First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious Middle East travel memoir and a work of ethnographic and cultural research, taking the reader from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.
Destination Mecca is the Sufi writer Idries Shah’s sweeping classic travelogue through North Africa and the Middle East in the mid-20th century. As an Afghan from a Muslim background, and the son of a roving international diplomat, the author married familiarity with the region with the fresh eye of a traveller, making his account unique among books about the area.
Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys: from his quest for King Solomon’s Gold Mines on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, to encounters with Moroccan contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud. The author’s family connections granted him access that was unavailable to other writers at the time.
Destination Mecca is both an invaluable snapshot of the Arab World, and a rare look at some of the seldom-seen cultural undercurrents running through it.
I Gentleman at Large
II Tangier: Smugglers’ Paradise
III Contraband Runner
IV Eastward to Egypt
V New Arabian Knights
VI Marching Orders
VII Red Sea Journey
VIII The Shrine of the Black Stone
IX Life in Mecca
X Camel Lore
XI Locust Army
XII Audience with Ibn Saud
XIII Saud, Son of Abdul-Aziz
XIV In Search of Solomon’s Mines
XV Mahdism on the March
XVI Domes of Omdurman
XVII Land of the Phoenicians
XVIII Kingdom of the Jordan
XIX Petra the Mysterious
XX The Rock of Paradise
XXI In Search of Venus
XXII Sorcerer’s Apprentice
XXIII Guerrilla King of No Man’s Land
From Destination Mecca by Idries Shah
Copyright © The Estate of Idries Shah
Idries Shah was born in India in 1924 into an aristocratic Afghan family. He was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition and is considered one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century.
Shah devoted his life to collecting, translating and adapting key works of Sufi classical literature for the needs of the West. Called by some 'practical philosophy' - these works represent centuries of Sufi and Islamic thought aimed at developing human potential. His best-known works include the seminal book The Sufis, several collections of teaching stories featuring the ‘wise fool’ Nasrudin, Reflections and Knowing How to Know.
Shah's corpus - over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and cultural studies - have been translated into two dozen languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. They are regarded as an important bridge between the cultures of East and West.