Tahir Shah

Infobox Writer
name = Tahir Shah


imagesize = 200px
caption = Tahir Shah with a Shaman's skull, Peruvian Highlands
pseudonym =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1966|11|16|mf=y
birthplace = London, England, United Kingdom
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Writer, documentary maker
nationality =
period =
genre =
subject = Travel, exploration, Arab World, cross-cultural studies
movement =
spouse = Rachana Shah
partner =
children = 2
relatives = Saira Shah, Idries Shah, Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, Nawab Amjad Ali Shah, Jan Fishan Khan
influences = Travel writers Heinrich Barth, Samuel White Baker, Sir Wilfred Thesiger, Norman Lewis, Bruce Chatwin, Fitroy Maclean.
website = http://www.tahirshah.com

Tahir Shah (born 16 November 1966 in London) is an Anglo-Afghan author, journalist and documentary maker.

Family origins and life

Shah was born into a distinguished family of Saadat (= Arabic plural of Sayyid) who had their ancestral home at Paghman, not far from Kabul.cite web
last = Moorhouse
first = Geoffrey
title = From Kent to Kabul
publisher = "New York Times"
date = 2003-10-26
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E7D9173EF935A15753C1A9659C8B63
accessdate = 2008-09-23] Citation
last = Shah
first = Tahir
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = In Arabian Nights
place =
publisher =
year =
volume =
edition =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 9780553805239 ] His paternal great-grandfather, Sayyid Amjad Ali Shah, was the nawab of Sardhana, in the North-Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. [Bashir M. Dervish: "Idris Shah: a contemporary promoter of Islamic Ideas in the West" in: Islamic Culture – an English Quarterly Vol. L, no. 4 October 1976. Published by the Islamic Culture Board, Hyderabad India (Osmania University, Hyderabad)] The principality was awarded to his ancestor Jan Fishan Khan during the British Raj, and had been ruled formerly by the Kashmiri-born warrior-princess, the Begum Samru.Citation
last = Shah
first = Saira
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = The Storyteller's Daughter
place = New York, NY
publisher = Anchor Books
year = 2003
volume =
edition =
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 1-4000-3147-8]

Tahir Shah is the son of the well-known Sufi teacher and writer Idries Shah, and the grandson of the writer and diplomat Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah. His elder sister is the award-winning documentary filmmaker Saira Shah. He also has a twin sister, Safia.

Born and brought up in Britain, Shah says he was encouraged from an early age to never follow the pack, and to strive for originality. His father believed strongly that education was about more than school lessons, and was something that continues after childhood throughout one's life. This sense of a quest for knowledge colours all of Shah's work, most notably his travel literature.

Tahir Shah was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset, Englandcite web
last = Owens
first = Mitchell
title = Starting Over in a Caliph's Castle
publisher = "New York Times"
date = 2006-03-30
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/garden/30casablanca.html?pagewanted=print
accessdate = 2008-09-23] and at universities in London, Nairobi and San Diego. He left London for Morocco in 2003. Today, he lives in Casablanca with his wife, Rachana, and their two children, Ariane and Timur, in a large home named Dar Khalifa, set in the middle of a "sprawling shantytown".cite book
last = Shah
first = Tahir
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The Caliph's House. A Year in Casablanca
publisher = Doubleday
date = 2006
location = London, UK
pages = p. 11
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 978 0385 608077]

Shah is a Governor of the Royal Humane Society,Fact|date=September 2008 and a member of London's Athenaeum Club and the Travellers Club.Fact|date=September 2008

Works

Tahir Shah is the author of more than a dozen books and several documentary films. He also writes introductions, academic pieces for journals, and book reviews for newspapers such as the "Washington Post". [cite web
last = Shah
first = Tahir
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Expert's Picks: Travel & Adventure
work =
publisher = "Washington Post"
date = 2006-07-09
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601092.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23]

Shah's books have appeared in a dozen languages and have been published in more than forty editions. His films have been screened on National Geographic Channel, Channel 4, Five and The History Channel, as well as in cinemas worldwide.

Books

Shah's books include (in order of publication):

* "Cultural Research" (editor)
* "The Middle East Bedside Book"
* "Beyond the Devil's Teeth"
* "Sorcerer's Apprentice"
* "Trail of Feathers"
* "In Search of King Solomon's Mines"
* "House of the Tiger King"
* "The Caliph's House"
* "In Arabian Nights"

In "The Middle East Bedside Book" (1991), Shah examines the Arab and Islamic worlds through their literature and folklore.

"Beyond the Devil's Teeth", Shah's first traditional travelogue, published in 1995, is the narrative of an epic journey, made through Africa, India and much of Latin America. The book follows the geological concept of an ancient supercontinent known as Gondwanaland, and links this idea to a primitive aboriginal tribe, known as the Gonds, once dominant in central India.

