From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East

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From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East

4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 · rating details · 1,096 ratings · 94 reviews

In 587 a.d., two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in an arc across the entire Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. On the way John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their f...more

Paperback, 512 pages

Published March 15th 1999 by Holt Paperbacks (first published 1997)

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Apr 25, 2007 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bestofthebestnon-fiction

The most engrossing and moving travel essay I've ever read. Once you read this, you'll want to read everything else Dalrymple has written.

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Feb 03, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: armchair time travellers, historians and aesthetes

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: Paul Theroux

Shelves: travel-books

Travel is a good thing to do. It broadens your horizons, lets you see all manner of crazy things and frequently allows you to get a tan and wear outlandish clothing which you would under no circumstances wear at home in the midst of your own community ever. The wearing of odd garb and putting together your own eclectic holiday wardrobe is a bit like wearing a disguise. You can meet new people and because of your clothes you can be all "hell yeah, look how alternative/cool/zany/ in-touch-with-the...more Travel is a good thing to do. It broadens your horizons, lets you see all manner of crazy things and frequently allows you to get a tan and wear outlandish clothing which you would under no circumstances wear at home in the midst of your own community ever. The wearing of odd garb and putting together your own eclectic holiday wardrobe is a bit like wearing a disguise. You can meet new people and because of your clothes you can be all "hell yeah, look how alternative/cool/zany/ in-touch-with-the-local-culture I am!!!" This is an easy way to attract new friends and re-invent yourself from the tired grey office-dwelling prole that you normally are in real life.

The seeing and doing of crazy goings on is also a great boon allowing the collection of endless new water-cooler world-savvy anecdotes in preparation for when you shed your shalwar, fez and sherpa saddle bag and return to the tired grey office.

Of course gallumphing around the globe was not always about inadvisable outfits, wine in straw carafes and fake fendi bags. The original holy day travellers were pilgrims, seekers and seers with a much more high minded agenda and their destinations were less Club 18-30 and more 183AD.

In From the Holy Mountain Dalrymple follows the path of the pilgrim John Moschus (ὁ ἐγκρατής The Abstemious) who journeyed from his home in Greece in the 6th Century in order to meet various ascetics and monks in monasteries and cave sites in the Levantine corridor. William Dalrymple follows the path taken by John Moschus, stopping at the same sites and monasteries in order to examine the fate of christianity in the Middle East today. He highlights the fact that, following the creation of Israel, and with the ascendance of Islam as a world religion, people tend to forget that Christianity also began in the Middle East. What he finds are denuded monasteries and small communities hanging by a thread in an environment where they are now very definately in the minority.

This is very different to Moschus' own experience. In his hagiographical text The Spiritual Meadow (sometimes mistranslated as the Spiritual Garden), he provided a detailed insight into the lives and practises of pilgrims, monks, monasteries and hermits living lives of austerity and simplicity which are almost unimaginable now. The two stories are woven together with some skill and William Dalrymple is an excellent and engaging travel writer with an eye for the unusual - perhaps even John Moschus would have found him to be a worthy travelling companion?

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Nov 17, 2007 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in travel, religion, or the Middle East

This is one of the best travelogues that I have read. Following in the footsteps of a late Byzantine Monk Dalrymple gives a fascinating and all too often heartbreaking view of the Middle East from an entirely new perspective -that of the Greek Orthodox Christians who represent the shattered and scattered remnants of the third major monotheistic religion to come out of the Middle East. Ironies abound. The author uses as his basic "tour guide" the mixture of travel account and collected "miracle t...more

