02636cam a2200397 i 4500 1742831399 TxAuBib 20241121120000.0 230923s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9781324002413 hardcover 1324002417 hardcover TxAuBib rda Green, Nile, author. Empire's son, empire's orphan : the fantastical lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah / Nile Green. First edition. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, [2024] 369 pages ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-355) and index. part I: Empire's son. Student ; Journalist ; Informant ; Expert ; Author ; Propagandist -- part II: Empire's orphan. Apprentice ; Occultist ; Amanuensis ; Mystic ; Luminary ; Warrior. A rollicking story of two literary fabulists who revealed the West's obsession with a fabricated, exotic East. Claiming to come from Afghanistan, Ikbal and Idries Shah convinced spies, poets, orientalists, diplomats, occultists, hippies, and even a prime minister that they held the keys to understanding the Muslim world. Gambling with the currency of cultural authenticity, father and son became master players of the great game of empire and its aftermath as their careers extended from colonial India and wartime Oxford to swinging London and literary New York. Empire's Son, Empire's Orphan unravels a quagmire of aliases and pseudonyms, fantastical pasts and self-aggrandizing anecdotes, high stakes and bold schemes that painted the defining portrait of Afghanistan for almost a century. From George Orwell directing Muslim propaganda to Robert Graves translating a fake manuscript of Omar Khayyam and Doris Lessing supporting jihad, Nile Green tells the fascinating tale of how the world was beguiled by the dream of an Afghan Shangri-La that never existed. 20241121. Shah, Ikbal Ali, Sirdar. Shah, Idries, 1924-1996. Islam in literature. Sufism in literature. Authors, Indic Great Britain Biography. East Indians Great Britain Biography. Muslims Great Britain Biography. Muslims India History. Afghanistan History Errors, inventions, etc. Afghanistan In literature. TXKIP