House Of Tears: Westerner's Adventures In Islamic Lands - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1592287999 ISBN 13: 9781592287994

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 2005

Synopsis

An Explorers Club Book

Several decades before Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Islamic insurgents, an international crisis ignited between the United States and the Middle East. In May 1904 Moroccan warlord Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli kidnapped Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American resident of Tangier, in an attempt to extort money from the Sultan of Morocco. President Theodore Roosevelt responded with his "big stick" approach to diplomacy by dispatching a squadron of seven battleships to the Moroccan coast with the order: "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." The nine-week standoff, with U.S. troops and ships in Tangier Bay and Raisuli holding fort in the mountains, exposed the impotence of emerging American power and a critical misunderstanding about Moroccan politics. When it was discovered that Perdicaris was not an American citizen after all, the U.S. government kept the embarrassing episode a secret until 1933. Profiting royally from the conflict, Raisuli built his palace, which he called the "House of Tears."

In this page-turning blend of travel narrative and compelling adventure, John Hughes includes this and other tales, mostly firsthand accounts, of Westerners who traveled to Islamic lands during the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, from the Sahara Desert all the way to the mountains of Afghanistan. Englishman Thomas Pellow describes his rise from slave to a homicidal sultan--a man whose trophies of war were human ears hacked from the heads of his enemies--to commander of the Moroccan army in the eighteenth century. Walter B. Harris, a London Times correspondent and professional adventurer, risks his life in 1886 by entering the holy city of Chefchouaen, Morocco, in disguise. John Reed arrives in Constantinople in 1916 just as the Ottoman Empire teeters on the brink of collapse. Lowell Thomas''s account of his controversial relationship with T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") explains the man behind the myth. Freya Stark, who worked for British Intelligence in Yemen, Egypt, and Iraq during World War II, astutely notes the simmering hostility of the Iraqis toward the British. "I wonder," she wrote in 1930, "if there is one Iraqi who really wants us."

House of Tears is a treasury of the most exciting and revealing narratives ever published about the Islamic world from the last several decades. Not only is this a fine compendium of true adventure stories, but it is also a collection that celebrates the fine nuances of cultural encounters, in times of peace as well as conflict.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

An Explorers Club Book
Classic tales of Westerners who crossed behind the veil

More than a century before the recent conflicts with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Islamic insurgents, an international crisis ignited between the United States and the Middle East. In May 1904, Moroccan warlord Mulai Ahmed el Raisuni kidnapped Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy Greek-American resident of Tangier, in an attempt to extort money from the Sultan of Morocco. President Theodore Roosevelt responded by dispatching a squadron of seven battleships to the Moroccan coast with the order: Perdicaris alive or Raisuni dead. The nine-week standoff between U.S. troops and Raisuni exposed the impotence of emerging American power and revealed a critical misunderstanding about Moroccan politics. When it was discovered that Perdicaris was not an American citizen after all, the U.S. government kept the embarrassing episode a secret until 1933. Profiting royally from the conflict, Raisuni built his palace, the "House of Tears," soon after.
In this page-turning blend of compelling adventure and travel narrative, historian John Hughes reintroduces this and other vintage tales of Westerners who traveled to Islamic lands. Here we witness Englishman Thomas Pellow's rise from slave of a homicidal sultan- a man who kept the ears of his victims as
trophies-to commander of the Moroccan army in the 1700s. A century later, London Times correspondent and professional adventurer Walter B. Harris risks his life by entering the holy city of Chefchouaen, Morocco, in disguise. In his account of Constantinople in 1916, John Reed describes an empire teetering on the brink of collapse. And who could forget Lowell Thomas's legendary account of the man who would become known as "Lawrence of Arabia"? Woven throughout these stories is the collaboration between Muslims and Westerners as together they faced perilous journeys across deserts, mountain passes, and into forbidden cities.
House of Tears is a treasury of the most exciting and revealing narratives ever published about the Islamic world from the last several decades. Not only is this Explorers Club Book a fine compendium of true adventure stories, but it is also a collection that celebrates the fine nuances of cultural encounters, in times of peace as well as conflict.

About the Author:

Dr. John Hughes was educated in Canada and the United Kingdom. He has written about British history and has taught European history in the United States and Canada. He is currently on the faculty at St. George's School in Vancouver, Canada.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1592287999
• ISBN 13: 9781592287994
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 271
• Editor: Hughes John