In the summer of 1964, while a military coup was taking place and tanks were rolling through the streets of Algiers, Robert Irwin set off for Algeria in search of Sufi enlightenment. There he entered a world of marvels and ecstasy, converted to Islam and received an initiation as a faqir. He learnt the rituals of Islam in North Africa and he studied Arabic in London. He also pursued more esoteric topics under a holy fool possessed of telepathic powers. A series of meditations on the nature of mystical experience run through this memoir. But political violence, torture, rock music, drugs, nightmares, Oxbridge intellectuals and first love and its loss are all part of this strange story from the 1960s.
- ISBN10 1861979916
- ISBN13 9781861979919
- Publish Date 14 April 2011
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 19 March 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Profile Books Ltd
- Edition Main
- Format Paperback (UK Trade)
- Pages 288
- Language English