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Oct 21, 2007 Nicholas Whyte rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://nhw.livejournal.com/913672.html[return][return]It is a tremendous book. Dalrymple travels through Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, following the seventhy-century travels of John Moschos, looking for the remaining evidence of Christianity in archtitecture, culture and population. It is a terrifically sad book. Many of the communities he visits were dwindling at the time of writing, in 1994; several of them wonder if they will even still be there in ten years...more http://nhw.livejournal.com/913672.html[return][return]It is a tremendous book. Dalrymple travels through Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, following the seventhy-century travels of John Moschos, looking for the remaining evidence of Christianity in archtitecture, culture and population. It is a terrifically sad book. Many of the communities he visits were dwindling at the time of writing, in 1994; several of them wonder if they will even still be there in ten years' time. He is fantastic at capturing the characters he meets, especially among the dwindling Christians: some are stupid, some are bigoted, some are deluded, but all are part of a chain of culture going back two thousand years.[return][return]He is also at pains to stress that Islamic fundamentalism is not really the problem. In south-eastern Turkey, the local Christians are bit-players in the war between the Turkish state and the PKK. In Lebanon, sections of the Christian community have been the authors of their own misfortune. In the Holy Land, Christian Palestinians face the same pressure from Israel as their Muslim neighbours (and do not understand why their co-religionists in the West do not speak up for them). In 1994, Islamic fundamentalists were a big part of the picture only in Egypt.[return][return]Turks and Israelis may well feel that Dalrymple's picture is not balanced. I would agree; but I think it is fair. He is writing here of a particular religious tradition at a particular time, and the systematic destruction of their monuments and erosion of their population base is a big part of the story. Of course there are and have been Christian cities and countries where other religions have been oppressed, but that sort of point-scoring is not relevant to Dalrymple's approach. Instead he is at pains to avoid essentialism; to attribute government policies to government leaders themselves, rather than to their religion or race; and to look for links between the cultures of the region, and for insights into how the past remains present.[return][return]It would be interesting to read a follow-up of what the situation is now for some of these communities. I can't imagine that many of them (except perhaps the Lebanese) have seen much improvement in their lot since 1994. Anyway, this is fascinating stuff. Strongly recommended.(less)

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Dec 18, 2007 Phil rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Josh

Shelves: history

Dalrymple, an award-winning travel writer, explores the remnants of the once large Christian presence in the Near East. Traversing Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, etc. (Now I am writing strictly from memory), his descriptions are often heart-rendering. Since World War I, the lot of Christians has been ever worsening, especially with the rise of militant Islam. I do not recall if he was able to visit Iraq, but in the past five years, things have become intolerable. The ancient Chaldean communities...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Steve Hanson rated it 5 of 5 stars

An interesting look at an aspect of Middle Eastern history that is not discussed much - the history and state of Christianity in the Middle East. The book is loosely structured as a travelogue built around an account of a journey by two monks it the 6th century. Dalrymple sets out to follow their root and compare the churches, monasteries and Christian communities John Moschos and his companion visited 1400 years ago.
Dalrymple's travels and comments bring up a number of interesting points or thr...more An interesting look at an aspect of Middle Eastern history that is not discussed much - the history and state of Christianity in the Middle East. The book is loosely structured as a travelogue built around an account of a journey by two monks it the 6th century. Dalrymple sets out to follow their root and compare the churches, monasteries and Christian communities John Moschos and his companion visited 1400 years ago.
Dalrymple's travels and comments bring up a number of interesting points or threads which he explores in detail. Some of ones that caught my eye were:
1) You get a strong sense of Christianity as essentially a middle eastern religion with historically a very strong presence in the region. This is something ignored by European and American christian churches, as if they wanted to forget its essentially Arabic origins. This also explains the indifference of western churches to the plight of Christian communities in Israel and Egypt (amongst other countries) where governments are working to eliminate Christianity from the country and its history. You can include Turkey in this mix, but there the process of elimination is almost complete (and is strongly tied to ethnic issues also). This indifference also I think points to the narrowness of the various Christian sects and their lack of acceptance of other branches of the faith; perhaps also to the strong historical link between nation states and organized religion.
2) The strong link between Islam and Christianity - there are early orthodox sects that pray in the same way Muslims do, except they also cross themselves while genuflecting.
3) Links between early church liturgy and Arabic/middle eastern culture. The music of some of the Syrian orthodox sects sounds so much like Arabic vocal music - there's lots on Youtube.
4) The fact that Syria has historically been a haven for middle-eastern Christians pushed out of other countries. Unfortunately, due to their strong ties to the Assad family, with the Syrian revolution this may no longer be the case -we could be looking basically the end of Christian communities in the middle east. Especially when you add in the current situation with the Copts in Egypt.
5) Just the simple fact that large parts of the middle east were essentially Christian at one point in time.
6) His travels and encounters in Israel and Jerusalem dovetail perfectly with Ilan Pappé's account of Israel's policies and actions in relation to Palestinians regardless of whether Christian or Muslim. (You can also add Armenians to the list when considering Jerusalem.) Dalrymple in fact reaches many of the same conclusions about the nature of Zionism.
7) Archaeologically, the Muslim take over of Byzantine middle eastern lands does not seem to have created much of an archaeological, cultural or economic break in the historical record. Any cultural and population shifts were very gradual - this was no barbarian horde wreaking havoc as they moved through.
8) The strong relation between Syrian monks/monasteries and the church in England - one of the first Archbishops in Canterbury was Syrian. There also seems to be a link between the illustrated manuscripts produced in Syrian monasteries and the early illumination work of Irish monks (now that's travelling...)

