Tahir Shah | |
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Tahir Shah
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Born |
London, England, United Kingdom |
16 November 1966
Occupation | Writer, documentary maker |
Subject | Travel, exploration, Arab World, cross-cultural studies |
Spouse | Rachana Shah |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Shah family |
Website | |
tahirshah |
Tahir Shah (Persian: طاهر شاه, Gujarati: તાહિર શાહ; né Sayyid Tahir al-Hashimi (Arabic: سيد طاهر الهاشمي); born 16 November 1966) is a British author, journalist and documentary maker of Afghan-Indian descent. He lives in Casablanca, Morocco.
Shah was born into a family of saadat who had their ancestral home at Paghman, not far from Kabul. His mother is of Indian Parsi ethnicity and his father was the Sufi teacher and writer Idries Shah. His elder sister is the documentary filmmaker Saira Shah. He also has a twin sister, author Safia Nafisa Shah.
Tahir Shah was born and brought up in Britain. His father believed strongly in lifelong learning, which influenced his literature. Tahir Shah was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset, England and at universities in London, Nairobi and San Diego. In 2003, sick of living in a London apartment, Shah moved to Morocco along with his wife Rachana and their two small children, Ariane and Timur, where they bought a crumbling mansion in Casablanca located in the middle of a huge shantytown.The Caliph's House (2006) charts the highs and lows of their integration into their new life.
Tahir Shah is a prolific author of books, documentaries, book introductions, peer reviewed academic articles, and book reviews. The vast majority of Shah's books can be considered travel literature, with the exception of his 2012 release Timbuctoo. Shah's first published book was Cultural Research, written for the London-based Institute for Cultural Research. One of his more notable works is Trail of Feathers, an account of his trip through Peru, Machu Picchu, the Incas and Cusco. Another book, In Search of King Solomon's Mines, searching for undiscovered mines known only in folklore. Other books like in Arabian Nights and Travels with Myself are mostly about the author's journeys through exotic locations. His first traditional travelogue was in 1995 with Beyond the Devil's Teeth, covering a trip through Africa, India and much of Latin America.