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Summary: A Deeply Fascinating Book
Review: Not only does William Dalrymple give his reader a profound history of the region and a fabulous travel book but he provides a chance to examine the human social condition at the extreme edge. A must for any student of society.
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Summary: Required reading?
Review: Not since Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has a travelogue been so much more than a tale about a trip.From the Holy Mountain is about a Scottish Roman Catholic who, in 1994, decided to retrace the steps taken and chronicled by Fr. John Moschos back in 587 A.D. Dalrymple visits Eastern Orthodox monasteries in the Middle East where, even as late as 1994, local Muslims came to worship, and brought animals to sacrifice to Christian saints whom they believed capable of divine intervention in their lives. The book is about Greece and Turkey and Syria and Lebanon and Israel and Egypt in 587 A.D., in 1994, and episodically in-between. William Dalrymple is a skilled writer whose prose moves at a fast pace, without sacrificing the detail and anecdotes which lend humor and humanity to his story. Dalrymple has the gift of conversation. His interpersonal encounters keep the story alive. Dalrymple has a prodigious vocabulary, and visits some obscure places, so the book is best read with a dictionary and a good atlas nearby. For anyone with an interest in any of the countries mentioned above, an interest in the Byzantine or Ottoman Empires, an interest in early or modern Christianity, in early or modern Islam, or simply with a traveler's soul, From the Holy Mountain is a great book.
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Summary: Is emigration such a dreadful fate?
Review: Quite fascinating and beautifully written, although the pessimism got me down at times. Some of these porr people have apparently had to emigrate to America. Didn't some other religious group do that around 1620 and survive quite well?
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Summary: clever book
Review: thanks to this book i have learnt a lot...highly recommended
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Summary: An eye-opener on ethnic cleansings in the Mid-East
Review: The author follows the itinerary of a medieval monk, visiting what remains--in 1994--of the Christian communities of the former Byzantine Empire, including communities of Syriac and Armenian Christians, other Greek and Arab Christians, Copts, and especially, describing the the sorry struggles of the Levantine Christians not wiped out by the Christian Lebanese Phalangistes. It is heart-breaking--to see how modern ethnic and religious intolerance is destroying precious cultures that survived and flourished under and during the imperialism of the Ottomans.
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Summary: Fascinating Journey Through Middle Eastern Christian Sites
Review: The book is a journal of William Dalrymple's travels to the Christian sites of the Middle East. The "Holy Mountain," refers to Mt. Athos in Greece where William begins his trip. He travels through Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Turkey. In the 600's a monk named John Moschos (an exact contemporary of Mohammed) traveled throughout the Byzant and wrote a book about it called The Spiritual Meadow. John Moschos documents the beginning of the decline of Byzantine Empire and Byzantine Christianity. William Dalrymple tries to loosely follow the trip that John Moschos took. He sort of documents the final days of the remnants of Byzantine Christianity in the Middle East. The last Christians in Istanbul (Constantinople) are all leaving. Most of the remaining Greeks in Turkey are elderly. The Copts, as always, are being persecuted and murdered--but persevering. Officially, according to the Turkish government, there were never any Armenians in Turkey. The Turkish government is going around to remote villages and asking peasants if they know of any stonework with Armenian script on it. The government then sends out construction crews that pulverize the stones, then cart them away for disposal. Most of the Maronites have left Lebanon. So have many of the Orthodox. In Israel, the government is essentially doing the same thing to Christians as the Moslem governments are. They are just doing it more moderately to not attract international attention. He does find some areas where Christianity is very vibrant. I was totally seduced by the Copts. The Syrian Orthodox are quite authentic and close to earl y Christianity. Another interesting thing is that in certain isolated indigenous areas, there is a strong overlap and tolerance and even sharing of religious worship between Moslems and Christians. The book is chock-full of fascinating observations and anecdotes about religious practice in the region. He really drives home the historic truth that Christianity is a Middle Eastern religion, in opposition to so many who think of it as European. The author's education is in Byzantine Art history, and so he makes many informed observations of artwork he observes on his trip.