Includes a decent bibliography(less)

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Jun 01, 2012 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great read. The author travels from Greece to remote Egypt taking as his guide John Moschos, author of The Spiritual Meadow, a 6th century A.D. hagiography. Dalrymple charts the state of contemporary Christianity in the Levant, painting a stark picture of persecution, resilience and decline in the communities he visits.

A quote from the final pages: "Christianity is an eastern religion which grew firmly rooted in the intellectual ferment of the Middle East. John Moschos saw that plant beg...more

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May 20, 2012 Chris Little rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fascinating travel log. In 1994, the author, William Dalrymple, travelled the arc of the eastern Mediterranean - Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt - to visit sites significant to Orthodox Christianity.

Dalrymple's constant companion was John Moschos. Moschos proved to be an inspiration, despite dying the the seventh century. Dalrymple's journey, with Moschos' The Spiritual Meadow as a reference, was an attempt to visit many of the places Moschos had journeyed through 1400 ye...more This is a fascinating travel log. In 1994, the author, William Dalrymple, travelled the arc of the eastern Mediterranean - Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt - to visit sites significant to Orthodox Christianity.

Dalrymple's constant companion was John Moschos. Moschos proved to be an inspiration, despite dying the the seventh century. Dalrymple's journey, with Moschos' The Spiritual Meadow as a reference, was an attempt to visit many of the places Moschos had journeyed through 1400 years earlier.

This setting provided many avenues for observation and comment: the nature of eastern Christianity; the rise of Islam; the transition from Byzantine to Ottoman rule; the history of Christian orthodoxy and heresy; the policies of the modern state of Israel; the Lebanese civil war; the nature of monasticism; the intifada; etc.

One thing I most appreciated about this book is that Dalrymple did not try to collapse all his reflections into a single and simplified summary. Instead, each place or person spoke with its own character. In each place there was a different mix of history, politics, religion and belief - and Dalrymple refrains from placing it all in the 'Middle East Blender' to homogenise them into a smooth weirdness.

As someone who knows next to nothing about Christianity eastern and Orthodox (the capital 'O' is important), it was good also to learn a little about this group of denominations. Saying this, however, I was not always convinced by Dalrymple's account of the history of Christian theology. There are times when he seems to accept the model of 'many competing Christianities', in which the New Testament just happened to be victorious. Poor history of theology there, but it's not a major feature of the book.

From the Holy Mountain raised two substantial concerns for me, regarding eastern Christianity.

Firstly, culturally, there are so many threats to the existence of Christians in these areas. Turkey's modern history has squeezed them out, sometimes with violence. (Did you know that 1955 saw Europe's worst race riot since Kristallnacht? It was against the Greeks of Istanbul.) Emigration threatens the existence of Christian communities in Palestine, and also weakens the Coptic Egyptian church. Knowing the current troubles in Syria, Dalrymple's comments are eerily prescient, 'Only in Syria had I seen the Christian population looking happy and confident, and even their future looked decidedly uncertain, with most expecting a major backlash as soon as Asad's repressive minority regime began to crumble.'

