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| View Larger Image | From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium
by William Dalrymple
| | List Price: | $30.00 |  | | 2 New starting at: | $54.89 | | 18 Used starting at: | $4.67 | | 1 Collectible starting at: | $45.55 | | | | | Sales Rank: | 243681 | | Studio: | Henry Holt and Co. | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 496 | | Publication Date: | March 15, 1998 | | Publisher: | Henry Holt and Co. |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In 587 AD, two monks set off on an extraordinary journey that would take them in an arc across the entire Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. On the way, John Moschos and his pupil Sophronius the Sophist stayed in caves, monasteries, and remote hermitages, collecting the wisdom of the stylites and the desert fathers before their fragile world finally shattered under the great eruption of Islam. More than a thousand years later, using Moschos's writings as his guide, William Dalrymple sets off to retrace their footsteps.Dalrymple's pilgrimage takes him through a bloody civil war in eastern Turkey, the ruins of Beirut, the vicious tensions of the West Bank, and a fundamentalist uprising in southern Egypt, and it becomes an elegy to the slowly dying civilization of Eastern Christianity and to the peoples that have kept its flame alive. From the Holy Mountain is a rich and gripping bl of history and spirituality, adventure and politics, threaded through with Dalrymple's unique sense of black comedy. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 67 reviews)
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A detailed account of Eastern Christianity 
From the Holy Mountains by William Dalrymple.
Ever wondered Christianity, a religion from East is now recognized as a west religion. Can this religion be a dividing reason between east and west? I usually wonder about this and I get good overview of eastern Christianity and how it is declining, the relationship between Islam practices and Christianity. The rising Islamic resurgence has it effected the Christianity or are there any other factors which are effecting eastern Christianity.
William Dalrymple goes on journey taken by John Machos, the author of Spiritual Meadows, in Byzantine Empire. He takes a journey from Mount Athos in Greece, Anatolia in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and at last he ends his journey in Alexandria.
Christianity travelled from East to West, it took a new form, a new structure, and new ways of worship. It travelled from Byzantine empire to west and this empire which used to rule from Turkey , Middle East till Egypt is no where to be heard or remembered. Most people remember about Ottoman Empire but have forgotten about bygone area of Byzantines Empire.
The time John machos travelled was the time Byzantine had started declining and over the years it felt to Ottoman Empire. Through this book, William Dalrymple travels to era which has declined and is towards it last end.
John Machos plays an important role; his journal is the only living account of the Byzantine Empire. He promoted in his book concept of having pictures of Jesus and symbol of crucify. In Arab world from where the Christianity came believed in Iconoclasm, not having pictorial representation of the messengers, but it was John Machos who favored this by quoting that most people do not know about the Jesus and this pictorial representation and these pictures will give them idea about the Jesus. This development was very important since this become an important stone in development of Christianity. Renaissance was all about pictures of Jesus, if this belief of Arab world carried to the west then probably there would not have been Renaissance at all. It is quite big statement but he put the foundation stone which helped future Christianity development.
Different concepts of Christianity are spread around the Middle East region and it is quite inquisitive to know about the different types of Christian faiths and how this is effecting them since Islam is dominant over there.
Most people including John Machos believed Islam to be a new form of Arianism, a early Christian which denied divinity of Christ. Many Christian taught Islam a new derivation of this faith.
Maronite are eastern church and are inclined towards Monothelite heresy, one divine energy and one divine will. Monophysite are people who believe in one form of Christ while Orthodox believed in two forms, divine and human. This different lead to Syrian, Armenian, Coptic and Nestorian churches. Nestorian believed Christ was different when he was divine and human
The life lead by all monks are almost same except the belief differs. Monks lead ascetic life and self torture themselves to achieve spirituality. Monks believe you stay hungry i.e. if you keep fast then you can pray better. It is the same way which most people in Islam too have that if you keep fast then you can pray better. The ascetic life of monks give them a feeling that they are away from worldly deeds and can perform their prayers better.
Spiritual life is like a ladder which is achieved by going through fasting, prayers, and being away from worldly life. Sound to me a lot like Hindu saints. In old Byzantine empire lot of Sadhus used to travel to have discussion with Christian monks.
Monks are becoming part of the torture in all the places. Islamic resurgence and all other unrest in Middle East seems to impact.
Turkey, country caught between PKK and Turkish group fighting. The Armenian who used to be a major business class in Turkey has left and people who are left are on verge to leave. Armenian are considered as Jews by Turks. After Ottoman Empire collapsed, Armenian have been reduced as they were overpowered by Turks and most of their business past to Turkish people. One of the old Armenian Church is left out with hardly any people to attend.
