Travels in the Unknown East Author:John Grant This is an account made extraordinary by the insights of the author's two journeys to the Middle East separated by some sixty years -- the most recent in 1989. We travel to Turkey for first-hand stories of the modernization of this great nation, and of the reality behind the Dancing Dervishes. On to Syria by camel caravan, to Aleppo and Antioch ... more »for a meeting with the leader of the Druse, the secret community scattered throughout the Eastern Mediterranean states. On a journey interwoven with stories of romantic elopements, emperors and slaves, we learn the methods of the fakirs and the Salabiyya. We travel to Beirut with swordsmen, Sheiks and poets. In Jerusalem we find new insights into the Christian traditional Christmas story. Crossing to Jordan we visit the secret Nusairi Sect and travel to the carved city of Petra. In Egypt we are taken into the violent underworld of the drug-smuggler. Packed with dazzling excitement, insights, facts and observations of this complex region, Travels in the Unknown East also offers new insights about how to recognize the activities and contributions of the real Sufis today.« less