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Tall tales of the Golden East: the fabulous fabrications of two 20th-century con artists

Capitalising on his Afghan-Indian heritage, Ikbal Shah claimed to have crucial inside knowledge of Central Asia, while his son Idries later purveyed a rebranded Sufism for the West

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

27 July 2024

9:00 AM

Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah Nile Green

Norton, pp.368, 22

Have literary deceit and spiritual self-invention ever been this entertaining? The question arises on almost every page of this galloping exposé of two men who were exceedingly relaxed about not telling the truth throughout their professional lives. They would have called it ‘storytelling’. Those who questioned the reliability of their often outlandish claims were dismissed as academic nonentities.

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