[.ca] The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca (ISBN 0553803999)

Insanity explained:
That Tahir Shah decided to uproot his family and move to Casablanca from London is not all that surprising. Nor was his idea to buy and put in much needed renovations to the Caliph's House. That he did not go completely insane as the task(s) unfolded, unraveled, did entire 360s and still was able to come up with a readable prose is amazing. The guy can flatout write and knows where to stop. He never drags a single thought out nor runs it into th ground. The man either has a great sense of editing or he just knows how to shift gears as seamlessly as an F-1 race car driver even within chapters. Of course, it's a look inside the Moroccan, and subsequently the Islamic, world at a time in world history when Muslims are under the microscope. Definitely worth reading just to shatter the stereotype of the "Muslim as terrorist" jag that permeates much of the neocon narrow minded thinking on the subject. That aside I would have liked a few "before, during and after" pictures of the house in question given the yearlong unintentionally hilarious construction site it became. Visual imaginary is fine but other than a glimpse via the book cover, how those wondrous tiles looked in their glorious full color would have been the icing on the cake that this fine book is.