Secondly, theologically, I was terribly saddened by the way so many of the Orthodox spoke of knowing God and his blessings - there was no real gospel at all. Saints are called on for magic-like intervention (both now and historically). Self-discipline and extreme renunciation is pictured as the way to deal with sins (both now and historically). And absent is any sense of the complete victory over sin and the devil won by Jesus' death.

For example, we read the words of a monk who lived suspended in a small cage. Why this pain? 'Burdened with many sins, and believing in the penalties that are threatened, I have devised this form of life, contriving moderate punishments for the body in order to reduce the mass of those awaited.' Tragic - when Jesus already declared, 'It is finished!'

Overall, for me this book provided wonderful insight into Byzantine Christianity and its descendants, as well as making me worried about the future of these people groups.(less)

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May 12, 2010 Mpeacock rated it 5 of 5 stars

William Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain" is a splendid travel book. In fact, it's hard to be temperate about it. I don't want to exaggerate, but I really do think that comparisons to Robert Byron's "The Road to Oxiana" or Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia" aren't out of place.

The book is an account of Dalrymple's journey around the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, from Mount Athos through Istanbul through Syria and Lebanon to Jerusalem. His subject is the dying world of Eastern Christiani...more

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May 12, 2013 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, letteratura-inglese, saggio, viaggi

Il libro è il racconto del viaggio fatto dall'autore sulle orme di due frati vissuti 1500 anni fa.
E' un importante testimonianza delle condizioni delle Chiese Cristiane in Medioriente nel passato ed oggi, di quanto sia difficile la convivenza con mussulmani ed ebrei, ma anche di come sia possibile.
C'è nostalgia verso un passato più tollerante nel quale il cristianesimo e l'islam erano due religioni molto più vicine, senza però dimenticare le crudeltà subite da entrambe le parti.
E c'è incertez...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Ozadars rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: interest

I think this book is very informative for Westerns who thinks everyone from Middle East is Usama bin Laden however it is very biased on Christianity. It is true that Christians in Middle East do suffer a lot (perhaps as a result of what Christians in the West are doing). However, I didn't enjoy taking this book with me during my tour around the Middle East because in a travel book I don't think every paragraph shouldn't be about how much do the Christians suffer. It should include the culture, e...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Edward rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dalrymple has written one of those in-the-footsteps-of travel books (ones that come to mind are the retracing of the journey of Lewis and Clark, and Richard Holmes’ FOOTSTEPS in which he follows Robert Louis ‘s journey across France – there are many more). I have one question about the title of the book which apparently originally was FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, IN THE SHADOW OF BYZANTIUM. Why it was changed I have no idea; I prefer the more evocative original title.

Dalrymple, a Scottish scholar, fo...more Dalrymple has written one of those in-the-footsteps-of travel books (ones that come to mind are the retracing of the journey of Lewis and Clark, and Richard Holmes’ FOOTSTEPS in which he follows Robert Louis ‘s journey across France – there are many more). I have one question about the title of the book which apparently originally was FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, IN THE SHADOW OF BYZANTIUM. Why it was changed I have no idea; I prefer the more evocative original title.

Dalrymple, a Scottish scholar, follows the footsteps of John Machos, a 6th century monk who traveled with his pupil, Sophronius, through the regions of Byzantium from what is now Mount Athos in Greece, through Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt. Machos wrote a book of his own, THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW. In the course of his journey, Dalrymple comments on both the Christian Byzantium world of Machos and the present situation in these countries. Dalrymple made his trip in the mid-90’s, but little of what he says is dated, nearly 20 years later.. The world of Byzantium that Machos knew, one that replaced pagan gods with Christian practices , was already beginning to crumble, replaced by the rising forces of Islam. Dalrymple comments, “THE SPIRITUAL MEADOW could be read less as a dead history book than as the prologue to an unfolding tragedy whose final chapter is still being written.”

The “final chapter” I found to be the most interesting. The Middle –East has always been a churning area of conflicting peoples and religions, but for over 1500 years it was relatively peaceful. 19th century nationalism begin to stir the differences between peoples, and as a result today’s Middle East is a violent mix of what separates people. Dalrymple’s common thread among all this is the grim fate of Christians in the area who are a threatened minority.