Haghia Eirene is the only Byzantine church left in Turkey and it is used for various purposes including fashion parade. Turkey is truly working on making everything sovereign country.
The other Christians staying in Turkey are Suraini Christians who have to flee Turkey because of communal clash between Turks and Kurdish are now in Syria.
Syria, usually not considered as a friend of west is the place where Eastern Christian have found home, people from Turkey and other places who have left go to Syria. The country which has been electing Asad for so long proves to be only place in Middle east were Eastern Christians seem to be happy. Aleppo in north of Syria has people who moved from Turkey. The people who are from Turkey are followers from Syrian Orthodox church. The journey which the people took from Turkey and the fight they had is quite a surprise that they have survived. Turkey claims to be republic but people are not, Ataturk wanted to make Turkey like European country and this need to evolve and if you push people behave differently.
Lebanon, world of Hezbollah and it turns out they are not devil as it looks from outside but it is internal feud between Maronite Christian that has resulted in problem for Christians in this part of the world. The are fighting in between themselves. Hezbollah is a shia party in Parliament and not involved in decline of Maronite Christian.
Egypt, a country which has been ruled by Husni Mubarak and considered to be ally of the west has the problem with Islamic fundamentalism and it seems to effect hard Copts Christian, The Copts are a group which got separated out from Orthodox Christian and have kept their faith since then. Alexandria monks are better compared to other monks.
Christianity is in decline in Egypt and Lebanon and seems to happen since people with Christian faith do not have future over there and fleeing away to European countries.
Palestine/Israel Christians are treated are second class citizens. The Christian sites are in decay, the sites are visited by Muslims and the new generation does not have jobs for them in Israel but are better educated then Muslims. The land of the Christian people has been occupied by Jews.
Some important things that i learned from the book:
1) Eastern Christians have same way of prostate as muslins have. They first bow with their hands on the knees and then lower the head on the ground. The tradition completely forgotten by Christians in West.
2) Eastern Church feels Pope is free Mason and they are pagan worshippers.
3) Yezidis group feel Lucifer (Satan) was pardoned by god and they worship him. It does not have to do anything with Yezid ruler of Syria.
4) Turkey destroyed all remaining Byzantine church as they do not want to keep any traces of Armenian history. Turkish people consider Armenian same as Jews.
5) In Byzantine the status of rock star was given to the Saints.
6) Monks staying in the abyss still believe Saints who are already died are protecting them.
7) Saints believed in giving punishment to one body to get connected to God.
8) Turkish people do not know Haghia Sophia was actually a church converted to Mosque.
Author starts his journey with believe that Islam fundamentalism is effecting Eastern Christians but it turns out different. In Turkey (Suraini Christian) are caught between Kurdish and Turkish fighters and with no scope for them job wise to young generation which has lead them to move away from Turkey.
September 26, 2008 | |
Inspirational
As a seminary student, I had been exposed to many of the groups Dalrymple visited during his journey. Though we treated them largely as doctrinal heretics and schismatics, they were lifeless groups and sects in the pages of our medieval church history text books. "From the Holy Mountain" brought those people to life in ways that I had not experienced before.
In addition to the narratives that draw you in, the author's keen eye for details and his ability to weave multiple threads together make you *feel* this book rather than read it. I came away feeling almost as if I had made the journey myself, and what more can we ask for from a book like this?
October 26, 2006 | |
Follows Sophronios' footsteps--but not his accounts 
This fascinating book recounts Dalrymple's 1994 reenactment of the 6th century Christian spiritual journey of John Moschos and Sophronios and is compellingly written. There, however, the value of this book ends.
The author's six months of travel through Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt did not provide an accurate portrayal of the plight of Middle Eastern Christians, who everywhere in the Muslim world are attacked without reason, maimed, and massacred, a situation that unfortunately also reflects Islamic early history.
Dalrymple retraced the steps of Sophronios, yet neglected anywhere in his homage to that self same monk to recount the learned man's graphic descriptions of the murderous initial Muslim conquest of Israel.
For the record, Sophronios had reported the massacres of 4,000 Jewish, Christian and Samaritan peasants in the 634 sack and devastation of the Gaza region--up to Cesarea. But the Jerusalem patriarch noted that Jerusalem, Gaza, Jaffa, Cesarea, Nablus and Beth Shean were isolated and forced to close their gates, according to the Islamic scholar Bat Ye'or. Indeed, the traditional Christmas pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Bethlehem was impossible in 634, Sophronios wrote, as the Muslim conquerors effectively imprisoned Christians in Jerusalem.
