Tahir Shah

Tahir Shah (Persian: طاهر شاه, Gujarati: 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 t...

Tahir Shah (Persian: طاهر شاه, Gujarati: 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 Safia Nafisa Shah. Numerous other members of Shah's family have been successful authors, including his aunt Amina Shah, and his Scottish grandmother Elizabeth Louise MacKenzie. Shah is descended from the Afghan warlord and statesman Jan Fishan Khan. In 1995 Shah married the India-born graphic designer, Rachana Shah (née Devidayal), with whom he has two children – Ariane Shah and Timur Shah. The marriage ended in 2017, although the two remain close friends. Childhood Shah was born in London and brought up largely in the county of Kent, where his family lived at Langton House, a Georgian mansion in the village of Langton Green near Royal Tunbridge Wells. The property had been owned previously by the family of Robert, Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout Movement. Shah has described how, as a child, he played in the woods which are said to have first interested Baden-Powell in the outdoors. Shah's father, the writer and thinker Idries Shah, surrounded himself with a diverse coterie of people, most of whom were interested in his published work. They included Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing, poet Robert Graves, American novelists J. D. Salinger and Lisa Alther, psychologist Robert E. Ornstein, as well as the pioneer of radar "Coppy" Laws, the garden designer Russell Page, and the actor Walter Gotell. Shah maintains that much of his education derived from spending time with such a varied group of people. His first appearance on television was in the 1972 BBC documentary about his father, Dream Walkers: One Pair of Eyes, in which Shah, his sisters, and their friends, are seen listening to Idries Shah tell the tale of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water. Shah has described how his Latin tutor appeared at the front door "white as a sheet", at having spotted the renowned classicist Robert Graves digging a ditch at the front of Langton House; and how Doris Lessing encouraged him to read folktales and, later, encouraged his enthusiasm for travel. During his childhood, Shah and his sisters would be taken to Morocco for extended periods, where his grandfather lived until his death in November 1969. Described in his book The Caliph's House, the journeys introduced Shah to "a realm straight out of The Arabian Nights." Education Tahir Shah attended Rose Hill Preparatory School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. At 13, he was sent to Bryanston School, near Blandford Forum, Dorset. He has written about his inability to keep up, as a result of "profound dyslexia". Aged 17, Shah learnt to fly in Florida, and graduated with an FAA Private Pilot's Licence. He attended university in San Diego, London and Nairobi, where he studied African dictatorships at the United States International University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations in 1987. Writing Tahir Shah is a prolific author of books, documentaries, book introductions, peer reviewed academic articles, and book reviews. Shah's first published book was Cultural Research, written for the London-based Institute for Cultural Research. One of his more notable works is Trail of Feathers, an account of his trip through Peru, Machu Picchu, the Incas and Cusco. Another book, In Search of King Solomon's Mines, searching for undiscovered mines known only in folklore. Other books like In Arabian Nights and Travels with Myself are mostly about the author's journeys through exotic locations. His first traditional travelogue was in 1995 with Beyond the Devil's Teeth, covering a trip through Africa, India and much of Latin America. Shah has written book reviews for The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Spectator, and The Literary Review. As well as writing and film making, Shah writes screen material and co-wrote Journey to Mecca, an IMAX film charting the first journey made by Ibn Battuta to Mecca for the Hajj, in 1325. 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, which was read on BBC Radio 3. 