Just about everything I would want to say about this excellent book is in JT’s review in the Travel Literature blog, but I will just add one thought.

As a Persian scholar and someone who has travelled widely in the region, Elliot has a sympathy for Islam. His condemnation of the way that today’s Western media portray it as a homogenous and generally dangerous ideology is understandable. The negative impact of the West’s – particularly the USA’s – policies towards Afghanistan and the wider region comes over strongly. The lack of understanding is mutual, though: what hits the non-religious reader like a cosh is the way that in a country like Afghanistan, Islam and life are inseparable. Life is Islam, and Islam is life, in a way which I doubt has a parallel in all but the most extreme sections of Christianity and Judaism. The prospect of achieving tolerance and understanding on all sides while religion – and let me make it clear I mean all religions – retains such a hold on society seems bleak.