Surprisingly, Dalrymple also omitted Sophronios' description of the Christians' bondage---not "by tangible bonds, but chained and nailed by fear of the Saracens," whose "savage, barbarous and bloody sword" kept them locked in, Sophronios writes. He further described the Muslims as "beastly and barbarous...filled with every diabolical savagery," and likened the state of the Christians to that of Adam expelled from Paradise, and their sorrows paralleled his sorrows, according to Dr. Andrew Bostom.
Sophronios depicts the conquests from 632 to 637 as "very violent as well as decisive." In a synodal encyclical addressed to Patriarch Sergios of Constantinople, Bostom reports, Sophronios lamented the Arab conquest as "furious and brutal," "godless and impious" and its perpetrators as "villainous and God-hating Saracens," who in 637 left a train of destruction behind them, along with the abandoned human bodies devoured by the wild birds of region's deserts.
Dalrymple ignores all this history---despite his supposed reverence for Sophronios. And he also inexplicably sympathizes with current-day Muslim warlords who drove Lebanon's Christian majority from their homes. Indeed, he blames the Christians as the cause of their own suffering. Dalrymple wrongly calls Christians, particularly Lebanese Maronites, to account for "intransigence, their unapologetic Christian supremacism, their contempt for their Muslim neighbors, and their point-blank refusal to share Lebanon...."
Wherever possible, Dalrymple also blames the current plight of Middle Eastern Christians on the Israel. He expresses outright hatred for Israelis who helped those victims--and continue to offer safe haven to other oppressed Middle Eastern religious minorities and homosexuals. One gets more honest perspectives from Middle Eastern Christians like journalist Brigitte Gabriel, Prof. Habib C. Malik, Prof. Walid Phares, Walid Shoebat, Anis Shorresh and Pakistani Christian Patrick Sookhdeo.
The largest error of this book is the author's failure to recognize a key problem of Middle East Christians---one that the late, martyred Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel identified as their dhimmitude--their undue submission to Muslims, according to Islamic scholar Bat Ye'or.
Distressingly, Dalrymple also finds endless fault with the residence--however rightful under international law--of Israelis and Jewish people in areas on the West Bank of the Jordan River. He wants them removed, period. That's Unchristian--especially given the peaceful and legal presence of more than 1 million Arab citizens in Israel.
Dalrymple unquestioningly accepts Muslim Arab determination to evict all Jews and Christians from a Palestinian state, if ever one is created.
I don't understand how a Christian writer, ostensibly sympathetic with Christians, could be so hostile to Christian, Jewish and other victims of Muslim radicalism, and so unaccountably empathetic with their oppressors.
This book is a real disappointment.
--Alyssa A. Lappen
October 07, 2006 | |
A book transcending itself
A trip through the Middle-East is most of all getting to know the Muslim world. The part of its' history from Byzantine times, meaning the presence and history of Christian settlements, is easily forgotten or at least figures in the background only. After having read this book the Middle-East will never be the same to me again. With the exception of the Armenian genocide, I was hardly aware of all tragedies which happened but most of all: which are today still happening to the very old Christian communities of these countries. Not only are they in permanent danger of being killed, often with no punishment of the perpetrators from the authorities, and have they already been driven out of places where they lived since a 1500 years, also their ancient buildings, art, manuscripts, possessions of huge historic meaning, are being destroyed. As these communities and their material heritage represent much of the roots of Western civilization, this loss is a huge loss for the history of mankind. What's going on is a complete annihilation of the wonderful mosaic of different civilizations this world once produced. As since many years but now more than ever the Middle-East is the focus of world politics, "From the Holy Mountain" should be read by a much wider group of people than lovers of good travelogues or lovers of these countries only. A most important and readable study, implicating a plea for tolerance and respect, it should be a must-read for all politicians in the world.
September 05, 2006 | |
Zeal For Ecclesiastical Arcana 
Yes! My title nabbed from the Amazon reviewer. Dalrymple's journey through the middle east, retraces the Byzantine traveller-monlk, John Moschos, author of, The Spiritual Meadow'. In the late C6th, accompanied by his pupil, he set to gather the wisdom of the desert fathers from Mt Athos, to Kurdisatan, then south through Syria, the Lebanon, Palestine, and on up the Nile. Dalrymple's trip in the early 90s was frought with tensions which today would cause an angel trepidation. The book was a revelation to me, filling in considerable gaps about the foundation and correlations of so many parties in the fermenting region. Muslim fundamentlists provide stiff opposition to Dalrymple's historical and current enquiries. But they are not unique in this. His evocation of place is crisply poetic and touched with memorable detail. His feel for people is very sympathetic. A work justly applauded.
August 22, 2006 | |
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