Fever & Thirst: A Missionary Doctor Amid the Christian Tribes of Kurdistan

Before I read this book I knew little about this part of the world and nothing about the 19th-century missionary movement. The author writes with grace and confidence and has a reasssuring command of his subject. The book makes accessible a particularly complicated political arena and the motivations -- so foreign to a 21st-century reader -- of a passionate individual determined, at all costs, to bring Protestantism (and medical help) to the Christians of Kurdistan. Highly recommended.

An extraordinary book. This slice of 19th Century history, remarkable in its own right, is background to much of the strife in today's geopolitical news. My benchmarks for such things being David Fromkin's wonderful A Peace to End All Peace, and Karl Meyer's Tournament of Shadows, plus the works of Peter Hopkirk, I can safely say Taylor surpasses them all in rendering complex events, timelines, and relationships with clarity and immediacy. Fever and Thirst fills out an extra perspective on the machinations at the fringes of the Great Game, and serves up a hugely erudite portrait of fractious Christian attempts at empire-building in the Middle East circa 1840, mischief which remains at the heart of so much woe in that region. Taylor is not afraid occasionally to render sophisticated judgments on everything from the missionary's apolitical disengagement to the quality of the local wine (which I'll remember to forego should the occasion arise). It's reassuring that the author has opinions on his topic, and cares to express them. Likewise, that he can find some wry humor in such a tale of Romantic - even obsessive - zeal, despite the horrendous human cost he has catalogued. Fascinating detail and broad learning underpin the superbly sustained narrative (including some finer points of Christian theology, not to mention the history of the Ottoman Empire, about which it's hard to imagine many Westerner knowing a useful amount these days), and a controlled dramatic tone pushes the character-driven story forward. Fever and Thirst is particularly good at portraying the endless political chaos in the soul of the regions then nominally under Turkish domination, characterized by ever-shifting alliances, greed and betrayal. Artfully written and thoroughly enjoyable, the book offers lessons we may be thankful for, especially those that resonate with our contemporary experience, in particular the hubris, ignorance and fantasy at the heart of our misbegotten role as Crusaders still. Highly recommended.