealth creation or not?

I quite enjoyed the book, written when the author was 22.  His travelling companion left half way through in Delhi to meet her boyfriend and another was found to finish the trip with him.  I can understand how he finds women so easily...

The book is worth a read, and an insight into far flung past ages.

 

From the holy Mountain.

Well that didn't take long.
454 pages that raced along easily.  At first I could not put it down.
Beginning in Greece, passing through Turkey, Kurdistan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the deserts of Egypt, William takes us on a fascinating journey around the Middle East of 1994.  The fascinating thing is that many of the changes he saw beginning are well under way, others still to come.  I would like to read a follow up but wars and rumours of wars would,not allow that.

The story begins with a book written by a Byzantine monk who travelled around the area attempting to visit the monasteries which he felt were under threat, those remaining still are.  John Moschos, an ageing monk travelled with a companion, Sophronius, walking of course, no taxi's in those days, through troubled lands and many dangers.  
The one clear message from the book is that the area involved has always been a dangerous place to visit.  When the two travelling companions set out in 578 AD the land was in danger from the Persians in the east.  They spread themselves over the are soon to be replaced by the new religion of Islam which swiftly conquered the entire area and seen looked to enter Spain.  When you consider Mohamed died in 632 AD, the Arab tribes were then united within two years yet by 641 AD they had taken the whole of what s now Iraq and Syria and entered Alexandria, one of the great cities of the Mediterranean.  Pushing aside both Persian and Byzantine's they were not long in taking the great city Constantinople also.  Life for a monk, bad enough with nomadic raiders and bandits in the isolated places they chose, was not enhanced by the wars around them.
Christianity is seen in many forms in this book.  The author claims to be a Catholic, but nothing about biblical theology.  He is following Byzantine Greeks on his journey and comes across a wide variety of those.  Some use Aramaic in their chants, a language used by Jesus and while in a modern form this sound may go back five thousand years!  
William finds problems between Catholic and Orthodox, both of whom reject Protestants, both are oppressed by Muslims, although this is often more about politics than religion.  In some cases during the Lebanese war Christians lived among Muslims as they considered this safer, and friendlier, than living among Maronites!  In that was life appears to hold little value for either side yet instances of humanity glow in various forms.
It has been ever thus in the area.
Armenian's were slaughtered by the Turks, who themselves had only entered Turkey 400 years before, they were also rejected in 1922 by the Soviets, the Kurds meanwhile, fighting with, or against, the Turks, used them also.  Today Christians are caught similarly in Syria, in 1994 possibly the safest nation in the Middle East for Christians of all sorts.   
Christians get a bead time in Israel also, though the media ignore this.  Palestinian Christians suffer as the Muslims don't trust them, Israel wishes to remove all Christian traits and have a Jewish state, but with money from visitors to 'Holy' places.  Most Byzantine relics have however been swept away!  
Egypt offered problems in the distant past for the monks and hermits who streamed out of the cities.  Political and religious differences, and I suggest no little seeking after both salvation and  a wee bit of fame possibly, drove many to become hermits, while living close to one another.  A form of monastery which has spread by 700 AD to Ireland and Scotland long before Augustine got to Canterbury.
Constantly the author is found in a chapel, darkness reigns bar the flickering candle light or oil lamps glowing in the dark.  Hooded monks chant for hours, even Vespers, the evening service when outside the light still shines brightly is a dark event.  The hours of prayer pass slowly, chanting the works in ancient languages, some newer ones among those a thousand years old.  In dangerous places often only a handful of monks exist, probably long gone now, elsewhere young men have begun to seek this life.  Saints are worshipped, healing's they claim occur, healing's often sought by local Muslims who come, are given a prayer, some token to take with them, then healing's, or babies are said to result.  To me much is superstition, no theology is offered, no doctrines, just teachings which need better scrutiny than in found in this book and yet God is kind.  He hears all people, does he actually respond even though the theology is poor?
Much of this I found a wrong view of Christianity, a form growing up after Constantine took the throne, but not dating back to new testament days.  Too many ecclesiastical layers have been added to a simpler original.  However there is something interesting within.  This book will not be the answer to life's problems but will take us through the land swiftly, with humour and insight.  History is found here, much opened up for us, and while many of the authors views may be argued against I would recommend this book, especially if you look at the Middle East today.  The area has always been one of conflict, it shall be this way for ever.

    

Sloth, Boris and the Middle East

Thursday and nothing has been done.
Sloth has impaled me.  
Reading William Dalrymple has not helped.  I picked the book up and am a quarter of the way through already!  That includes searching online for pictures of the places he passes through.
The enfeebled parliament has not helped.
With the shouting matches only beginning most has passed me by.  Indeed, as we know what they are saying there is little point in listening.  
I awoke today to my MP obfuscating on the 'Today' programme.  Nick Robinson, a well known Tory, could not get him to admit offering a false impression of an interview of a competitor online was wrong, could get no apology, and could not get a straight answer.  My MP then went to SKY and refused to appear.  Kate Burley then apparently asked an empty chair the questions he would not answer.  She got similar replies to Nick.  My MP stood by 15 feet away but would not appear.  
Add to this a 'row,' possibly encouraged by the devious advisor Dominic Cummings, caused by refusing to publish a report every legitimate authority says ought to be published, has been unwise. The report may well indicate Russian interference in elections, possible payments to the British Conservative Party or may just be another distraction from all the other corruption we are all so used to. 
Meanwhile, Farage, the rabble rouser with no purpose, screams loudly in the background.  Possibly he is afraid Brexit might happen, then how will he earn money for doing nothing?

This book was written after the writer travelled around the middle east in 1994.  In some ways it becomes dated by this but in others it lets us into the area today as it has not really changed much for four or five thousand years, just the names, tribes and religious beliefs changed.
The Turks and the Armenian's love one another just as much today as they have done in the past, at least those that live.  Islamic groups shoot and kill just as efficiently as the PKK in Kurdish areas.  The army or police take bribes and assault with ease and little fear of reprisal.  
I suspect it is similar today. 
Only a quarter of the book so far and now heading into Syria.  
I bet he would not go there today!