Is one of history’s most rousing speeches apocryphal?
As rousing death-and-glory speeches go, it is one of the best. With a besieging Roman army only hours from storming…
The day Turkish democracy died
‘It’s official. Turkey is a banana republic!’ My friend Mustapha, a serial entrepreneur, sends me a flurry of doom-laden WhatsApp…
How film fell for caliphs and slave girls
Most of Hollywood’s Arabian Nights fantasies are, of course, unadulterated tosh. The Middle East, wrote the American film critic William…
Why do we love The Archers, when all the characters are loathsome?
OK, Archers fans out there. All five million of you. Ask yourselves a straightforward question. Why on earth do you…
Boys’ Own adventures in the war-torn Middle East
Ask most people whether they fancy a four-month, 5,000-mile trek across the Middle East and they might conclude you need…
The Empty Quarter is a great refuge for lonely hearts
Here’s a treat for desert lovers. William Atkins, author of the widely admired book The Moor, has wisely exchanged the…
Who knew that Arabic has more than 30 words for wine?
You know you’re in good hands when the dedication reads: ‘To the writers, drinkers and freethinkers of the Arab and…
Did the fabled Phoenicians ever actually exist?
So the Phoenicians never existed. Herodotus, that unreliable old fibber, made it all up in the Histories. Is this really…
Boxer shorts
Chaps, be honest. Have you achieved nether-region nirvana? Twenty years ago I had reached the summit of underwear style and…
T.E. Lawrence: from young romantic to shame-shattered veteran
Is there anything new to be said about T.E. Lawrence? I mean, really. In the century since his stirring exploits…
Syria's Stalingrad: how Aleppo slipped from tolerance to terrorism
When the German doctor and botanist Leonhard Rauwolff visited the Syrian city of Aleppo during an eccentrically Teutonic herb-hunting mission…
Sri Lanka: emerald paradise with a dark interior
For a genre that is frequently dismissed as dead, travel writing is proving a remarkably stubborn survivor. If anything, this…
Let's fight terror - by holidaying in gorgeous, welcoming Tunisia
Just as a pilgrimage to Mecca is a holy obligation for all Muslims, it should now be a patriotic duty…
Justin Marozzi’s diary: Lunch with Saddam’s hangman, and a democratic revolution in Kensington
Lunch with the man who hanged Saddam. My irrepressible old Baghdad friend Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Ealing neurologist turned Iraqi national security…
At last: a calm, definitive account of the Armenian genocide
For most of us, the centenary of the Great War means recalling the misery and sacrifices of the Western Front:…
Mecca: from shrine to shopping mall
Mecca is the greatest paradox of the Islamic world. Home to the Kaaba, a pagan-era cube of black granite said…
The shameful truth: Britain lets in far too few refugees
Pictures from Calais have returned to our television screens, showing desperate men and women trying to break into lorries bound…
Is it boring being the god of the sea?
Writing to a god seems a presumptuous thing. Who are we, feeble mortal creatures whose lives pass in the blink…
I’ve spent years in war zones. And the most terrifying moment of my life just happened in Norfolk
It happened so quickly, as these things always do. My wife Julia and I were pootling about on Wells beach…
More derring dos and don’ts from Paddy Leigh Fermor
Recent years have seen the slim but splendid Patrick Leigh Fermor oeuvre swell considerably. In 2008 came In Tearing Haste,…
Genghis Khan was tolerant, kind to women – and a record-breaking mass-murderer
Genghis Khan, unlike most Mongols in history, is a household name, regularly misappropriated as a right-wing totem. If we recall…
In defence of Herodotus
How many writers would give their eye teeth to have a book reissued 2,500 years after their death? It certainly…
The Broken Road, by Patrick Leigh Fermor - review
Sound the trumpets. Let rip the Byzantine chorus of clattering bells and gongs, the thunder of cannons, drums and flashing…
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