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| From the Holy Mountain | 
 enlarge | Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Flamingo
Category: Book
List Price: $14.62
Buy New: $7.92
You Save: $6.70 (46%)
Buy New/Used from $5.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 319641
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0006547745
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780006547747
ASIN: 0006547745
Publication Date: May 5, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A TRAVEL BOOK THAT TAKES YOU OUT OF YOUR CHAIR May 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I could not put this book down once i had started it. I was absolutely fascinated by Dalrymple's descriptions of modern day early Christian sites. The alternative veiwpoint he offers about the archeological situation of these sites in the Middle East and the way of living of the local Christian population absorbed me from the very beginning. I found the story so interesting that I visited Lebanon early this year. It was exactly as I expected and I look forward to returning. Hopefully I shall return to the region soon. I have been interested in early Christian sites in Egypt and the Coptic Church there but this book has opened up a whole new vista for me. I would encourage those who can, to visit the area and support tourism. I was the only foreign visitor to Baalbek (Lebanon)on the day I visitedand it was the same at other world famous sites in Lebanon, and that is a very sad situation. The people are friendly, courteous and open-hearted,the food delicious, the tourist sites awe-inspiring, and the driving?well, best you take a taxi and close your eyes! William Dalrymple's book sparked a love-affair in me with these places and those who live there.
A must read August 8, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For those of us who grow up as Christians in the west, we often manage to gloss over some very fundamental questions about the origins of our faith. Why? Well, for me, it's because my knowledge on the middle east has essentially been limited to 30 second cable news clips. The journey Dalrymple takes us on in this book has completely changed the way I look at my faith. In this book, I was given, for the first time, the opportunity to see real people and real places that trace their roots to the origins of my faith. And how different it is than the church I have been brought up in! This book is a must read for any Christian who seriously wants to explore and challenge what it is they believe.
one of my favourites of all time July 21, 2006
From the Holy Mountain deserves to be put along side such other classics of the genre as the Road to Oxiana and a Time of Gifts. It is erudite, witty, scholarly & compassionate in its treatment of the subject of Christian Minorities in the Middle East. This book means so much to me as I travelled in the very same areas covered at approximately the same time the research for the book was undertaken. I can confirm the total accuracy of the authors assessments. The book both confirmed and provided illumination as to what I had seen with my own eyes and heard from the communities depicted. This remarkably accomplished work deserves to be read by everyone with an interest in the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, my only quibble is I wish it was twice as long, so as to prolong the enjoyment of what is still the most authoritative and important book about the subject. Do yourself a huge favour and buy this book.
Excellently researched, thought provoking July 7, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this to be one of William Dalrymple's most philosophical works. As always, Dalrymple's work is peppered with vignettes of lovable characters. The interplay between the past and the present impels one to ask a lot of questions. I must admit some sections of the book did make me a little depressed , especially reading about the pogroms in Turkey, bitterness in Lebanon and hatred in Jerusalem. Perhaps the desert fathers were all, in some way,looking for a way to find a solution to such madness. Any reader who seeks to understand roots of conflicts should undertake this pilgrimage.
 Great travelogue, sometimes weak on facts March 15, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is depressing, consicence-alerting, yet great fun at the same time. Travelling from Mount Athos, via Istanbul to Turkish Kurdistan, then to Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine and finally Egypt, Dalrymple surveys the condition of Near Eastern Christianity on the verge of the third Christian millennium. For the most part, this is a depressing story of a community in terminal decline, facing pressure from extremists and economic chaos. While there is no doubt that his sympathies lie with the Christians, he can be deeply critical of them where he feels it is deserved - for example there is no doubt that the holds the Maronites of Lebanon almost entirely responsible for the Lebanese Civil War.
As a travelogue, it generally makes good reading, with an excellent balance between keeping the pace moving and covering people and places in enough depth. His ability to conjure images of places is remarkable - really feel like I'm on the plains of the Tuer Abdin, or winding down the mountain road from Damascus to Beirut with him. Sometimes, it has to be said, he lays on the 'gee-whiz I'm an Englishman abroad in scary countries with bombs and tanks and things' attitude a bit too much. While he occasionally has a factual lapse or three, he more than makes up for it in atmosphere.
Perhaps the most interesting and amusing sections deal with the various wacky heretical Christian sects which inhabited the shatterzone between the Greek and Persian worlds before the arrival of Islam.
This book annoyed a lot of extreme American fundamentalists (of both the Christian and the Jewish varieties) for being rather critical of Israel's decades-long campaign of cultural and economic pressure on the Palestinian Christians. What better recommendation to buy the book to you need!
One minor gripe, I never do trust fellow Celts who think of themselves as merely North- or West-Britons. Dalrymple regards English football hooligans rampaging through Istanbul as his 'fellow countrymen' stuck me as bizarre. Are you really a Scot, William?
And I have one big question if Dalrymple ever reads this... he seems not to speak a word of Turkish or Kurdish yet he seems to have these interesting conversations with Kurdish builders about the Armenians... Are all these guys fluent in English or something? 'Coz that's a part of the world I know very well, and in my experience, they don't English any more than your average Dunfermline brickie speaks Kurdish. If you can really do that without the lingo, William, could you give me a masterclass in sign language?
It also seems to fair to point out that the situation for Christians in some parts of the Middle East, notably Turkey and Egypt, has improved considerably in the 10 years since this book was researched.
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