"This is a brilliant, free-ranging, mind-enhancing, life-cautioning book."—The Independent
In the summer of 1964 Robert Irwin set off for Algeria in search of Sufi enlightenment. There he entered a world of marvels and ecstasy, converted to Islam, and received an initiation as a faqir. He learnt the rituals of Islam in North Africa and he studied Arabic in London.
Political violence, torture, rock music, drugs, Oxbridge intellectuals, first love, and losses are all part of this story from the 1960s.
Robert Irwin is one of the best known writers on the history and culture of the Islamic world.