Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East

by Gerard Russell

Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient Persia, Babylon, Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. Their followers have learned how to survive foreign attacks and the perils of assimilation. But today, with the Middle East in turmoil, they face greater challenges than ever before. In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities. Historically a tolerant faith, Islam has, since the early 20th century, witnessed the rise of militant, extremist sects. This development, along with the rippling effects of Western invasion, now pose existential threats to these minority faiths. And as more and more of their youth flee to the West in search of greater freedoms and job prospects, these religions face the dire possibility of extinction. Drawing on his extensive travels and archival research, Russell provides an essential record of the past, present, and perilous future of these remarkable religions.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Middle East, Travel, Anthropology, Theology

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2014

Reviews

[Petra X]

Update, why this is not a review. The author's obvious bias has put me off because I don't know if his bias is limited to Palestine/Israel but it is for other countries and/or religions and I just don't know enough about them to know. So I don't know if this book is really a fair and unbiased look at these "forgotten kingdoms" or I'm looking at it from the point of view of the Arabist diplomat, the Whitehall Mandarin. I need to think about this more and do a little more research but I'd rather read another book

I have a lot to say about the book which I did enjoy reading and learned a lot, but until I can decide what is objective and what is biased I can't think how to write a review.
_________

When the Persian armies conquered Bethlehem in 614 CE, they razed the town but spared the Church of the Nativity because they saw carvings of the Three Magi at the entrance. Persia was the home of the Zoroastrians, whose priests were called... Magi.
__________

The book by a British Arabist ex-diplomat looks at religions that survive to a greater or lesser degree in the Middle East.

The author makes a very good point about why there are no disappearing religions in Europe. He says that although the Muslims controlled most of the land between North Africa and Afghanistan by the 8thC and had a reputation as fierce and exclusive, they were much more tolerant of other religions than the Christians of Western Europe. He says that the pagans and pre-Christian religions were so thoroughly wiped out it is hard to even trace them.

The disappearing peoples are: Mandaeans, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts and Kalasha. I've heard of all of them except the Kalasha.

[Osama · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب ورثة الممالك المنسية

: الفصل الأول يتحدث عن دين المندائيين ودين المانوية .. من الأديان القديمة التي تعود لعصر البابليين في العراق .. وعلاقة هذين الدينيين مع المسيحية القديمة : المندائيين يؤمنون بيحيى المعمدان كنبي لهم ويمارسون طقس التعميد بالماء ويرون بأن الشر له إله أنثى وأن بعد الموت يذهب المؤمن لعالم النور ولديهم كتاب مقدس ويؤمنون بإله واحد هو الحياة العظيمة (ماندا دا حيا) ومنه اشتقت كلمة ماندائيون: ويقدر عدد معتنقي الديانة حاليا بمئة ألف تقريبا ولكن لا تمارس الديانة بعمق إلا من قبل شيوخ الدين بينما يميل كثير من الشباب للحياة المدنية العلمانية وكثير منهم هاجر للغرب ويحتفظ بعادات دينية لا يعرف سرها وأسبابها. أما المانوية فهي دين قديم في حضارة ما بين النهرين به بعض الشبه بالمندائية.  واجهت المندائية فترات عصيبة حيث تم ابادتهم مرارا وآخرها على يد العثمانيين .. وكانوا يلجأون للأهوار في نهر دجلة وهي تشبه جزر صغيرة بها نبات القصب .. وتم تجفيف الاهوار خلال التسعينات .. وحاليا بسبب الاضطرابات في العراق لجأ كثير منهم للخارج خوفا من ان يحل بهم ما حل للازيديين. وكذلك بسبب تطور العلم والثقافة قل الاهتمام باعتناق الدين المندائي لاسيما وانهم أقلية ولا يملكون تراث قوي مكتوب ومؤسساتهم الدينية تقوم على فكرة تحمل كبار السن مسؤولية الطقوس الدينية.

الفصل الثاني يتحدث عن طائفة الازيديين والتي لطالما سمعنا عنهم في الاخبار خلال الاعوام الماضية في العراق وما تعرضوا له من مآسي على يد المتطرفين.
تتشابه الازيدية مع أديان أخرى قديمة كالحرانية الذين يعبدون النجوم، وكذلك مع أديان أخرى للأقليات مثل العلويين، الزرداشتية، الشاباك، الكاكائية والاشوريين .. وكلها تفاعلت مع الديانات السماوية الثلاث
- لغة الازيديين مماثلة للغة الكردية وتسمى كيرمانجي.
- شهادتهم لا رب الا الرب، والشمس هي نور الرب.
- يصلون ثلاث مرات يوميا لكنهم ليسوا مسلمين، ويصل عددهم لمئات الآلاف موزعين في العراق، ايران، سوريا، جورجيا وارمينيا.
- يؤمنون بتناسخ الأرواح، والههم بمثابة ملاك أو شيطان يسمى ملك طاووس ولديهم وجهة نظر خاصة بشأن الخير والشر وموضوع الشيطان ..
- لديهم طبقات اجتماعية ويعتمدون على التناقل الشفهي لتعاليم الدين.
يتناول الكاتب تفاصيل كثيرة مفيدة مثل قصة الحلاج (أنا الحق)، وموضوع العلويين، وكيف أن وجود الشر في الشيطان يطرح تساؤلات معقدة حول كونه ملاك أو جن وكيف سمح له بالافلات والوسوسة للبشر ..

