Escape from Central Asia

by Ikbal Ali Shah

"In all history there is allegory, and all allegory finds its expression in the lives of men." So writes the author through the mouths of one of the 20 travelers telling their story, in true Arabian Nights fashion, as they journey by caravan to the ancient cities of Jerusalem and Mecca. Each tale enthralls us and at the same time we are not surprised as elements remind us that "accounts of unusual forces and the workings of the mind still remain unplumbed for those who prefer to know than to be made excited." For this book contains some of the most important illustrative anecdotes of adventure and tales of mystical and entertainment that Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah (Idries Shah's father) presented during a long life of study and teaching in the Sufi way. Asia’s master writer, the Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah prepared these twenty narratives while India’s cultural representative for North Africa and all Western Asia. Author of twenty-six books on the East and its thought, the Sirdar formed a link between his illustrious Afghan forebears in the Sufi and Islamic tradition and the increasing interest in the West in these subjects. Soldier, diplomat, medical man, professor and mystic, he lived and taught in many countries of the East and West. This book contains some of the most important illustrative anecdotes and tales of mystical and entertainment content that he presented during a long life of study and teaching.

179 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1980

About the author

Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah was a British author and diplomat of Indian-Afghan origin; he traveled throughout the world on assignment for the Foreign Office. Although he spent most of his life as a resident of the U.K., he spent his last decade living in Morrocco, where he died as a result of a traffic accident in late 1969 at the age of 75.