Lost Levant

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>How do we understand the heritage of the Levant? In 2003 Rupert de Borchgrave </span><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>set off by local public transport from London to Mount Ararat with a backpack and a sack of books. Against the backdrop of the Second Gulf War he</span><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(119 119 119 1)> examined the much-disputed territory on which the ancient world constructed its philosophical religious mathematical and artistic thinking and considered what the region gave to Western civilisation.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>His narrative unfolds across 24 chapters capturing encounters with diverse people along the way from a Sicilian opera singer to a Tunisian chicken farmer from a dissident Libyan physician to a retired English diplomat in Siwa oasis from an Orthodox monk at Sinai to a Jordanian princess.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>These encounters form a series of vignettes in the tradition of ancient epics from </span><em style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>The Odyssey</em><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)> to </span><em style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>The Epic of Gilgamesh</em><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)> framing the journey as a modern pilgrimage through lands steeped in history and cultural significance.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>The essays in the first half are concerned with existentialist philosophy and religious history. In Rome the subject is Christianity; in Pompeii the thought of Epicurus; in Syracuse an essay on Archimedes leads to a discussion about infinity and mathematical 'fit' in natural science. In Siwa Khaldunian ideas are presented; in Alexandria the subjects are the history of the 'logos' and the desert fathers; the Cairo chapter develops the book's themes; while in Sinai heterodoxy Platonism and mysticism are discussed. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>The essays in the second half are focussed on political economy and the history of the Greater Levant. In Jordan the author explores the origins of Islam the crusades Israel and inter-religious dialogue; in the Damascus chapters he elaborates a theory of 'Epicurean economics'. In Aleppo he discusses the influence of ancient Iraq on Greek civilisation and the Syria chapters close with an account of the Syrian Civil War relating these tragic events to the earlier essays. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>Antioch addresses pagans versus Christians and democracy versus autocracy. The final sections explore the worlds of the Syriacs and Armenians in Upper Mesopotamia and eastern Turkey before reaching Mount Ararat and touching on Sufism in Konya.  </span></p><p></p><p><em style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>Lost Levant</em><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)> reinterprets Christianism as the forerunner of secular liberal democracy contrasting it with social Darwinist capitalism globalist libertarianism and autocratic kleptocracy and advocates for a theory of political economy termed 'Epicurean economics'. The book discusses cultural innovation as the continuous expression of what Hegel called the 'world spirit' - the unfolding illumination of logos - to work to the end of an optimal political economy rooted in 'liberté égalité fraternité'. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(119 119 119 1)>The journey to Ararat reflects the author's belief that while humanity's challenges evolve the ancient questions-about faith freedom and meaning-are still essential and addressing them can lead us toward a more compassionate and thoughtful world.</span></p>