"Sorcerer's Apprentice" (1998) is an account of Shah's initiation into the world of Indian "Godmen".

"Trail of Feathers" (2000) is an examination into the idea that man may have been able to glide – albeit in the most rudimentary way – in ancient times. Having read in a Spanish manuscript that "the Incas flew over the jungle like birds," Shah set out to see what truth there could have been for a Conquistador monk to have penned such words. After a journey into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, to the world of the Shuar tribe, he concluded that the Incas were taking a powerful hallucinogen known as Ayahuasca that induces a sense of imaginary flight. [cite web
last = Shah
first = Tahir
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = A price on their heads: warring raids and the seizing of human trophy heads were once the raison d'etre of the Shuar people. A fascination with the way that heads were skilfully shrunk to the size of a grapefruit took Tahir Shah on a journey deep into the South American jungle. (Cover Story)
work =
publisher = "Geographical"
date = November 2001
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3120/is_200111/ai_n7780024?tag=content;col1
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23]

Shah's next book, "In Search of King Solomon's Mines" (2002), chronicles a journey to Ethiopia. Obsessed by the location of the source of King Solomon's astonishing wealth since childhood, Shah travelled to Ethiopia, which he equated with the biblical land of Ophir.

"House of the Tiger King" (2004) was the result of a seventeen-week journey through the Madre de Dios jungle of Peru, in search of the lost city of Paititi. The book considers matters such as the importance of searching for a lost city, and finding it. The book was selected to be read on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = The House Of The Tiger King. First broadcast from 20040712 to 20040716. By Tahir Shah. Read by Sam Dastor
work =
publisher = Radiolistings.co.uk
date =
url = http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/house_of_the_tiger_king__the.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23]

Sick of living in a London apartment, Tahir Shah moved to Morocco along with his wife and two infant children, where he bought a crumbling mansion in Casablanca located in the middle of a huge shantytown. "The Caliph's House" charts the highs and lows of integrating into the new life, and exorcising the Djinn from the house they now call home. The book was rated by "Time Magazine" as one of the top ten books of the year.cite web
last = Staff
first =
title = 10 Best
publisher = "Time Magazine"
date = 2006-12-17
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901061225-1570768-1,00.html
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23] It was also selected to be read on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Thursday 4th May 2006
work =
publisher = BBC
date =
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/2006/05/04/day/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23]

His latest title, "In Arabian Nights", examines the role traditional stories play in the transmission of values and information, especially in eastern societies.

Films

The main films presented by Shah include:
* "The Search For King Solomon's Mines"
* "House of the Tiger King"
* "Search For the Lost City of Gold"
* "Search For the Lost Treasure of Afghanistan"

tyle and Influences

Shah's popularity as an author stems partly from his racy, sometimes breathless style (although in more recent books he has developed a more reflective style). His work is characterized by an extraordinary attention to detail and characters, and is regarded as unusually original, a fusion of styles. Shah himself has written about his fascination with the works of Bruce Chatwin, especially his book The Songlines, [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = No particular place to go
work =
publisher = BBC
date = 2007-12-04
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theessay/pip/yxdfr/
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23] as well as with a range of the classic nineteenth century explorers, such as Samuel White Baker, Heinrich Barth and Sir Richard Burton. His close friendship with Wilfred Thesiger (the man he considered a mentor, friend, and source of inspiration [Shah, Tahir, "Beyond the Devil's Teeth", ISBN 0863040292 ] ) certainly comes through in his writing, in terms of his sensitivity to the people he encounters, as well as the theme of people rather than place.

Other projects

In the years before he turned his hand primarily to book writing, Shah wrote a large number of serious reportage-type magazine features, highlighting the lives of the voiceless in society, especially those of women. These included pieces about women on Death Row, widows who cleared mines in Cambodia, the trapped lives of bonded labourers in India, and the women-only police stations in Brazil, known as 'Delegacia'. He continues to write journalistic pieces, especially aimed at drawing attention to causes he believes deserve public attention.

As well as writing and film making, Shah writes screen material and co-wrote Journey to Mecca, [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Journey to Mecca
work =
publisher = Cosmic Picture
date =
url = http://www.cosmicpicture.com/index.php
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-23] an Imax film charting the first journey made by Ibn Battuta to Mecca for the Hajj, in 1325. He also does corporate guest lectures on problem-solving and leadership, and states on his website that he has worked in this capacity for Shell Petroleum and Procter and Gamble. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Leadership
work =
publisher = tahirshah.com
date =
url = http://www.tahirshah.com/Tahir%20Shah%27s%20Site/Leadership.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24] In addition, he reviews for a selection of other media on both sides of the Atlantic, and writes pieces for the radio, such as The Journey, [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Stopover Stories – The Journey
work =
publisher = locatetv.com
date =
url = http://www.locatetv.com/tv/stopover-stories/44182
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24] which was read on BBC Radio 3.

