Adventures/The East

Scholl-Latour is a modern Marco Polo. He describes his travels and adventures with the Islam World ranging from the Algerian War 1954-62, the Mujaheddin resistance in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the early 80s, the Iranian Revolution 1979 (the author flew to Teheran on the plane together with Khomeini!!!), captivity by the Moros on a Phillipine island, desert war in the Sahara in the 70s to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Lebanon war in 1982. The whole book is a tour de force and predicts (it's written in 1983!) everything we are experiencing right now with the militant islamists. For example: the author predicts in his book (from 1983) that the Mujaheddin will drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan, once they get Anti-Air Missiles...how right he was! The author by the way is a German journalist who travelled all the world for the last 50 years and is THE German expert on Islamist movements until this day. He fought for the French in Indochina in the 50s (Counterinsurgency-Expert Roger Trinquier was his Commanding Officer back then!!!) and later was once a captive of the Vietcong during the Vietnam-War. The book is in German language. If you can read German, then that's good for you, because you will be able to read this magnificent book. It is 25 years old now, but that makes the book of special interest from todays' perspective. You will learn a lot about contemporary history along reading this book. Simply an Amazing read!