الفصل الثالث الديانة الزرادشتية .. يستخدمون لغة قديمة جدا في صلواتهم وتسمى أڤيستان، ولغتهم اليومية تسمي گابري. كانت الزرادشتية هي الديانة الشائعة في فارس قبل الاسلام. وتسمى ديانتهم بالمجوسية من قبل العرب. رب الخير لديهم يدعى أهورا مازدا وقوى الشر تسمى أنگرا مينيو. والصراع دائم بين هاتين القوتين. لديهم احترام كبير للكلاب. يزور المؤلف احد معابد الزرادشتيين التاريخية ليحكي رواية شعلة النار المقدسة وكيفية تحول البلاد لدين الاسلام. ومنها ينطلق المؤلف إلى مدينة قم ثم أصفهان وشيراز و أخيرا يزد حيث لا يزال يعيش هناك الزرادشت ولديهم معبدهم ويمارسون حياتهم الدينية. الملفت للنظر أن النار ليست إله الزرادشت وإنما يعتبرونه بمثابة نور أو طريق الإله. وكانوا في الماضي لا يدفنون موتاهم وإنمت يتركونهم على قمم الجبال لتأكلها النسور والجوارح. نقطة مهمة تذكر ان سبب تسميتهم مجوس تعود لإسم الكهنة وقد اشتقت كلمة ماجيك الانجليزية من نفس اللفظ.

الفصل الرابع .. الدروز طائفة دينية يصل عدد أفرادها إلى المليون تقريبا وهم موزعين على ثلاث دول لبنان و سوريا وفلسطين. أبرز قيادات الدروز السياسية عائلة جنبلاط وأرسلان في لبنان. ينقسم الدروز إلى مستويين وهم الجهال أي العامة من الناس ويعتبرون غير مكلفين، والعقال وهم شيوخ وشيخات من ذوي العلم بأسرار الدين. يؤمن الدروز بمسألة التقمص أو تناسخ الأرواح فلا يوجد موت وإنما انتقال روح المتوفي لشخص آخر. فروح فيثاغورث برأيهم انتقلت للمسيح عليه السلام ثم النبي الأكرم وهكذا إلى الخليفة الفاطمي الحاكم بأمر الله. ولديهم احترام للأديان السماوية، وكذلك يؤمنون بفكرة العقل العالمي اي ان هناك قوة إلهية تحكم الكون ولكن بشكل يختلف عن تصور المسلمين لله عز وجل. يمكن اعتبار الدرزية بأنها فلسفة أكثر من ديانة، وأنها روحية أكثر من كونها طقوسية. يعيش معظم الدروز بجهل عن أسرار دينهم ويمارسون حياتهم بلا قيود ما عدا أنه يتوقع منهم الزواج من نفس الطائفة، وأن يعيشوا بتماسك اجتماعي وسياسي.

الفصل الخامس من كتاب ورثة الممالك المنسية للمؤلف جيرارد راسل يتحدث عن ديانة السامريين. تبدأ قصتهم في القرن الثامن قبل الميلاد حيث انقسم نسل أسباط يعقوب عليه السلام إلى مملكتين: إسرائيل و جودا. وكانتا في حالة صراع وحرب حتى قام الأشوريون بالاستيلاء على أرضهم وتم تهجيرهم إلى شمال العراق. ومع مرور الزمن تشتت قبائلهم ولكن بقي القليل من أبناء جودا في فلسطين وتطورت ديانتهم بشكل مستقل عن الديانة اليهودية المعروفة حاليا. وأبناء جودا أسموا نفسهم بالعبرانيين أو السامريين وهم لا يحبون الملك داود ولا يعترفون بقداسة الهيكل وإنما لديهم جبل مقدس آخر يعيشون بقربه في مدينة اللوز بفلسطين. عدد اتباع الديانة السامرية يقارب سبعمائة شخص فقط ويؤمنون بأجزاء معينة من التوراة وليس كلها، ويتعايشون مع جيرانهم الفلسطينيين وكذلك مع المستوطنين اليهود ولكنهم لا يؤمنون بالديانة اليهودية الحالية ولهم خصوصية في طقوسهم وعاداتهم وقوانينهم.

