The author describes the last rites of Christendom in a journey
through its beleaguered outposts in the Middle East. He follows in
the footsteps of John Moschos, a monk who in AD615 wrote about his
travels in the Byzantine world at a time when the empire was being
assailed from all sides. Dalrymple, too, had his fair share of
run-ins with a rogues' gallery, from Turkish secret policemen to
lighter moments, including a wonderful description of the
'inexhaustible lewd and lustful' Empress Theodora in
Constantinople. (Kirkus UK)
A rich blend of history and spirituality, adventure and politics,
laced with the thread of black comedy familiar to readers of
William Dalrymple's previous work. In AD 587, two monks, John
Moschos and Sophronius the Sophist, embarked on an extraordinary
journey across the Byzantine world, from the shores of the
Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. Their aim: to collect the
wisdom of the sages and mystics of the Byzantine East before their
fragile world shattered under the eruption of Islam. Almost 1500
years later, using the writings of John Moschos as his guide,
William Dalrymple set off to retrace their footsteps. Taking in a
civil war in Turkey, the ruins of Beirut, the tensions of the West
Bank and a fundamentalist uprising in Egypt, William Dalrymple's
account is a stirring elegy to the dying civilisation of Eastern
Christianity.
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