Merging the traditions of the classic Balkan Ghosts and the bestselling Places in Between and Beirut to Jerusalem, one journalist's journey reveals the many Muslim worlds. An Oxford-educated scholar of the Middle East and former foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Hugh Pope lived and worked in two dozen countries throughout the region. Following in the footsteps of Sir Richard Burton and Lawrence of Arabia, Hugh Pope's explorations of the people, politics, religion, and culture of Islamic nations shows there is no such thing as a monolithic "Muslim World." His probing and often perilous journeys-at one point he is forced to quote Koranic verse to argue against his being murdered by a top al- Qaeda leader-provide an eye-opening look at diverse societies often misportrayed by superficial reporting and "why they hate us" politics. With U.S. foreign policy under Obama aiming to more constructively engage with Muslim nations, this lyrical and often poetic voyage is one of the truly important books of our times. Editorial review.

Includes index.

Mr. Q, I love you : Oriental studies meets the Middle East -- It's a fine line : journalism on the road from Damascus -- The plot in the conspiracy : spies in the Syria-Lebanon-Palestine triangle -- Hunting for scapegoats : foreign interference and misrule in Lebanon -- A pilgrimage to Jerusalem : the Israeli-Palestine entanglement -- The drunken lover : revolutionary Iran's struggle with its poetic soul -- Subversion in the harem : women on the rise, from Cairo to Istanbul -- War, war to victory : Iran's school of martyrdom and love -- Mammon in Mecca : crushing religious diversity in the name of Islam -- Dining with al-Qaeda : a Saudi missionary and the "wonderful boys" of September 11 -- Tea with the brigadier : failing the famished of south Sudan -- The central bank governor has no socks : Taliban warlords, Pakistani feudals, and the nation-state -- Regal republics, democratic kings : Syria, Jordan, and the dimensions of dictatorship -- Saddamized : inside Iraq's psychotic stress machine -- Jousting with the juggernaut : how not to stop a U.S. invasion -- Stop firing! This is a military situation : one step behind the war with the Kurds -- The Yezidi heresy : an alternative approach to military liberation -- The general and the professor : America collides with history in Iraq.