From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East

I could not put this book down once i had started it. I was absolutely fascinated by Dalrymple's descriptions of modern day early Christian sites. The alternative veiwpoint he offers about the archeological situation of these sites in the Middle East and the way of living of the local Christian population absorbed me from the very beginning. I found the story so interesting that I visited Lebanon early this year. It was exactly as I expected and I look forward to returning. Hopefully I shall return to the region soon. I have been interested in early Christian sites in Egypt and the Coptic Church there but this book has opened up a whole new vista for me. I would encourage those who can, to visit the area and support tourism. I was the only foreign visitor to Baalbek (Lebanon)on the day I visitedand it was the same at other world famous sites in Lebanon, and that is a very sad situation. The people are friendly, courteous and open-hearted,the food delicious, the tourist sites awe-inspiring, and the driving?well, best you take a taxi and close your eyes! William Dalrymple's book sparked a love-affair in me with these places and those who live there.

For those of us who grow up as Christians in the west, we often manage to gloss over some very fundamental questions about the origins of our faith. Why? Well, for me, it's because my knowledge on the middle east has essentially been limited to 30 second cable news clips. The journey Dalrymple takes us on in this book has completely changed the way I look at my faith. In this book, I was given, for the first time, the opportunity to see real people and real places that trace their roots to the origins of my faith. And how different it is than the church I have been brought up in! This book is a must read for any Christian who seriously wants to explore and challenge what it is they believe.

It's a pretty quick read and full of information. Written as a conversation between subjects and the author, he has entertaining and rarely heard of facts to make situations more interesting than they would be in a text book.The entire book is based on the travels of John Moschos, and Orthodox Christian monk, and a fellow monk friend of his leaving from the area near Constantinople in 587 and travelled around the contemporary Byzantine Empire of the late sixth century. They visit monastaries, holy sites, hermits, stylites, seemingly insane ascetics. One of them who was actually commanded by his bishop to desist in his extreme ways lest he harm himself while being crouched over in a 4" high cage in the blazing sun for years on end. Dalrymple follows Moschos in his travels except 14 centuries later explaining in detail and with sorrow the extreme changes which have taken place due to Muslim invasion, persecution, and denegration of Christian communities. Interviews and conversations with Armenian, Jacobite, Coptic, Greek, and Antiochian Orthodox (all one Church, just the cultural identity around the parishes) as well as a few Catholics, all but one of whom were Marionites, more than just a few Muslims (almost all of whom are Palestinians), a few Nestorians, and in Alexandria what was left of the Jewish community, too small to even have the minimum amount of males to keep up the synagogue services fill the pages in conjunction with quotes and anticdotes from Moschos. Some of the stories are extraordinarily tragic such as interviews he has with Armenians and Jacobites concerning the rounds upon rounds of massive holocausts the Muslim Turks have wrought on them and are now denying as "Christian Myths and Propaganda" (such as the 1.5+ million murdered by the Turks in 1915 alone). Dalrymple even has a evening long conversation and stroll through the city with the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem at the time while he is told the tragedies and discrimination the Armenians, Christians in general but especially the Armenians are under going under the Israeli government.Most of the stories, though, even when they are tragic, are given a humorous spin by the author. He is a master writer and is able to put the most complex of histories into laymen's terms.Over all it is an excellent read, well worth the read and I highly recommend it. Of the 35 or so books I read a year, this is one of the best, probably in the top three.

After sharing tales of our separate tours of Greece, some 35 years apart, I was told by the Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, in which I teach, "You must read From the Holy Mountain." I interpreted that as an assignment, and ordered the book. I hereby thank my chancellor for his recommendation. Not since Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has a travelogue been so much more than a tale about a trip. From the Holy Mountain is about a Scottish Roman Catholic who, in 1994, decided to retrace the steps taken and chronicled by Fr. John Moschos back in 587 A.D. Dalrymple visits Eastern Orthodox monasteries in the Middle East where, even as late as 1994, local Muslims came to worship, and brought animals to sacrifice to Christian saints whom they believed capable of divine intervention in their lives. The book is about Greece and Turkey and Syria and Lebanon and Israel and Egypt in 587 A.D., in 1994, and episodically in-between. William Dalrymple is a skilled writer whose prose moves at a fast pace, without sacrificing the detail and anecdotes which lend humor and humanity to his story. Dalrymple has the gift of conversation. His interpersonal encounters keep the story alive. Dalrymple has a prodigious vocabulary, and visits some obscure places, so the book is best read with a dictionary and a good atlas nearby. For anyone with an interest in any of the countries mentioned above, an interest in the Byzantine or Ottoman Empires, an interest in early or modern Christianity, in early or modern Islam, or simply with a traveler's soul, From the Holy Mountain is a great book. P.S. Added in December, 2005: In these troubled times, From the Holy Mountain is especially relevant, as it illustrates how Islam and Christianity can coexist in the Middle East, and sheds light on the problems between Israel and her Lebanese and Palestinian neighbors. Perhaps that should make the book a "required reading" in many courses in the social sciences.

I must add my compliments to William Dalrymple, who has written an extremely objective and important book on the obstacles Orthodox Christianity has faced in the Middle East. The author, a Roman Catholic from Scotland who has written several books about his experiances in India, is no zealot. He has written a very human story, on occasion very humorous, but ultimately sadly tragic on the pressures and prejudices dedicated Christians have been facing in Turkey, Israel and Egypt over the past century. He is a very good writer and has touched some sensative areas as evidenced by the reviews on this provocative and courageous book. He knows his history and is right on the mark. A must read.