In Turkey, Christians, many refugees from the slaughter fields of Armenia a century ago, are caught in a crossfire between Turks and Kurds. Their monasteries, churches, and cemeteries are burned and destroyed, and because of this, many Christians have emigrated to the west. Some fled to Syria where as a minority supported by the government, Maronite Christians, have proven to be as ruthless and intolerant as their enemies. Lebanon is another country that includes huge numbers of refugees. Palestinian Christians lamented that their ancestral lands were overrun by Jews who in turn insisted that their ancestral rights were older and trumped any more recent claims, even though Palestinians had been on the land for centuries. In Egypt, Dalrymple finds Christian Coptics, making up twenty per cent of the population, under attack from Muslim fundamentalists. Everywhere it seems the same - “cleansing” (not called that, of course) of minorities, usually Christian,

What’s unique about the book, though, is its attempt to link the present with the past. Dalrymple claims that Islam was deeply indebted to the early Christian world, even to methods of prayer. For example, faces down, rears in the air, he say, s was an early Christian way of worshiping. But differences were more important than similarities which were forgotten. Dayrmple writes, “On my journey in his footsteps, I have seen the very last stalks in the process of being uprooted. It has been a continuous process, lasting nearly one and a half millennia. Moschos saw its beginnings. I have seen the beginning of its end.” Its end? Dalrymple estimates that within several decades there will be virtually no Christians left in the Middle East. Gone will be a healthy diversity, as well as the monasteries which with all of their eccentricities provided the virtues of “gentleness, balance, lack of haste, and clarity of spirit.” Not much of that left in the Middle East.
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Feb 22, 2013 Johanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fabulous - a book that manages to be funny, horrifying and fascinating. If you want to understand why the region is so turbulent then this book goes some way towards that.

It details a five month journey around the Middle East following in the footsteps of the Byzantine monk John Moschos, through the Aegean, the Levant, and the Nile Valley. What is the book reveals are the links and threads that bind the three Abrahamic faiths together yet simultaneously lead them to perpetrate the most horrifyin...more

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Sep 14, 2010 Marty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Written in 1997, but it doesn't seem dated at all. Basically the travels of the author in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt to Byzantine churches, filled with historical data, stories....and political analysis that is pretty much as it still is today....even more so.

As he discusses the status of the Christian communities and their possible total demise, I wonder what the status is now, 13 years later. This is one of the few books that inspires me to google the places referred to see more pho...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Manon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Speaking of academic books I couldn't put down... William Dalrymple's book is so spectacularly written and the subject is so fascinating that I actually forgot I was reading a historical/religious work. Employing the format of a travelogue through time as well as space, Dalrymple explores the past of Christianity in the Middle East, exposing the lives of such fascinating and long-forgotten characters as Simon Stylites and his ascetic friends. The book comes to a rousing crescendo with its broad...more

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May 17, 2009 Diane Ramirez rated it 4 of 5 stars

William Damryple tours the Middle East, seeking Christians in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Israel, and Egypt. He follows the footsteps of John Moschos, a monk who'd done the same thing 1,500 years earlier, at the beginning of what is the unraveling of the Christian presence in the regions, as Damryple says, much like his tour represents the beginning of the end. It took me much longer to read this book than I thought it would, partly because I needed to slow down to appreciate the exactness of beauty...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Peregrino rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

Magnífico libro de viajes, alrededor de Turquía, Siria, Líbano, palestina y Egipto.

El autor, un inglés del 65, cristiano católico, comienza su viaje en el Monte Athos. Primero consigue el permiso para pernoctar allí y poder revisar los manuscritos de un monje del siglo VI, Juan Mosco. Su escrito "El Prado espiritual" le servirá como guía de los viajes que realizó el referido monje por todo Oriente Próximo. El autor lo emula en el siglo XXI, y nos describe la situación de estos territorios, con...more

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Jun 03, 2007 Butrus rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book followed the footsteps of the monk, John Moschos, who traveled the eastern Mediterranean around 600AD. An excellent read.

