The Book of Roads & Kingdoms" is the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. Imperial Baghdad, founded as the 'City of Peace', quickly became the biggest and richest metropolis in the world.
In a flourishing culture of science, literature and philosophy, the citizens of Baghdad were fascinated by the world and everything in it. Inspired by their Prophet's commandment to seek knowledge all over the world, these traders, diplomats, soldiers and scientists left behind the cosmopolitan pleasures of Baghdad to venture by camel, horse and boat into the unknown. Those who returned from these distant foreign lands wrote accounts of their adventures, both realistic and fantastical - tales of wonder and horror and delight.
I haven't bought the book - yet - but I bought its audiobook: thirteen hours of listening pleasure on eleven compact discs await me - and even more hours of deep and sound sleep as Richard Fidler's writing and voice are so boring that, despite the insomnia I am cursed with, I fall asleep within ten minutes of having started a CD. To sample it, click here.