الفصل السادس من كتاب ورثة الممالك المنسية يبحث في موضوع الأقباط في مصر وهم طائفة مسيحية يعود أصلها إلى القديس مارك ويمتازون بممارسة العبادة المسيحية بالتزام ولاسيما عبادة الصوم عن اللحوم ومنتجات الألبان في مواسم معينة. يجتمع الاقباط تحت قيادة البابا القبطي وينتشرون في مصر والسودان ودول أفريقية قريبة. يقدم الكاتب سردا لتاريخ الأقباط في مصر منذ دخول المسيحية واندثار الفرعونية مرورا بالحكم الاسلامي زمن الخلافة حتى يصل لزمن العثمانيين والملكية والجمهورية. ويركز الكاتب على الصراع بين تيارات الاسلام السياسي والاقباط في زمن السادات ومبارك. وقد أدت الضغوط إلى هجرة نسبة كبيرة من الأقباط إلى الغرب أو زيادة التمسك بالهوية القبطية لمن آثر البقاء في مصر.

الفصل السابع يتناول دين جماعة الكلاشا وهم يعيشون في جبال الهندكوش بين افغانستان وباكستان، وكان يعيش هناك جماعات أخرى عديدة يعبدون رب اسمه إيمرا و گيش، يشربون الخمر ولذلك أسماهم جيرانهم المسلمون بأهل كفرستان. لم يتمكن الاسكندر ولا تيمور لنك من هزيمة تلك القبائل ولم يأبه بهم المسلمون كثيرا لوعورة مناطق سكنهم. وقد قتلوا أحد المبشرين الكاثوليك في القرن الثامن عشر ظنا منهم بأنه روح شريرة. وشعر المستعمرون البريطانيون بأن تلك المنطقة لا تستحق عناء الاستعمار نظرا لشجاعة أهلها وكذلك قساوة الطقس والجغرافيا. وتحول هؤلاء إلى الاسلام في عهد أحد الملوك الأفغان وسفكت دماء آخرين ولا يزال نسلهم مشهور بالضراوة والقسوة. البقايا القليلة تمسكت بدينها القديم وتسمى الكلاشا وهم أقلية تختلف في ملامحها وعاداتها عن غالبية الأفغان ويقال بأنهم نسل الاسكندر والاغريق الذين وصلوا لتلك البلاد منذ الوف السنين. 

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and informative study of seven religious groups within the large swath of "Middle East" and central Asia that have maintained a unique identity for centuries through various conquests, empires, and dominant religious movements.



Many of these groups - either completely autonomous, or splinter sects from another dominant religion - were often geographically isolated, therefore able to practice and sustain their belief system without intervention from other groups for centuries, some until very recently.

The delta marshes of the Tigris and Euphrates in modern Iraq is the original home to the Mandaeans; the mountains forming the borders between modern Iran, Turkey, Syria, Armenia, and Georgia are the ancestral home of the Yazidis; Zoroastrians - the most ancient of the religions discussed in the book -were the dominant religion for centuries before displacement throughout Persia and modern Iran; the Druze, in villages in the close confines of borderlands of Lebanon, Syria, and modern Israel; the Samaritans - only numbering in the 700s now - in the West Bank of Palestine; the Copts of Egypt; and finally the Kalash, very isolated in the high mountains on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The author - a political diplomat with British-American citizenship - has a passion and desire to tell the stories and histories of these titular 'Forgotten Kingdoms' and that alone made it easier to look over some of the missteps (outlined below). His occupation and postings throughout the Middle East gave him access to these groups and the ability to build a network of contacts to gain access to ceremonies, festivals, and services that may not be available to just anyone (of course... it helps that he is male, as females are not able to access many of the groups and ceremonies he witnesses).


Druze woman, Lebanon, 1875

The majority of chapters were structured very well, attempting to explain centuries - sometimes millenia - of history in 30-50 pages. Each group has been individually impacted by political and religious turmoil: the Yazidis, many of whom are ethnic Kurds, have been targeted for centuries, escalating to genocide in many towns in Syria and Iraq at the hands of ISIS over the last few years. The book was published in 2014, but much of the research was done years before. At the end of the Yazidi section, Russell makes a post-script, added right before publishing, no doubt, about the threat of ISIS on this group.

While each group has been subjugated in one form or another, for many centuries, these groups were 'tolerated' and allowed to freely practice under Islamic/Jewish/Christian-dominated political and religious rule. In some cases, like that of the Samaritans of Palestine and the Druze of Lebanon/Syria/Israel, they provide a critical non-partisan link between dominant factions at odds. However, because of this subjugation, there are large populations of diaspora from the groups - relocated to Europe, North America, Australia, etc. In many cases, Russell's key contact is a Diaspora member - a refugee he met in Canada in the US - that provides his with access to the customs and culture of these groups.

