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Beyond The Devil's Teeth
''Beyond the Devil's Teeth'' is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah. The text was published in April 1995 by Octagon Press. Overview Forty-five million years ago, Gondwanaland split apart to form India, Africa and South America. Spellbound by the ancient myth of the Gonds who inhabited a fragment of the supercontinent, Tahir Shah decided to follow their path through India and Pakistan, to Uganda and Rwanda, Kenya and Liberia, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for Brazil, and the Patagonian glaciers. Roughing it for most of the journey, Shah shared his travels and his tales with a mix of eccentric and entertaining characters, from Osman and Prideep, Mumbai's answer to Laurel and Hardy, to Oswaldo Rodiguez Oswaldo, a well-turned-out Patagonian. Release ''Beyond the Devil's Teeth'' was Shah's first mainstream travel book. Although received well by the critics, it is less crafted as his later works, such as ''The Caliph's House'' and ''In Arabian Nights''. In a note on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tahir Shah
Tahir Shah ( fa, طاهر شاه, gu, તાહિર શાહ; ''né'' Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. Family Tahir Shah was born into the '' saadat'' of Paghman, an ancient and respected family hailing from Afghanistan. Bestowed with further lands and ancestral titles by the British Raj during the Great Game, a number of Shah's more recent ancestors were born in the principality of Sardhana, in northern India – which they ruled as Nawabs. His mother, Cynthia Kabraji, was of Zoroastrian Parsi descent and his father was the Indian Sufi teacher and writer Idries Shah. Both his grandfathers were respected literary figures in their own right: Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah on his father's side, and the Indian poet Fredoon Kabraji, on his mother's side. His elder sister is the documentary filmmaker Saira Shah, and his twin sister is the author S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondwana
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving the separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene. Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia, and Siberia were separated from it. To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see ), it is also commonly called Gondwanaland. Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons. Eventually, Gondwana became the largest piece of continental crust of the Palaeozoic Era, covering an area of about , about one-fifth of the Earth's surface. During the Carboniferous Period, it merged with Laurasia to form a larger supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Octagon Press
Octagon Press was a cross-cultural publishing house based in London, UK. It was founded in 1960 by Sufi teacher, Idries Shah to establish the historical and cultural context for his ideas. The company ceased trading in 2014. Description Octagon Press published many of Shah's later works. In addition, the publishing house has produced translations of Sufi classics and titles by other notable authors, focusing on the fields of the humanities, cultural geography, literature, poetry, folklore, psychology, travel and philosophy. Shah used Octagon Press to increase the availability of information on Afghanistan, aware that there would be a need for such information after the country's recent history. Two of his books, ''Darkest England'' (1987) and ''The Natives are Restless'' (1988), "traced affinities between the English and Afghan peoples". For many years Octagon Press sold the academic monographs published by the London Institute for Cultural Research, now sold directly by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Middle East Bedside Book
''The Middle East Bedside Book'' is a collection of stories and information about the Middle East, edited by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah. The book was published in June 1991 by The Octagon Press. Overview ''The Middle East Bedside Book'' contains a treasury of proverbs, etiquette, information and ideas to have come out of the Middle East, and Arab culture. Shah's standing as someone who straddles the East and the West enables him to see both societies in a way that others are unable to observe. Among the material included are teaching stories on the subjects of chivalry at honor, bravery and courage, such as the Tale of Hatim Tai. There is mention, too, that King Offa of Mercia struck a gold dinar (now found in London's British Museum) stating in Arabic the epithet, 'There is no god but Allah'. The collection also shows that Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante and others drew upon Arab sources in their work. Reception Talking about both Tahir Shah's ''The Middle East Bedside Book'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sorcerer's Apprentice (travel Book)
''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah. Synopsis The book is Shah's account of his travels throughout India and his meeting with godmen, sadhus, and street sorcerers. He had embarked on the trip to locate an Indian Illusionist who he had met as a boy in rural England and from whom he had learned magic tricks. The illusionist had been assigned as a guardian to Shah's great-grandfather's tomb. On his trip, he met a variety of such characters, many of whom run confidence trick A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers ha ...s and had ingenious scams. Reviews Review of ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and other Shah bookson Mondo Ernesto Review from April 15, 2001on Kirkus Reviews Review of ''Sorcerer's Apprentice''on All About India Review of ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondwanaland
