Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New York : Vintage Books, 1994.
Description
Once upon a time an Indian writer named Amitav Ghosh set out to find an Indian slave, name unknown, who some seven hundred years before had traveled to the Middle East. The journey took him to a small village in Egypt, where medieval customs coexist with twentieth-century desires and discontents. But even as Ghosh sought to re-create the life of his Indian predecessor, he found himself immersed in those of his modern Egyptian neighbors.Combining shrewd observations with painstaking historical research, Ghosh serves up skeptics and holy men, merchants and sorcerers. Some of these figures are real, some only imagined, but all emerge as vividly as the characters in a great novel. In an Antique Land is an inspired work that transcends genres as deftly as it does eras, weaving an entrancing and intoxicating spell.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member mattviews
mitav Ghosh's In An Antique Land is a hidden history of India and Egypt during the 12th century in the disguise of a traveler's tale. Amitav accidentally stumbled upon some letters of correspondence between Abraham Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant living in India, and Khalaf ibn Ishaq from Egypt in
In 1980, Amitav arrived in Egypt and over a span of five years he stayed in the villages of Lataifa and Nashawy. While Amitav diligently tried to fill in the details of the slave's life, whose record in medieval history was completely out of the ordinary, he befriended with enthusiastic Muslims who found him fascinating but incomprehensible. Amitav's landlord, Abu-Ali, was an obese, inimical, petulant man who was diligent in exploiting all moneymaking possibilities of his strategically located house. Shaikh Musa, who referred Abu-Ali obliquely to his avarice and acrimony, always watched out for Amitav and cautioned him to evade certain people in the village. Ustaz Sabry, a well-read history scholar who taught in Nashawy, and his students Nabeel, who aspired to work in the government but left stranded in Baghdad, Iraq at the outset of the Gulf War, cultivated with Amitav a friendship that later proven to be indomitable.
Amitav did not always meet the usual hospitality. To the eyes of Muslims for whom the world outside was still replete with wonders, a Hindu was uncivilized for the practice of "burning the dead". Villagers often stigmatized Hindus and admonished Amitav to civilize his country and people. Others attempted to convert him into the study of Quran. Even the children jeered at his lack of perspicacity in politics, religion, and sex. In one occasion, at the house of Imam Ibrahim, the healer and prayer leader of Nashawy, Amitav unwarily trespassed on some deeply personal grief that haunted the Imam and his family for years. The unfortunate and unintentional solecism incurred in the Imam an enmity toward Amitav.
In An Antique Land unveiled the mystery of Bomma whom Ben Yiju adopted into his service as business agent and later incorporated into his household. In unraveling the life of this Indian slave across some 800 years, Amitav deftly sheds light on the life of his master Ben Yiju and nature of patron-client, master-apprentice relationship in disguise of a master-slave one during the 12th century. The relics about Bomma was limited but the unexpected outcome of the search manifested a compendious picture of his master, Ben Yiju, who as a junior associate, partnered with a merchant Madmum. The letters between these two were full of instructions and certain peremptoriness prevailed beneath the usual courteous language. Madmum's warm and occasionally irascible tone suggested that Madmum regarded Ben Yiju with an almost paternal affection.
In An Antique Land delivers a tale of a quest that moves between the present and the past, between Amitav Ghosh's own life and the slave's. The narrative is rich in layers, cultural overtones, historical relics, and anecdotes. Readers will find arresting images of India and Egypt hidden under a deceptively plain surface of prose.
Show More
1132. In the margins of these letters Ben Yiju's slave Bomma was often mentioned in passing with a special note of affection. No sooner had Amitav discovered about Bomma than he, out of volition, ventured out to Egypt, sifted through fact and conjecture, through a large number of letters and manuscripts referring to the trade between the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, piecing together Bomma's journey from India to Egypt.In 1980, Amitav arrived in Egypt and over a span of five years he stayed in the villages of Lataifa and Nashawy. While Amitav diligently tried to fill in the details of the slave's life, whose record in medieval history was completely out of the ordinary, he befriended with enthusiastic Muslims who found him fascinating but incomprehensible. Amitav's landlord, Abu-Ali, was an obese, inimical, petulant man who was diligent in exploiting all moneymaking possibilities of his strategically located house. Shaikh Musa, who referred Abu-Ali obliquely to his avarice and acrimony, always watched out for Amitav and cautioned him to evade certain people in the village. Ustaz Sabry, a well-read history scholar who taught in Nashawy, and his students Nabeel, who aspired to work in the government but left stranded in Baghdad, Iraq at the outset of the Gulf War, cultivated with Amitav a friendship that later proven to be indomitable.
