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Tahir Shah’s Timbuctoo has arrived with eerie, serendipitous, timing. In the months leading up to its publication, a coup d’etat and ensuing power vacuum in the West African nation of Mali has resulted in extremists taking over the country’s north…
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How anyone could know where to drive off a flat desert highway without the benefit of landmarks or a GPS, to find a little known fortress that is poorly depicted on maps and hidden in a wilderness of rock, was…
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In Kurdish eastern Turkey, until recently the scene of a protracted guerrilla war, calm, hospitality and peace are becoming the norm.
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Approach any border crossing—those gateways along imaginary and often arbitrary lines—and chances are, even in the best of times, you’ll be met with a certain dose of concern. But when that portal lies smack in the middle of the most…
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“So, this is your first time with us!” exclaimed Abdulrahman al-Anesi with a dose of laughter and feigned surprise. “May Allah bring you back again and again!” Al-Anesi, my airport pickup, whose jewel-bedecked jambaya dagger sat at his midsection like…
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