If National Geographic stories reconstructing a stone-age human from its fossilized remains dug out of the ashes of a volcano (such as in physical anthropology) fail to engage your fascination, chances are that this story will seem more academic to you than the home work assignment to watch History Channel. I am one such history-averse person and the book was too slow to start. However, I finished it with a renewed respect for social anthropology and its relevance to the world we live in. The way a story of a 12th century Egyptian trader can be relevant to the social, cultural, political and business of our times is hard to ignore and not take heed of. Besides, it is fascinating to learn how a small set of information sources with varying degrees of reliability can be connected like dots that reveal the story of a 800 year old human life in all its aspects.

Some of the revelations in the book that left me agape were: the rich history of trade between Indian and Egypt that made a lasting impact on the evolution of both countries and her peoples; the complex way in which the social temper and cultural identity of a country are entrenched in religion, thus making religion the primary tool for governing powers to achieve political and business goals in ways that are irreversibly divisive; the power of a united few with a disruptive agenda over the divided many with a peaceful one.

Apparently, this book is part of the course reading for anthropology students at UC, Santa Cruz (and possibly many other universities worldwide), as I found out from a student sitting next to me in the plane. However, Amitav Ghosh's extensive research goes beyond anthropology and throws light on relevant topics of today such as Iraq & the Middle East, the cultural divide between Jewish, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, the Indian identity, and the massive social changes that conservative rural Muslims are grappling with.

If National Geographic stories reconstructing a stone-age human from its fossilized remains dug out of the ashes of a volcano (such as in physical anthropology) fail to engage your fascination, chances are that this story will seem more academic to you than the home work assignment to watch History Channel. I am one such history-averse person and the book was too slow to start. However, I finished it with a renewed respect for social anthropology and its relevance to the world we live in. The way a story of a 12th century Egyptian trader can be relevant to the social, cultural, political and business of our times is hard to ignore and not take heed of. Besides, it is fascinating to learn how a small set of information sources with varying degrees of reliability can be connected like dots that reveal the story of a 800 year old human life in all its aspects.

Some of the revelations in the book that left me agape were: the rich history of trade between Indian and Egypt that made a lasting impact on the evolution of both countries and her peoples; the complex way in which the social temper and cultural identity of a country are entrenched in religion, thus making religion the primary tool for governing powers to achieve political and business goals in ways that are irreversibly divisive; the power of a united few with a disruptive agenda over the divided many with a peaceful one.

Apparently, this book is part of the course reading for anthropology students at UC, Santa Cruz (and possibly many other universities worldwide), as I found out from a student sitting next to me in the plane. However, Amitav Ghosh's extensive research goes beyond anthropology and throws light on relevant topics of today such as Iraq & the Middle East, the cultural divide between Jewish, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, the Indian identity, and the massive social changes that conservative rural Muslims are grappling with.

I found this book extremely dry and slow moving. All the other reviews focus on the master-slave relationship. I kept waiting for this part of the plot to get moving, and it was 200 pages before it even happened. "The Hungry Tide" is a far better work by this author.

I had read this book few years ago , but recently I had a conversation with a freind about it. I just thought I would like to have a copy and read it again.
A book that I will recomend .

I enjoyed this book immensely as I have lived and researched in the Kanara Coast of India where a main character in the book spends a great deal of his life and where there have been from early times trade relations with the Middle East. Although I have not researched in the Egypt I can relate to many research experiences of the author. It was a real treat for me. Martha B. Ashton-Sikora

Although I was immediately fascinated by the historical and literary detective story of the 12th century Jewish merchant and his Indian servant, I did not fully understand Ghosh's mission in writing this book until nearly at the end. Then it became clear to me. This book is an elegy for a way of life that is forever lost. In the 12th century, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus worked in tandem as traders and merchants, with the only reprisals being angry remonstrances rather than armed violence. What we call sophisticated Western civilization has changed all of that.

Just as Portuguese and Dutch invasions of the Indian Ocean ended the medieval way of cooperation, the quiet life of the Egyptian villages in which Ghosh lived also ended -- within our lifetimes. As televisions and refrigerators came to those villages, so did anger, strife, and urbanization. There was money to be made during the Iran-Iraq war if you were a young Egyptian man, but you would never return to your village.

This book was slow-moving in places but ultimately unforgettable.

Amitav Ghosh has for long being a favorite - for his simple and lucid style of writing as well as his wordplay when describing the swirling moods of a changing landscape. He is at his most competent In an Antique Land.

Read the book for the sheer joy of the language if not for the appealing nature of the story.

The narrative weaves between Ghosh's account of a year spent living in modern-day Egypt; and the second storyline, his reconstruction of the fascinating life of a medieval Jewish Arab merchant who travelled to India, married a local woman and settled there.

