Part memoir and part travelogue, this collection of essays evokes scenes of daily life in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Written by a globe-trotting scholar who
is the daughter of diplomats, these accounts of gracious households, sweetly perfumed gardens, and alluring historic towns merge into a larger portrait of a sophisticated culture that has
produced more than its share of architects, mathematicians, poets, and prophets.