Bibliograph

The Caliph's house, a year in Casablanca, Tahir Shah

Type

Label

The Caliph's house, a year in Casablanca, Tahir Shah

Language

eng

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The Caliph's house

Responsibility statement

Tahir Shah

Sub title

a year in Casablanca

Summary

Childhood memories of holidaying with his parents, and of a grandfather he barely knew, led Shah to Morocco and to 'Dar Khalifa', a sprawling and, with the exception of its jinns, long-abandoned residence on the edge of Casablanca's shanty town that, rumour had it, once belonged to the city's Caliph. And so begins Tahir Shah's gloriously vivid, funny, affectionate and compelling account of how he and his family - aided, abetted and so often hindered by a wonderful cast of larger-than-life local characters: guardians, gardeners, builders, artisans, bureacrats and police, returned the Caliph's House to its former glory and learned to make this most exotic and alluring of countries their home. A story of home-ownership abroad. Woven into the narrative is the author's own journey of self-discovery, of learning about a grandfather he hardly knew, and of coming to love the magical, multi-faceted, contradictory country that is Morocco

Classification