If those sound like distant and obscure tales, it's a tribute to Ghosh's prose that he makes the reader quite attached to both yarns, and keeps you wondering how they will turn out. Great stuff!

The narrative weaves between Ghosh's account of a year spent living in modern-day Egypt; and the second storyline, his reconstruction of the fascinating life of a medieval Jewish Arab merchant who travelled to India, married a local woman and settled there.

If those sound like distant and obscure tales, it's a tribute to Ghosh's prose that he makes the reader quite attached to both yarns, and keeps you wondering how they will turn out. Great stuff!

Amitav Ghosh's In An Antique Land is a hidden history of India and Egypt during the 12th century in the disguise of a traveler's tale. Amitav accidentally stumbled upon some letters of correspondence between Abraham Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant living in India, and Khalaf ibn Ishaq from Egypt in 1132. In the margins of these letters Ben Yiju's slave Bomma was often mentioned in passing with a special note of affection. No sooner had Amitav discovered about Bomma than he, out of volition, ventured out to Egypt, sifted through fact and conjecture, through a large number of letters and manuscripts referring to the trade between the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, piecing together Bomma's journey from India to Egypt.

In 1980, Amitav arrived in Egypt and over a span of five years he stayed in the villages of Lataifa and Nashawy. While Amitav diligently tried to fill in the details of the slave's life, whose record in medieval history was completely out of the ordinary, he befriended with enthusiastic Muslims who found him fascinating but incomprehensible. Amitav's landlord, Abu-Ali, was an obese, inimical, petulant man who was diligent in exploiting all moneymaking possibilities of his strategically located house. Shaikh Musa, who referred Abu-Ali obliquely to his avarice and acrimony, always watched out for Amitav and cautioned him to evade certain people in the village. Ustaz Sabry, a well-read history scholar who taught in Nashawy, and his students Nabeel, who aspired to work in the government but left stranded in Baghdad, Iraq at the outset of the Gulf War, cultivated with Amitav a friendship that later proven to be indomitable.

Amitav did not always meet the usual hospitality. To the eyes of Muslims for whom the world outside was still replete with wonders, a Hindu was uncivilized for the practice of "burning the dead". Villagers often stigmatized Hindus and admonished Amitav to civilize his country and people. Others attempted to convert him into the study of Quran. Even the children jeered at his lack of perspicacity in politics, religion, and sex. In one occasion, at the house of Imam Ibrahim, the healer and prayer leader of Nashawy, Amitav unwarily trespassed on some deeply personal grief that haunted the Imam and his family for years. The unfortunate and unintentional solecism incurred in the Imam an enmity toward Amitav.

In An Antique Land unveiled the mystery of Bomma whom Ben Yiju adopted into his service as business agent and later incorporated into his household. In unraveling the life of this Indian slave across some 800 years, Amitav deftly sheds light on the life of his master Ben Yiju and nature of patron-client, master-apprentice relationship in disguise of a master-slave one during the 12th century. The relics about Bomma was limited but the unexpected outcome of the search manifested a compendious picture of his master, Ben Yiju, who as a junior associate, partnered with a merchant Madmum. The letters between these two were full of instructions and certain peremptoriness prevailed beneath the usual courteous language. Madmum's warm and occasionally irascible tone suggested that Madmum regarded Ben Yiju with an almost paternal affection.

In An Antique Land delivers a tale of a quest that moves between the present and the past, between Amitav Ghosh's own life and the slave's. The narrative is rich in layers, cultural overtones, historical relics, and anecdotes. Readers will find arresting images of India and Egypt hidden under a deceptively plain surface of prose. 4.0 stars.

Matthew Yau (10Q_boi)

I loved this book, it is a great book, very well written, very entertaining; you'll learn about the egyptians (villagers) their colorful lives, culture, traditions, religious and cultural ceremonies. You will also learn about India, the old trade,and culture. Jews in the arab world, old synagogues and much more.

interesting insight into several cultures -- Egyptian, Judaic and Indian. a well written book, the author gets inside his characters heads. I took it with me when I visited Egypt in October 2001.

what makes 'in a unique land' truly unique itself is the persepctive of the main character: how often do we get to read about the perceptions of a non-european/american traveler on a journey in a country that is not in europe or america? it is a rare vision to see through the eyes of an indian graduate student taken to egypt to research for his doctoral thesis. the whole basis of the novel is so utterly original, making it interesting to anybody who is fascinated by reading about intercultural experiences.

as an american living abroad, i have come across many great books about british travelers surviving south america or spain, and americans making it through africa and australia, but i had never before had the opportunity to know what a person from one part of the 'underdeveloped' world might have to say about another such country. surprisingly, the results were not too different: many of the protagonist's trials and tribulations reminded me of my own travels in another north african country, so my personal reading of the novel showed me how much we all share in common when going abroad, no matter what country we are from, yet obviously his experience was quite different in many ways as well. i truly enjoyed reading this novel.