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 da Mulher" (Woman's Police Station). He continues to write journalistic pieces, especially aimed at drawing attention to causes he believes deserve public attention. After publishing several books through traditional publishers, Shah self-published Travels With Myself in 2011 using Lulu.com. He later self-published the limited-edition hardcovers Timbuctoo (2012) and Scorpion Soup (2013). Documentaries Shah has presented several documentaries, all of which have followed the quest theme, which have appeared on National Geographic TV, The History Channel, Channel 4, & Channel 5: The Search for King Solomon's Mines, House of the Tiger King, and Search for the Lost Treasure of Afghanistan. Influences Shah regards family friend Doris Lessing as a key influence, as well as his aunt Amina Shah. Shah himself has written about his fascination with the works of Bruce Chatwin, especially his book The Songlines, as well as with a range of the classic nineteenth century explorers, such as Samuel White Baker, Heinrich Barth and Sir Richard Burton. He had a close friendship with Wilfred Thesiger, whom he considered a mentor and a source of inspiration. Shah's father Idries Shah and English poet Robert Graves were close friends and confidants Tahir Shah and his sister were mentioned in correspondence between and Graves and Spike Milligan had a correspondence. Literary style Shah's style is one of simple prose and overwhelming humour. He has said that his style of using short blocks of text, with a concluding denouement was influenced by Iron & Silk by Mark Salzman, which he first read in 1988; and that he writes with the intention to educate and inform his readers, while at the same time amusing them. In this capacity, one could liken Shah's work to the literary device employed in several books by his father, Idries Shah, who used the wise fool Mulla Nasrudin to illustrate deeper ideas in human understanding. Shah avoids "self-congratulatory" literary festivals, although he had appeared as a speaker at a number of them in the past – including at Hay-on-Wye, Wigtown, Shute, Oxford, Deià, Gibraltar, and Vilnius. He writes on a rigid schedule, keeping to a daily target. At any one time he has ‘between 25 and 25 writing projects in development’. Shah's earlier books fell into the travel literature genre, with more recent work being regarded as straight fiction. Most of Shah's work blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, and Shah himself condemns ‘the way Occidental society draws a rigid line in the sand between one and the other. He champions authors such as Bruce Chatwin and Rory Maclean who have walked a line between the two. Political involvement 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 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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. 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 the United States Department of State's 2005 report on Pakistan's human rights practices. 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 British citizens to Pakistani security agencies. East-West bridge Tahir Shah is also a champion of what he calls "the East-West Bridge". In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, 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. Personal life In 2003, Shah moved to Morocco with his wife Rachana and his two infant children from a small apartment in London's East End, and relocating to a mansion called "Dar Khalifa", said by locals to be haunted by Jinn, "set squarely in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown." The adventure formed the basis for Shah's book The Caliph's House (2006). Shah has written widely about Casablanca, which he has resided in, and Morocco, and is regarded as an expert on both, as well as on India, and a number of other destinations. Works Travels Journey Through Namibia, Camerapix, 1994, ISBN 978-1-874041-23-8 Spectrum Guide to Jordan, Spectrum Guides, 1994, ISBN 978-0-86190-397-9 Beyond the Devil's Teeth, Octagon Press, 1995, ISBN 978-1-85799-980-8 Sorcerer's Apprentice, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, ISBN 978-0-14-028571-0 Trail of Feathers, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001, ISBN 978-0-297-64592-4 In Search of King Solomon's Mines, John Murray, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7195-6324-9 House of the Tiger King, John Murray, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7195-6611-0 The Caliph's House, Doubleday, 2006, ISBN 978-0-385-60807-7 In Arabian Nights, Bantam, 2008, ISBN 9780553805239 Travels With Myself: Collected Work, Mosaique, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4478-0582-3 Novels Timbuctoo, Secretum Mundi, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9572429-0-6 Eye Spy, Secretum Mundi, 2013, ISBN 978-1-291-59817-9 Casablanca Blues, Secretum Mundi, 2013, ISBN 978-1-291-53013-1 Paris Syndrome, Secretum Mundi, 2014, ISBN 978-1-291-73643-4 Hannibal Fogg and the Supreme Secret of Man, Secretum Mundi, 2018, ISBN 978-1-912383-21-4 Jinn Hunter: Book One — The Prism, Secretum Mundi, 2019, ISBN 978-1-912383-28-3 Godman, Secretum Mundi, 2020, ISBN 978-1-912383-53-5 Jinn Hunter: Book Two — The Jinnslayer, Secr