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Mar 15, 2011 Steve. g rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved it! A fascinating tour written by an erudite and witty guide.
'Nobody but William Dalrymple-and possibly Patrick Leigh Fermor- could have produced so compulsively readable book' says one of the dust cover reviews and i agree.
The book finishes off through the West Bank and then finally through to Egypt, to the very 1st monastry, St Antony's:
"What you say is true,' said Fr.Dioscuros with a smile. 'You can pray anywhere. After all, God is everywhere, so you can find him everywhere.' He gestur...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travelogue, history

This was a book which came to me from two totally disconnected directions; a recommendation from Shovelmonkey but then almost on the back of her gentle nudge I was given a sharp kick in the pants by the bookshelf elf who is evidently steering my reading habits when this was also given to me quite independently as a good book to read in preparation for my, then, upcoming visit to the Holy Land by a priest friend of mine.

In the event, though I began it before heading Middle-east-side, I did not co...more

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Jun 12, 2009 Tijl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book tells the very interesting story of a journey in the footsteps of the sixth century Byzantine monk John Moschus. But instead of looking for archaeological remains of the Byzantine empire, William Dalrymple visits the descendants of the Byzantines: the Christian communities in the middle east. This brings him to 5 very different countries. In some of them Christians are doing reasonably well, in others their situation is very grim. The decline of the Byzantine world began in the days wh...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Dinah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to turn this back to the library before I finished it, but not willingly. It's not a book I would have picked to read, it was a book club pick, but I really did enjoy this book by this man who is so amazingly informed about ancient Christian history. He retraces the steps of a 6th century writer, John Moschos in"The spiritual Meadow" as he travels from his monastery in Egypt, hopping from monastery to monastery through the Holy Land, and the Anatolian plateau to Constantinople. We learn of...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Siddhangana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

William Darymple is a brilliant and sincere author, who puts in a lot of effort to research before he writes a book and that is very evident in From the Holy Mountain.

The book itself is a treasure with great insight into Middle East and Arab. Darymple makes his journey through what was known as the Byzantine empire. Some may think this book to be prejudiced towards religion but this serves as an excellent history and travel book as well.

The amount of knowledge that I have gained about the hist...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Ranjana Gupta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Travelling requires courage, optimism, humour, hardiness and above all, Faith. Dalrymple shows all of this in the book. He begins his journey at Mount Athos in Greece and traverses the once famous Byzantine empire through Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and finally ending it in an Egypt that was still under the helm of the now deplored Mubarak.
The book is a description of Dalrymple's efforts to retrace the path taken by a Christian monk, John Moschos, in 6th-7th century interspersed with...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Natacha P rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: middle-east, christianity

This book may quite possibly be my favorite read on early Christian communities that I've read thus far. Dalrymple's account chronicles his encounters with Christian communities starting from his passage through Greece's Mt. Athos, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Territories and Egypt. His goal? To walk in the footsteps of Orthodox monk John Moschos, albeit 1400 years later. As Moschos witnessed the increasing threats to the Byzantine Empire (Persian, then Arab Islamic invasions,...more This book may quite possibly be my favorite read on early Christian communities that I've read thus far. Dalrymple's account chronicles his encounters with Christian communities starting from his passage through Greece's Mt. Athos, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Territories and Egypt. His goal? To walk in the footsteps of Orthodox monk John Moschos, albeit 1400 years later. As Moschos witnessed the increasing threats to the Byzantine Empire (Persian, then Arab Islamic invasions, as well as plagues and diseases), so does Dalrymple explore and highlight the complex situations of today's Middle Eastern Christians.

There are a few things to note on his account. Despite the apparent contradictions, reading it was heartbreaking, anger-inducing but also hilarious on several occasions. Tears aside, I laughed hysterically for minutes on end, with my favorite moments including the taxi driver at Aleppo (searching for a Syrian Orthodox Cathedral), the man I refer to as the "cat-hunter," and of course those drunken Egyptians in the taxi cab. Despite the 454 pages, I consider this a complete page-turner, so easy it is to read and hard to put down. For those who don't know much about Middle East Christians, I'd say this account covers it quite effectively and would be a great place to start. It's also very useful to read prior to a trip to any/all of the Middle Eastern countries in question due to its substantial historical information.

