The list author says: "This part of the world has complex trade, tribal and linguistic history hard to deduce from mainstream fiction, popular history or even travel books. Here is what little I have found so far as preparation for my own travels begins. Suggestions welcome."
"Central Asia's peoples, art, trade, religion and politics are closely connected with the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. Stunning color plates of artworks are a bonus."
"The tale of a young rugmaker at the height of Shah Abbas' age of fine arts in Persia provides a history or perhaps an ethnography of rural and urban, wealthy and poor."
"An Iranian professor of English literature teaches in Tehran where she refuses to take the veil. Instead she teaches her young female students in her home, providing a rare glimpse of how life has changed beneath the veil."
"Excellent history of this enigmatic region and one of the best features is the maps across centuries showing how the geographic boundaries of the countries around the Black Sea have changed."
"Detective Yashim is the rare eunuch who lives in Istanbul at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Amazing story woven into Byzantine history, Ottoman geography and Roman architecture."
"Indispensable pocket reference compiled by the World Bank on population, land area, water resources, forests, automobiles and other facts relative to carbon intensity."
"The legacy of the Ottoman Empire is still with us. Its borders were vast, its rule incomplete and how it functioned as the rule of law for hundreds of years is surprising."
"It is easy to how the author would have chosen this city and this topic. Istanbul is a love affair with place. But Istanbul's Golden Horn area must be seen with a fine eye for past empires and maritime exploits."
"A lyric novel by an Algerian military officer who used a feminine pseudonym, this story follows the lives of four people whose relationships are sorely tested by the war-torn Kabul during the time of the Taliban. A parable more than a story, beautifully analytical."
"This book took on meaning only after we had visited Istanbul. It is heir to the long lineage of books about this location, each building on the last. But this one is written by Nobel Prize winner who is a lifelong resident."
"This prize-winning book is offbase in the geographical sense but it does provide a stark contrast to Central Asia: here we have India's own Horatio Alger story which could only happen with globalized trade."
"A friend described this book as "a modern explanation of Turkey's internal struggle" and indeed, it is. Fear prevails in the world of artists and illustrators during the Ottoman Empire. Graceful prose, wit and brevity - even a bit of humor - bring this cautionary tale into sharp focus for the modern student of Middle East geopolitics."
"I enjoy this unusual book because it is a good example of the "nested fable" so often found in Middle East literature. Each of the story's elements are drawn finely and separately then their orbits gradually converge until the whole story snaps into unexpected focus. An artful and strange tale, this one."
"To understand this finely drawn novel is to gain insights into modern Turkey. The plot parallels the coming of age for Ataturk's legacy complete with intrigue, unattainable beauty, turmoil..Amazing work that could be read along with "Birds Without Wings""
