Discover new books on Goodreads

See if your friends have read any of Tahir Shah's books

32 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.97

more photos (1)

#5 most followed

Tahir Shah’s Followers (638)

Tahir’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (0)
read (32)
did-not-finish (0)

Tahir’s Friends (944)

Melissa H

48 books | 403 friends

Holly

769 books | 281 friends

Patricia L.

699 books | 2,425 friends

Ernest Hogan

919 books | 840 friends

Toni

312 books | 26 friends

Andrew

1,303 books | 90 friends

Asmaa Laili

1,424 books | 844 friends

Turi Munthe

18 books | 236 friends

More friends…

Tahir Shah

Goodreads Author

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.tahirshah.com/

Twitter

humanstew

Genre

Travel, Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

Influences

Doris Lessing, Amina Shah ...more

Member Since

March 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/tahirshahauthor

edit data

Tahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.

Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.

Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Z Tahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.

Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.

Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.

After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.

In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.

In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.

www.tahirshah.com
www.twitter.com/humanstew
www.facebook.com/TahirShahAuthor
http://www.youtube.com/user/tahirshah999
www.pinterest.com/tahirshah ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Tahir Shah questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Tahir Shah’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 17,457 ratings · 2,016 reviews · 166 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca 3.97 avg rating — 9,049 ratings — published 2006 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams 4.08 avg rating — 2,452 ratings — published 2007 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Timbuctoo 3.83 avg rating — 1,567 ratings — published 2012 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sorcerer's Apprentice 4.15 avg rating — 1,291 ratings — published 1998 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Search of King Solomon's Mines 3.79 avg rating — 665 ratings — published 2002 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru 3.93 avg rating — 549 ratings — published 2001 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Travels With Myself 4.16 avg rating — 216 ratings — published 2011 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scorpion Soup 4.29 avg rating — 183 ratings — published 2013 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	House of the Tiger King : The Quest for a Lost City 4.11 avg rating — 149 ratings — published 2004 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eye Spy 4.29 avg rating — 128 ratings — published 2013 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Tahir Shah…

97 posts
Tahir Shah's Blog

The future of libraries, Paris Syndrome, and more…

Many thanks to those of you were able to attend my Reddit AMA live. For those who were unable to attend, I’ll be sharing a selection of questions and answers over the next couple of weeks. To view the entire AMA, please click the above link.

Q. Do you have any thoughts about the future of libraries to share?

A. On nights when I cannot sleep, i dream that I’m stepping into a massive, ancient

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2785	1216	Dec 01, 2010 05:03AM
The Ultimate ABC ...: ABC Ghost/Zombie Challenge	16	19	May 27, 2011 04:10PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: mehitabels continues to neglect family for fiction	73	58	Dec 23, 2011 04:12PM
Around the World ...: ilona - Never Ending Trekker	26	106	May 08, 2012 10:26PM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2297	786	Jun 01, 2012 05:02AM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2637	940	Sep 01, 2012 05:02AM
2026 Reading Chal...: SilverRaindrops' Corner	35	41	Sep 30, 2012 06:36PM
2026 Reading Chal...: September's Industry Challenge	168	108	Oct 01, 2012 11:47PM

More…

Tahir’s Quotes

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
― St. Augustine

tags: allegory, books, broad-mindedness, classic, education, imagery, travel, world

8512 likes

“This too shall pass.”
― Hakim Sanai

tags: endurance, proverbs

998 likes

“Everything can be taken from you in a second, but the human spirit is so strong. War can teach you so much about evil, and so much about good.”
― Zainab Salbi

tags: endurance, strength

44 likes

“There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.'
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

tags: hope, life, pain, strength, tragedy

2511 likes

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
― Lao Tzu

tags: travel

5348 likes

More of Tahir’s quotes…