As sad as it may be to see that the Christian population of the Middle East is steadily declining, it's also true that it has not entirely disappeared. At least not yet (and who knows? Maybe it never will...?!). 17 years ago, when Dalrymple wrote his account, some of his interviewees were estimating that "no one would be left in 15 years." I am delighted to say that this is not so. Surely, no one can deny their declining presence, but perhaps my heart also rejoices at the thought that maybe this unfortunate decline is taking its time, that the little that is left is holding on by everything it's got...
Are Christians deciding to stay no matter what? Is it `betrayal' when/if one chooses to leave and start a life elsewhere? If it was ever an option, would the ones who left ever consider going back? Many are the questions, abounding are the answers.

Depressing aspects aside, one thought lingers steadfastly in my mind: if nothing else, such an account reminds me that some things take much time to disappear, or in fact, never entirely do.(less)

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Jan 25, 2012 Anshul Gaurav rated it 3 of 5 stars

As the name aptly suggests "From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East" is about the author's journey through the Byzantine Middle East in the autumn/winter of 1994. It is about the plight of Christians living in the shadows of the Nationalistic Turkish regime, the Jewish state of Israel, the predominantly Islamic states of Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.
What the name doesn't suggest that the author takes his inspiration for this journey through a similar one undertake...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Nicholas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-writing, reviewed

Not really what I was expecting, having read a great deal of ancient travel-writing, such as the works of Pausanias and Strabo. Dalrymple seemed more interested in the stories of random people he met on his journey from Greece to Upper Egypt than in the landscape, monuments and settlements that he must surely have passed on his way, descriptions of which were what I had hoped for when I picked up this book. That said, the stories were interesting, and very eye-opening about the situation Christi...more Not really what I was expecting, having read a great deal of ancient travel-writing, such as the works of Pausanias and Strabo. Dalrymple seemed more interested in the stories of random people he met on his journey from Greece to Upper Egypt than in the landscape, monuments and settlements that he must surely have passed on his way, descriptions of which were what I had hoped for when I picked up this book. That said, the stories were interesting, and very eye-opening about the situation Christians in the Middle East face, although I'm sure modern historians would dismiss them as apocryphal compared to official records that tell a very different story, particularly since the same people frequently offer Dalrymple stories of the supernatural experiences they have had as well as their accounts of events in their lives.

The other thing that led me to mark this down as I was rating it was the incompleteness of the account. Again perhaps my view is coloured by the ancient writers, who had a tendency to at least mention every two-house-hamlet they passed on their journey, and even derelict sites and monuments, even if it was just to give the name of the place, but Dalrymple left large gaps in his account of his journey, and I very much doubt that he did so because he saw and heard nothing on the way from Jerusalem to Alexandria or between Beirut and Jerusalem, for example.

Apart from these complaints, however, this was a reasonably entertaining read. Dalrymple's style was engaging and he took the time to explain and expand on the background information that a reader would need to understand his views on what he saw on his journey but keeping it tight and relevant at all times. Overall it was a decent book, it just didn't live up to my expectations of what information I could get out of it. I definitely recommend it, however, for anyone studying Inter-Faith cooperation, modern Christian Sectarianism or subjects related to those two. This book will likely thoroughly shake up your world-view on these topics.(less)

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May 11, 2010 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, mid-east-arab, biog-autobiog

from pp.11&12
From 578A.D. to 619A.D., John Moschos (almost an exact contemporary of Mohammed) and his pupil, Sophronius the Sophist, traveled from their monastery of St.Theodosius (near Bethlehem) through Palestine to Egypt, and then on to Constantinople where Moschos published his book, "The Spiritual Meadow" (a collection of "the wisdom of the desert fathers, sages, and mystics of the Byzantine East. A thousand years ago it was renowned as one of the most popular books in all the great lit...more from pp.11&12
From 578A.D. to 619A.D., John Moschos (almost an exact contemporary of Mohammed) and his pupil, Sophronius the Sophist, traveled from their monastery of St.Theodosius (near Bethlehem) through Palestine to Egypt, and then on to Constantinople where Moschos published his book, "The Spiritual Meadow" (a collection of "the wisdom of the desert fathers, sages, and mystics of the Byzantine East. A thousand years ago it was renowned as one of the most popular books in all the great literature of Byzantium."), and then died. The Persians conquered Jerusalem in 614A.D. and went on to take Alexandria. The Byzantines recovered both briefly and Sophronius became Patriarch of Jerusalem, but he surrendered Jerusalem to the Muslim Caliph Omar in 638A.D. and finished his life back at the monastery of St.Theodosius.