Imprisonment in Pakistan

In July 2005 (a week after the 7 July London bombings) Shah and two colleagues from Caravan Film in London were arrested in Peshawar in Pakistan's NWFP, and held without charge in solitary confinement in a torture prison. Much of the time they were handcuffed, stripped virtually naked, and blindfolded. After sixteen days of interrogations in a "fully equipped torture room," Shah and his colleagues were released. The Pakistani government agreed that they had done nothing wrong. Tahir Shah gave an interview which was screened on British TV's Channel 4 News, and published an article in the British Sunday Times about the ordeal. [cite web
last = Shah
first = Tahir
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Focus: Ordeal of a British Muslim
work =
publisher = "Sunday Times"
date = 2005-08-07
url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1724585,00.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24 ] Shah has publicly maintained his affection for Pakistan, despite the rough treatment he and his film crew received at the hands of the Pakistani secret services. The illegal custody earned Shah and his film crew a mention in Pakistan's report on Human Rights practices for 2005, by the US Department of State. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2005 – Pakistan
work =
publisher = United States Department of State
date =
url = http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61710.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24] The news story came back into the spotlight in July 2008, when a British MP claimed that the British government had 'outsourced' the torture of UK citizens to Pakistani security agencies. [cite web
last = Cobain
first = Ian
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Torture: MPs call for inquiry into MI5 role. New allegations that abuse of Britons was outsourced to Pakistani agencies
work =
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 2008-07-15
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/15/humanrights.civilliberties
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24] [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = MPs urge probe into torture claim
work =
publisher = BBC
date = 2008-07-15
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7508108.stm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24] [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = MPs demand torture investigation
work =
publisher = Whitehall & Westminster World Civil Service Network
date = 2008-07-15
url = http://www.civilservicenetwork.com/news/article.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=46615&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=152&cHash=2f6a0a6c8d
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24]

East-West Bridge

Tahir Shah is also a champion of what he calls "the East-West Bridge". [cite web
last = Staff
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Destination ... anywhere
work =
publisher = "New Zealand Times"
date =
url = http://www.nztimes.co.uk/living.aspx?ID=318
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-09-24 ]

In the aftermath of 9/11, Tahir Shah began to devote a great deal of time and energy into establishing and promoting a "cultural bridge" made up by those who, like him, are both from the East and from the West. One example of this work is the Qantara Foundation (from "qantara" meaning "bridge" in Arabic). He has spoken and written on the idea that people such as he have a responsibility to "show the East to the West, and the West to the East," highlighting the common cultural heritage of the two, and working towards a common goal. Shah's greatest interest within the East-West theme is probably the subject of the legacy of science in medieval Islam, and its role in creating a foundation for the Renaissance. He has lectured publicly on the subject and believes strongly in the importance of drawing attention to the polymath poet-scientists from the Golden Age of Islam.

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.tahirshah.com Official website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1699110/ Tahir Shah in the Internet Movie Database]
* [http://www.caravanfilm.co.uk/html/lost_ta.html Caravan Film]
* [http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/events/lectures.php The Institute for Cultural Research]

Interviews with Shah

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901060327-1174664,00.html Time Magazine]
* [http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/article.php?page_id=90 Wanderlust]
* [http://www.citadine-magazine.com/vie-public/Vie-Public-Detail.php?id=138 Citadine]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2004/11/11/film_sidf_tiger_king_review_feature.shtml BBC Yorkshire]
* [http://www.rolfpotts.com/writers/index.php?writer=Tahir+Shah Rolf Potts]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/excessbaggage/index_20050813.shtml BBC Excess Baggage]
* [http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/features/shahint.html Richmond Review]
* [http://www.lauralee.com/index.cgi?pid=3480 Laura Lee]

Reviews of Shah's books

* [http://www.trashotron.com/agony/reviews/shah-sorcerers_apprentice.htm Review of "Sorcerer's Apprentice"]
* [http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/19373/an-intrepid-travellers-flight-of-fancy.thtml Review of "Trail of Feathers"] in "The Spectator", by Doris Lessing
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5327/is_/ai_n21315420 Review of "In Search of King Solomon's Mines"]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/house-of-the-tiger-king-a-jungle-obsession-by-tahir-shah-554653.html Review of "House of the Tiger King"] in "The Independent"
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19goodheart.html Review of "The Caliph's House"] in the "New York Times"
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/in-arabian-nights-by-tahir-shah-832688.html Review of "In Arabian Nights"] in "The Independent"