Amitav did not always meet the usual hospitality. To the eyes of Muslims for whom the world outside was still replete with wonders, a Hindu was uncivilized for the practice of "burning the dead". Villagers often stigmatized Hindus and admonished Amitav to civilize his country and people. Others attempted to convert him into the study of Quran. Even the children jeered at his lack of perspicacity in politics, religion, and sex. In one occasion, at the house of Imam Ibrahim, the healer and prayer leader of Nashawy, Amitav unwarily trespassed on some deeply personal grief that haunted the Imam and his family for years. The unfortunate and unintentional solecism incurred in the Imam an enmity toward Amitav.
In An Antique Land unveiled the mystery of Bomma whom Ben Yiju adopted into his service as business agent and later incorporated into his household. In unraveling the life of this Indian slave across some 800 years, Amitav deftly sheds light on the life of his master Ben Yiju and nature of patron-client, master-apprentice relationship in disguise of a master-slave one during the 12th century. The relics about Bomma was limited but the unexpected outcome of the search manifested a compendious picture of his master, Ben Yiju, who as a junior associate, partnered with a merchant Madmum. The letters between these two were full of instructions and certain peremptoriness prevailed beneath the usual courteous language. Madmum's warm and occasionally irascible tone suggested that Madmum regarded Ben Yiju with an almost paternal affection.
In An Antique Land delivers a tale of a quest that moves between the present and the past, between Amitav Ghosh's own life and the slave's. The narrative is rich in layers, cultural overtones, historical relics, and anecdotes. Readers will find arresting images of India and Egypt hidden under a deceptively plain surface of prose.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bookwoman247
This is both an account of an Indian slave who was owned by a Jewish merchant in the 1100's, and an account of the time that Ghosh spent in Egypt.
Both accounts were interesting. I found passages about trade among the Middle East, N. Africa, India and Southern Europe during the Middle Ages to be
The account Ghosh gives of his several visits to Egypt over a decade or so are also interesting.
Both accounts were interesting. I found passages about trade among the Middle East, N. Africa, India and Southern Europe during the Middle Ages to be
Show More
especially fascinating. Ghosh's attempts to uncover the identity of the slave and to learn about his life are also interesting, though it seems to me that his conclusions were almost all pure educated speculation based on too lttle evidence. The slave's master makes up almost all of the narrative of the slave. Given that there is, of course, so little written material concerning the slave, or any of the lower classes of that time, it's to be expected.The account Ghosh gives of his several visits to Egypt over a decade or so are also interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member southernbooklady
A lovely parallel account of the author's time as an anthropology student in a small village in Egypt, and his research into the life of a Jewish slave mentioned in some medieval documents found in a cache in Cairo. The story of how the research came into being is fascinating in itself -- his
There is little to no sense of Western superiority in the story, but there are a fair number of eye-opening observations on the politics of the Middle East as it is experienced by your average village farmer looking for a better life.This is in the early eighties, so a generation or so after the Egyptian revolution of Nasser in 1952, when serfs were freed and allotted their own land. Now the economy is in upheaval, the promise of the revolution has either been realized, if you were lucky, or dissipated if you weren't. There is an exodus to find work "outside" -- in Iran, mostly, which was at war and needed labor -- and a need for hard currency.
All in all a wise and touching account of a small village in the midst of economic upheaval and modernization, and at the same time a rather brilliant historical investigation into the life of a man known only via a few mentions in letters between 12th century merchants trying to do business across uncertain trade routes.
