Sean Bala reviewed From The Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple
Review of 'From The Holy Mountain' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This a book I read a couple of years ago but many of its stories and elements have stuck with me. I have always been fascinated by transition points, especially in religions. The book is one of Dalrymple's early travel works and, funnily enough, it has nothing to do with India. However, you do see some of his later interests (i.e., Sufism) in the book. Overall, I liked elements of "From the Holy Mountain" but felt like the book did not cohere as well as it could have. The premise of the book is that the author decided to travel from Mount Athos in Greece to Southern Egypt along the path of a seventh century Byzantine monk. The monk traveled the Near East just before the rise of Islam. Dalrymple uses this journey to reflect on religious diversity and the ghost of the Christian and Byzantine world still present. It …
This a book I read a couple of years ago but many of its stories and elements have stuck with me. I have always been fascinated by transition points, especially in religions. The book is one of Dalrymple's early travel works and, funnily enough, it has nothing to do with India. However, you do see some of his later interests (i.e., Sufism) in the book. Overall, I liked elements of "From the Holy Mountain" but felt like the book did not cohere as well as it could have. The premise of the book is that the author decided to travel from Mount Athos in Greece to Southern Egypt along the path of a seventh century Byzantine monk. The monk traveled the Near East just before the rise of Islam. Dalrymple uses this journey to reflect on religious diversity and the ghost of the Christian and Byzantine world still present. It is best as a work of history though it also presents interesting commentary on current events in the region. The journey took place in 1994 (published in 1997) and some of his observations about the Kurdish regions in Turkey and the politics of archeology in Israel are still relevant and to me these were the strongest chapters. One particular find that I have seen cited in numerous other works on Christian history was Dalrymple stumbling upon a church in Edessa where scholars believe the congregation has preserved hymns and chants from the second century CE. But my heart broke when he describes how Syria is the best place for religious diversity in the Middle East which has now been lost in the Syrian Civil War. And ultimately I found the Egypt chapters to be a little underwhelming. Perhaps the book did not go as he had planned and he did not quite know how to wrap it up. I think it is not as strong as "City of Djinns" - a book I have more problems with the longer I live in India but I think that it is well-worth your time.