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Oriental Encounters is the best introduction to Pickthall's work, a fictionalised account of his experiences, including tales he heard during his travels in Syria. Full of freshness and high spirits, Oriental Encounters details Pickthall's first encounters with the Middle East, his alienation from his fellow-Englishmen and his affection for the people of Syria and Palestine. Thanks to his two remarkable companions, Rashid and Suleyman, Pickthall smiles genially at the encounters and slowly discards his own European perspective.
About the author
Described by E. M. Forster as "the only contemporary English novelist who understands the Nearer East," Marmaduke Pickthall's adult life defied his upbringing. The son of an English country parson, as a young man he travelled through Syria and Palestine, and on his return to England penned Saïd the Fisherman, a novel praised by D. H. Lawrence and H. G. Wells. His unconventional role in the First World War and his years in India, where he ultimately translated Islam's holiest text, meant he was a forgotten figure in the land of his birth.