What's interesting is that as a travel book, he can be looser than in other forms of writing. He can state his own opinions and impressions without having to substantiate, be objective or have journalistic confirmation, etc. The Catholic TV channel, EWTN has reported at length on the exodus of Christians from Israel. They fear that the "Holy Land" will become just a museum of Christianity. These reports are consistent with Dalrymple's observations.
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Summary: A youthful Brit retraces the path of Saint John Moschos
Review: The young British travel writer William Dalrymple retraced the path of the 6th century monk John Moschos through the then predominantly Christian Middle East.
Dalrymple provides an in-depth look at this little visited and unreported region. In 1994, heady with the praise from his acclaimed books "In Xanadu" and "City of Djinns" he toured Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. He first visits the holy mountain of Athos in Greece and inspects the oldest surviving example of Saint Moschos' "The Spiritual Meadow." The Greek Orthodox caretaker monk is horrified to learn that he has been tricked into permitting Catholic Dalrymple, a "heretic," access to the sacred text. All through the region the Christian population is dwindling. Attacks on the persecuted minority by Muslim neighbors and the lack of opportunity in countries where they are a fringe group has led many to flee the countries that have been their homes for millennia. Dalrymple describes Christian churches being renovated for use as mosques. There is an excellent section describing the fortress like Armenian community of Ein Wardo built on a mountainside in southern Turkey The besieged Christians living there have had to fend off repeated genocidal attacks from their Muslim neighbors. Their olive trees have been burned and they are the prey of both the army and of rebels operating in the area. His criticism of the oppressors of the local Christian minority is politely muted until he comes to Israel where he put his full outrage on paper. Christian Armenians maltreated by Turks is no cause for alarm. On the other hand in Israel, where Christian Palestinians suffer under Israeli rule, Dalrymple hotly denounces the Israeli oppressors. Dalrymple visits the ancient monasteries of Israel including Saint Moschos' home monastery Mar Theodosius, near Bethlehem. These monasteries are timeless places where day to day life differs little from what it might have been a thousand years ago. There is a good description of many other churches and monasteries of Israel. At a church near Jerusalem, he helps a monk refill with oil the miraculous lamps that never need refilling! If you can get over the fact that the twenty-five year old Dalrymple writes with an annoyingly smug self-assured lecturing tone that implies that he has solutions to thousand year old problems which have no solutions, this book gives an broad based look at a little known and poorly understood region.
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Summary: Fascinating mixture of travelogue and history.
Review: This book describes the author's journey from Constantinople through the Middle East to visit some of the earliest Christian monastries and to meet the remaining Christians surviving in Christianity's birthplace. The author is incredibly knowledgable, yet writes with such warmth and humor that one can't put this book down. This book is educates without proselytizing. Even though I am not Christian, I thought this was a book worth 5 stars.
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Summary: So Much more than a travel book
Review: This book is a travel book - it takes you on a journey around the Middle East. You visit places you have read about in the paper and seen on the news, places which have been described as lawless, violent and populated by religeous extremists. You never knew how distorted and wrong this perception has been. You will find this quite a surprise. This book opened my eyes to the realities and complexities of this part of the world in a way that no other source has done. It is much more than a travel book. The book is based on retracing the steps taken by an ancient Christian monk, who wrote a book of his travels. Exploring this history and the fate of many peoples over the centuries paints an emotional and rich picture of human struggle. This book puts this history right on centre stage as the only way to understand what is happening in the Middle East today. It does so with such force that you may forget you bought a travel book. I would like the people who run my countrys government to read this book before they decide on foreign policy for this region. BUY IT - It will leave you unable to read another book for weeks. Gareth
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Summary: the book denigrates the maronites, christians that resisted
Review: this book is very important for our time.the christians of the east are in danger.Yet the author gives no credit to the maronites who are the only christians who resisted total domination.In lebanon,he meets a warlord and christian palestinians. What about the 200000 christian refugees from the chouf.He should have visited the common christians and their clergy to get to the depth of the tragedy.The author displays a typical english bias , rooted in history ,toward the maronites.In some sections of the book ,he even denigrates innocent young girls visiting Baalbek.The author nevertheless made some well pointed observations of the plight of the christians in the other countries of the east.BUT WHAT IS THE SOLUTION ?.
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