Show More
description of the cache of documents in the Cairo Ganizeh would have been enough to keep my interest, but his account of living in the farming village was equally charming -- especially his inability to explain the religious traditions of Hindus to the Muslims he was living among. He is not Hindu himself, but everyone assumes that he is, and thus that he worships cows, and burns the dead -- two things that are blasphemous to a Muslim. Ghosh comments at one point that he didn't know an Arabic word for "cremated" and thus, when describing Hindu religious traditions, was forced to use the word "burned" -- the same word Muslims used to describe the fate of sinners destined for hell.There is little to no sense of Western superiority in the story, but there are a fair number of eye-opening observations on the politics of the Middle East as it is experienced by your average village farmer looking for a better life.This is in the early eighties, so a generation or so after the Egyptian revolution of Nasser in 1952, when serfs were freed and allotted their own land. Now the economy is in upheaval, the promise of the revolution has either been realized, if you were lucky, or dissipated if you weren't. There is an exodus to find work "outside" -- in Iran, mostly, which was at war and needed labor -- and a need for hard currency.
All in all a wise and touching account of a small village in the midst of economic upheaval and modernization, and at the same time a rather brilliant historical investigation into the life of a man known only via a few mentions in letters between 12th century merchants trying to do business across uncertain trade routes.
Show Less
LibraryThing member PAUlibrary
In a blend of travelogue, history and cross-cultural analysis, the author reconstructs a 12th-century master-slave relationship that confounds modern concepts of slavery.
LibraryThing member thejohnsmith
Part history and part memoir this book describes something of the life of a 12th century Jewish trader, including a significant time in India. It also recounts the authors experiences of village life in Egypt as a grad student. It took a little while to fully grab my interest, but Amitav Ghosh has
Show More
never disappointed me and this turned out to be an interesting and intriguing read. Show Less
LibraryThing member milti
Not as tedious as Shadow Lines was. Sorry, I know there are many fans of Shadow Lines, but it's just too complicated to keep track of! However this is an easy, smooth read and a smart way of showing how some things are historicised and some are not - it's the alternative histories that the author
Show More
chooses to tell. Show Less
LibraryThing member otterley
An Indian writer, navigating between anthropological studies in Egypt and modern life in India, reflects on the changes in modern Egypt and its rich history as part of a wider eastern culture. He takes us navigating across Europe, the middle East and India with a mediaeval jewish trading elite,
Show More
showing us the alternative civilisations that existed before Western Europe's colonising endeavours. His Egyptians live in a world that's deeply and passionately embedded in its history, and striding cautiously into a different future. And at the same time we navigate through the world of academia, deciphering randomly preserved mysteries and walking through forgotten lives set out in nefariously harvested manuscripts. Fascinating, informative, thought provoking Show Less
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Interesting memoir of the author's time spent in Egypt and the people he met there, interspersed with the story of a 12th century Indian trader, the subject of the research that took Ghosh there originally as a student. A bit awkward at times, as the two stories didn't mesh for me as well as the
Review written in August, 2011
Show More
blurbs and reviews suggest. Some of the transitions were pretty blunt. Overall, an informative and relatively engaging read. I gave it 3 1/2 stars.Review written in August, 2011
Show Less
LibraryThing member CSUC
An Antique Land is a subversive history in the guise of a traveller's tale. Bursting with anecdote and exuberant detail, it offers a magical. intimate biography of the private life a country, Egypt. from the Crusades to Operation Desert Storm. Ghosh's book is extraordinary: a travel book that
own time.' Times
Show More
reaches back into the twelfth century as it touches on the dilemmas of our own time.' Times
Show Less
LibraryThing member ZeljanaMaricFerli
In an Antique Land is a hybrid book, that weaves together a travel memoir and a biography of a Jewish trader in Cairo sometime around 1100 AD.
Not sure what to make of this book. It took me months to go through it. At times it was really, really interesting, but a big load of it is an info dump
What I liked were the parts where Ghosh tells a story about Egypt in the 1980s through the eyes of a non-Westerner, a Hindu Indian in a rural Muslim village, which was refreshing to me. I liked the author's subtle, but often snarky comments on colonialism and cultural relativism.
Not sure what to make of this book. It took me months to go through it. At times it was really, really interesting, but a big load of it is an info dump
Show More
that wasn't very engaging.What I liked were the parts where Ghosh tells a story about Egypt in the 1980s through the eyes of a non-Westerner, a Hindu Indian in a rural Muslim village, which was refreshing to me. I liked the author's subtle, but often snarky comments on colonialism and cultural relativism.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1992
Physical description
393 p.; 21 cm
ISBN
9780679727835