p.142
Such are the humiliations of the travel writer in the late twentieth century: go to the ends of the earth to search for the most exotic heretics in the world, and you find they have cornered the kebab business at the end of your street in London.

p.184
...it seems increasingly likely that the two worlds--those of the gentrified landed estates and the isolated wild-eyed illuminator monks--coexisted side by side in these hills [Seidnaya, Syria:], and that the transition both from the pagan-classical to the Byzantine-Christian, and then, three centuries later, from the Byzantine-Christian to the medieval-Islamic, was a far more gradual process than the traditional accounts of violent change and invasion would allow.
In the Middle East, the reality of continuity has always been masked by a surface impression of cataclysm.

p.217
'The Arab Christians' principal problem is that the West is Christian, said [Robert Fisk, of the Independent:], and in one way or another since 1948 the West has humiliated the Muslims of the Middle East over and over again. The Christians simply cannot divorce themselves from the West, however many times they tell their Muslim neighbours that Christianity is really an Eastern religion.'

p.347
'At that time we knew nothing about killing,' said Tariq (a Palestinian in Israel], so we hired a Bedouin to do it for us. The Bedouin collaborate with the Israelis and are allowed to join the army and possess weapons. But they will kill anyone if they are paid.'

p.384 (referring to Alexandria)
That mood, as is indicated by the strange syncretic catacomb sculptures, was one of exceptional intellectual tolerance and experimentation: it was a city where, even in death, the inhabitants would attempt to fuse opposites, to reconcile two entirely different artistic traditions and religious pantheons, to mix deities as lightly as Durrell's Alexandrians would mix their cocktails.
This, then was the heady world into which, in the late first century A.D., Christianity was about to be thrown--and from which the religion would emerge with its theological underpinnings and its artistic iconography altered for ever.

p.428
'What is going on in Egypt is a battle between those Muslims who defend the future and those who want to drag us back into the past. More and more people want to take the easiest solution: to smoke the opium of fundamentalism.'(less)

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Jan 21, 2010 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I started this book I wondered what I'd got myself into. The mix of theology and Bzyantine history really threw me in the deep end. I was expecting a travel book, which I got but much more too. As Dalrymple follows around in the footsteps of 6th century monk John Moschos he talks surviving members of Orthodox Christian monasteries, and lay christians in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, occupied territories of the West Bank and Egypt. This really brings to life the struggles and even persecut...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Emily Larson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This was a much denser read than City of Djinns, and often called for knowledge of architecture, Middle Eastern history, religious art, and Christian history that I didn't have ('what DO I know?' seemed to be the question). And it was often depressing - Dalrymple was up-front about his purpose in recording what he gives ample evidence to be the final days of the Middle Eastern presense of the various Christian (and other minority) communities he visits. Tales of religious and ethnic persecution...more

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About William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six year...more William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six years researching his second book, City of Djinns, which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. From the Holy Mountain, his acclaimed study of the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; it was also shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. A collection of his writings about India, The Age of Kali, won the French Prix D’Astrolabe in 2005.

White Mughals was published in 2003, the book won the Wolfson Prize for History 2003, the Scottish Book of the Year Prize, and was shortlisted for the PEN History Award, the Kiryama Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is the founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

In 2002 he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He wrote and presented the television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as ‘thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio’. In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Best Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards. June 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of St Andrews “for his services to literature and international relations, to broadcasting and understanding”. In 2007, The Last Moghal won the prestigous Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography. In November 2007, William received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of Lucknow University “for his outstanding contribution in literature and history”, and in March 2008 won the James Todd Memorial Prize from the Maharana of Udaipur.

William is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now live on a farm outside Delhi.
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The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857

White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India

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