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Empire's Son, Empire's Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah
A rollicking story of two literary fabulists who revealed the West’s obsession with a fabricated, exotic East. Claiming to come from Afghanistan, Ikbal and Idries Shah convinced spies, poets, orientalists, diplomats, occultists, hippies, and even a prime minister that they held the keys to understanding the Muslim world. Gambling with the currency of cultural authenticity, father and son became master players of the great game of empire and its aftermath as their careers extended from colonial India and wartime Oxford to swinging London and literary New York. Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan unravels a quagmire of aliases and pseudonyms, fantastical pasts and self-aggrandizing anecdotes, high stakes and bold schemes that painted the defining portrait of Afghanistan for almost a century. From George Orwell directing Muslim propaganda to Robert Graves translating a fake manuscript of Omar Khayyam and Doris Lessing supporting jihad, Nile Green tells the fascinating tale of how the world was beguiled by the dream of an Afghan Shangri-La that never existed.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 2, 2024
About the author
Nile Green
20 books27 followersNile Green is Professor of History at UCLA, with an interest in the multiple globalizations of Islam and Muslims. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018.
In pursuit of the patterns of both global and local Islams, he has traveled and researched in India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Chinese Central Asia, the Caucasus, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
His seven monographs, seven edited books, and over seventy articles have traced Muslim networks that connect South and Central Asia with the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and the United States. His most recent book, The Love of Strangers: What Six Muslim Students Learned in Jane Austen’s London, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as Editors’ Choice. An earlier book, Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, received both the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Award and the Association for Asian Studies’ Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Award. His other books include Terrains of Exchange: Religious Economies of Global Islam; Sufism: A Global History; and, as co-editor, Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print, 1850-1930.
He served for eight years as founding director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia, as well as on various editorial and advisory boards, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He has held several visiting positions, such as at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and fellowships, including the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. Before moving to the United States from his native Britain, he was Milburn Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University. He holds degrees from London and Cambridge.
In pursuit of the patterns of both global and local Islams, he has traveled and researched in India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Chinese Central Asia, the Caucasus, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
His seven monographs, seven edited books, and over seventy articles have traced Muslim networks that connect South and Central Asia with the Middle East, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and the United States. His most recent book, The Love of Strangers: What Six Muslim Students Learned in Jane Austen’s London, was selected by the New York Times Book Review as Editors’ Choice. An earlier book, Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, received both the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Award and the Association for Asian Studies’ Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Award. His other books include Terrains of Exchange: Religious Economies of Global Islam; Sufism: A Global History; and, as co-editor, Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print, 1850-1930.
He served for eight years as founding director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia, as well as on various editorial and advisory boards, including the International Journal of Middle East Studies. He has held several visiting positions, such as at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and fellowships, including the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs. Before moving to the United States from his native Britain, he was Milburn Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University. He holds degrees from London and Cambridge.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 3, 2024
What a fascinating book with a well-researched premise about the Shah family and its legacy on diplomacy, politics, religion and the self-help movement. The book is about the life and career of Ibal (the father) and his two sons, Idries and Omar, who helped build a new narrative about India, Afghanistan, and the Muslim/Sufi world. It is amazing to read that so many people were drawn into their web and how their influence was promoted for so many years. Their narrative sounded plausible, but was it really, and the web these people spun is the basis of the book.
It is hard to write a review without giving away the premise of the book, so I want you to read it and see for yourself. I very much enjoyed reading the book, but wish it gave more backstory into Idries’s life, and if he had children and how they viewed their family’s legacy given the evidence. Did his wife have any idea how he conducted his life? I have many questions, but would have to do more research myself.
I think the book is very timely as we get to see how people can believe a narrative that is false if it is pushed with conviction and presented as real.
It is hard to write a review without giving away the premise of the book, so I want you to read it and see for yourself. I very much enjoyed reading the book, but wish it gave more backstory into Idries’s life, and if he had children and how they viewed their family’s legacy given the evidence. Did his wife have any idea how he conducted his life? I have many questions, but would have to do more research myself.
I think the book is very timely as we get to see how people can believe a narrative that is false if it is pushed with conviction and presented as real.
April 7, 2024
What a fascinating book with a well-researched premise about the Shah family and its legacy on diplomacy, politics, religion and the self-help movement. The book is about the life and career of Ibal (the father) and his two sons, Idries and Omar, who helped build a new narrative about India, Afghanistan, and the Muslim/Sufi world. It is amazing to read that so many people were drawn into their web and how their influence was promoted for so many years. Their narrative sounded plausible, but was it really?, and the web these people spun is the basis of the book.
It is hard to write a review without giving away the premise of the book, so I want you to read it and see for yourself. I very much enjoyed reading the book, but wish it gave more backstory into Idries’s life, and if he had children and how they viewed their family’s legacy given the evidence. Did his wife have any idea how he conducted his life? I have many questions, but would have to do more research myself.
I think the book is very timely as we get to see how people can believe a narrative that is false if it is pushed with conviction and presented as real.
It is hard to write a review without giving away the premise of the book, so I want you to read it and see for yourself. I very much enjoyed reading the book, but wish it gave more backstory into Idries’s life, and if he had children and how they viewed their family’s legacy given the evidence. Did his wife have any idea how he conducted his life? I have many questions, but would have to do more research myself.
I think the book is very timely as we get to see how people can believe a narrative that is false if it is pushed with conviction and presented as real.
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May 15, 2024I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. It is an advance reading copy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews