Jokes or gags?
Here are a couple of books that seek to tackle the difficult issue of comedy on the front line. One…
Grim and resolute
Faber must take a rather dim view of British readers’ historical awareness these days. This is a biography of one…
In Afghanistan, Trump and the Taleban want the same thing – Americans out
‘Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!’ As morning alarms go, this one leaves a lot to be desired. Normally I wake up to…
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…
The tragedy of Arabia
T.E. Lawrence is seen as a ‘metaphor for imperialism, violence and betrayal’ in the Middle East. But woeful Arab leadership has also been to blame for the region’s problems, says Justin Marozzi
‘Excess is obnoxious’
Justin Marozzi on the bitter irony of Aleppo’s ancient motto
A hint of anarchy everywhere
For a genre that is frequently dismissed as dead, travel writing is proving a remarkably stubborn survivor. If anything, this…
Don’t abandon Tunisia!
It needs – and deserves – British visitors more than ever
Diary
Lunch with the man who hanged Saddam. My irrepressible old Baghdad friend Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Ealing neurologist turned Iraqi national security…
Too little, too late
The atrocities suffered by an estimated one million Armenians in 1915 have been largely ignored by historians and officially denied by the Turks. It’s a centenary we can’t afford to neglect, says Justin Marozzi
Serving Mammon first
The Saudis, official custodians of Islam’s holiest place, have bulldozed its historical sites, perverted its religion and turned Mecca into one vast shopping mall, says Justin Marozzi
No safe haven
Britain’s appalling record on refugees is a moral failure, and national disgrace
Flotsam and jetsam flung across the shore
Writing to a god seems a presumptuous thing. Who are we, feeble mortal creatures whose lives pass in the blink…
Dogs of war
I’ve spent years in conflict zones. But the scariest thing that’s happened to me involved two bull terriers on a Norfolk beach
Derring dos and don’ts
Recent years have seen the slim but splendid Patrick Leigh Fermor oeuvre swell considerably. In 2008 came In Tearing Haste,…
How to rule the world
Genghis Khan, unlike most Mongols in history, is a household name, regularly misappropriated as a right-wing totem. If we recall…
A treasure-trove of wonders
How many writers would give their eye teeth to have a book reissued 2,500 years after their death? It certainly…