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving the separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene. Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia, and Siberia were separated from it. To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see ), it is also commonly called Gondwanaland. Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons. Eventually, Gondwana became the largest piece of continental crust of the Palaeozoic Era, covering an area of about , about one-fifth of the Earth's surface. During the Carboniferous Period, it merged with Laurasia to form a larger supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana (and Panga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gonds
The Gondi (Gōndi) or Gond or Koitur are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group. They are one of the largest tribal groups in India. They are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. They are listed as a Scheduled Tribe for the purpose of India's system of reservation. The Gond have formed many kingdoms of historical significance. A Dravidian language, Gondi is claimed to be related to the Telugu. The 2011 Census of India recorded about 2.98 million Gondi-speakers. They are concentrated in southeastern Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, southern Chhattisgarh and northern Telangana. Many Gonds, however, speak later regionally-dominant languages like Hindi, Marathi, Odia and Telugu. According to the 1971 census, their population was 5.01 million. By the 1991 census, this had increased to 9.3 million and by the 2001 census the figure was nearly 11 million. For the past few decades, they h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel And Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to " talkies". From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully. Their signature theme song, known as "The Cuckoo Song", "Ku-Ku", or "The Dance of the Cuckoos" (by Hollywood composer T. Marvin Hatley) was heard over their films' opening credits, and became as emblematic of them as their bowler hats. Prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established film careers. Laurel had acted in over 50 films, and worked as a writer and director, while Hardy was in more than 250 productions. Both had appeared in '' The Lucky Dog'' (1921), but were not teamed at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Caliph's House
''The Caliph's House'' is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah. Overview Unwilling to raise his two infant children in England, Tahir Shah drags them and his Indian-born wife to Morocco, where he traveled as a child. It was there that his grandfather, the savant Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, passed the last decade of his life (he moved to Tangier after his wife died in 1960, declaring that he would go to a land where he had never been together). Shah's father was equally obsessed with Morocco, largely it seems because it reminded him of his native Afghanistan, in terms of the culture, climate and geography. Arriving in 2004, Shah and his family move into a Jinn-filled mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The house, named Dar Khalifa, (which translated as 'The Caliph's House), describes in detail the highs and lows of the relocation to what was essentially an unfamiliar country. The house came equipped with three hereditary guardians, who control every face ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In Arabian Nights
''In Arabian Nights'' (subtitled ''A caravan of Moroccan dreams'') is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author Tahir Shah illustrated by Laetitia Bermejo. which takes up where his previous book ''The Caliph's House'' leaves off, recounting, among much else, events at Dar Khalifa, the Caliph's House, in Casablanca where the Shah family have taken up residence. Summary Shah frequents the Café Mabrook, which becomes for him the "gateway into the clandestine world of Moroccan men" and is told "if you really want to get to know us, then root out the raconteurs". He also hears of the Berber tradition that each person searches for the story within their heart. Events at home are interwoven with Shah's journeys across Morocco, and he sees how the Kingdom of Morocco has a substratum of oral tradition that is almost unchanged in a thousand years, a culture in which tales, as well as entertaining, are a matrix through which values, ideas and information are transmitted. Shah listens to anyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weidenfeld And Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld and Nigel Nicolson founded Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1949 with a reception at Brown's Hotel, London. Among many other significant books, it published Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita'' (1959) and Nicolson's '' Portrait of a Marriage'' (1973), a frank biography of his mother Vita Sackville-West and father Harold Nicolson. In its early years Weidenfeld also published nonfiction works by Isaiah Berlin, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and Rose Macaulay, and novels by Mary McCarthy and Saul Bellow. Later it published titles by world leaders and historians, along with contemporary fiction and glossy illustrated books. Weidenfeld & Nicolson acquired the publisher Arthur Baker Ltd in 1959, and ran it as an imprint into the 1990s. Weidenfeld was one of Orion's fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1997 Non-fiction Books
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of the most observed comets of the 20th century; Golden Bauhinia Square, where sovereignty of Hong Kong is handed over from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China; the 1997 Central European flood kills 114 people in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany; Korean Air Flight 801 crashes during heavy rain on Guam, killing 229; Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner land on Mars; flowers left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Titanic (1997 film) rect 200 0 400 200 Harry Potter rect 400 0 600 200 Comet Hale-Bopp rect 0 200 300 400 Death of Diana, Princess of Wales rect 300 200 600 400 Handover of Hong Kong rect 0 400 200 600 Mars Pat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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