''The Caliph's House'' is a travel book by Anglo-Afghan author, Tahir Shah.

Overview

Unwilling to raise his two infant children in England, Tahir Shah drags them and his Indian-born wife to Morocco, where he traveled as a child. It was there that his grandfather, the savant Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, passed the last decade of his life (he moved to Tangier after his wife died in 1960, declaring that he would go to a land where he had never been together). Shah's father was equally obsessed with Morocco, largely it seems because it reminded him of his native Afghanistan, in terms of the culture, climate and geography. Arriving in 2004, Shah and his family move into a Jinn-filled mansion in the middle of a

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

shantytown. The house, named Dar Khalifa, (which translated as 'The Caliph's House), describes in detail the highs and lows of the relocation to what was essentially an unfamiliar country. The house came equipped with three hereditary guardians, who control every facet of life, straining to remind the Shahs of the danger of the Jinn. Eventually a grand exorcism was acted out, with the slaughter of animals and so forth, to the delight of the guardians.

Translations

''The Caliph's House'' was published in 2006 on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been followed by a series of translations in a number of languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. The wide appeal of this book seems to be the way in which it imparts (albeit in a humorous way) a deeper understanding of Arab culture—which is of interest in the post-

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

world. The sequel, '' In Arabian Nights'', picks up where this book leaves off.

Awards

''The Caliph's House'' was nominated as one of '' TIME'' magazine's 10 Best Books of 2006 It was also selected to be read on BBC Radio 4's '' Book of the Week''. The book is to be the basis for a feature film, written and directed by identical twin Hollywood writers

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

and

Carey Hayes Carey W. Hayes (born April 21, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer. He is the twin brother of Chad Hayes. They are writing partners, and wrote such films as the 2005 remake of '' House of Wax'', ''The Reaping'' (2007) and ''The Conju ...

References

External links

''The Caliph's House'' on the author's web site
(Archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Caliph's House 2006 non-fiction books American travel books Books by Tahir Shah Books about Morocco