Russell is not an anthropologist or ethnographer, or a journalist, and unfortunately that shows in his writing (hence the 4 stars). On a number of occasions he shows a distinct Christian bias, a first-world lens, and likes to 'toot his own horn' [the Foreward]. I also had a few issues with the style of the book - part travelogue memoir, part history. Essentially, I wanted less of his voice, and more of their voice, which circles back to the anthropology/ethnography point - if he had more training in this area, perhaps he wouldn't have felt the need to insert himself so much. Some sections are better than others - I learned a great deal about the Yazidi, the Druze, the Samaritans - because Russell wrote and researched in detail. Other groups - the Copts and the Kalash - seemed more like a novelty and a roadtrip for him, sharing very little about the people themselves, and more about him with said people. Curiously, the Epilogue brings in another distinct group - Chaldean/Assyrian Christians from Iraq - and I am not sure why they were not included as a section in the book itself. I did like his happenstance upon them though - hearing and recognizing the near extinct language of Aramaic while shopping in a grocery story in suburban Detroit, where many of the Chaldean diaspora have settled as refugees.

Of course, this alone is not a reason to skip the book. Russell has a real ear for language, and with his study of Arabic, Dari, and Hebrew - he is able to have conversations, even trying other dialects that would be inaccessible for others studying these regions.

There is so much more I could say and expound. I have studied this area for years in formal education, but also for personal interest. There are not many books like this that give this survey of these groups, or give their beliefs and customs more than a few sentences of explanation, making this book unique and very important to read. If you are interested in Middle Eastern politics, human geography, religious history, and language, I completely recommend it.

==
Read for Book Riot's 2016 Read Harder challenge - Book set in the Middle East

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerard Russell has undertaken a highly personal and humane but also finely judged and largely objective review of the history and current status of seven 'disappearing religions': the Mandaeans, the Yazidis, the Zoroastrians, the Druze, the Samaritans, the Copts and the Kalasha of Afghanistan.

Each has a chapter devoted it with a common pattern - an educated history underlining the religion's roots and doctrines (such as can be known), personal pilgrimages to meet practitoners on site wherever possible and interviews with individuals on location and in exile.

The book has an old imperial flavour to it and is not the worst for that - the dedicated Middle East expert entering deep into his world to report back on its denizens to an eager public and his political masters alike. But what is striking throughout is the mix of objectivity and kindness.

Personally I am not overly sentimental about the residues of human history - old religions, indigenous tribes, failing languages - not because I do not care about these people but because poverty, disadvantage and petty oppression are aspects of their lives that romantics tend to avoid.

The obfuscations, the social exclusiveness (the luck of history might have made these oppressed religions the oppressors under different conditions), the restrictions on marital choice and the hierarchies are certainly not progressive.

Nevertheless, looked at as human beings in difficult circumstances rather than as religious systems, sympathy rapidly returns. Conditions in the Middle East, for which Western politicians can be said to be responsible, have made ordinary people's lives precarious to say the least.

In this context, and perhaps ironically given its role in triggering the worst current problems of some of these peoples, the United States comes out of this well as a migrant haven. The first half of the concluding chapter is devoted to the diasporas.

The second half of that final chapter also offers a humane overall perspective which intrigued me in admitting something I have been trying to persuade others of for decades - that both nationalism and socialism are beneficial protectors to a degree of such minority groups.

The liberal internationalist war on these two ideologies - both of whom are objectionable in their extreme versions - has been at the root of liberal internationalism's policy failures. It is the nation state and moderate socialism that are best guarantors of liberty and order.

Of course, there is room in liberal internationalism for thoroughly tamed puppet nation states in federal structures and for a pale pink ameliorative welfarism but emerging countries need something stronger to get them on the path from dependency to democracy.

Even the most horrible national socialist or communist state is sometimes a means or a path rather than some historical dead end, one which needs managing and taming through trade, military containment and example rather than through subversion, militarism and overthrow.

The victims of the last flowering of Western imperialism are precisely the most vulnerable. These distressed communitarian religions are certainly vulnerable - both to modernity (of which I approve) and to the religious extremisms that have filled the vacuum left by Western blundering.

The fate of these religions will be various but things do not look good. All depend on secular regimes to protect them and none are living in environments (excepting Israel perhaps) that are fully secularised or not riven by vicious conflicts between secularists and obscurantists.

Migration is no solution to conservative religions because they have evolved to rely on defensive close knit localised communities for their survival. These are not easily reproduced in Western suburbs or farmlands or at least not in their native conservative forms.

Perhaps, like the Amish, they will survive as throw-backs in the American backwoods. It is more likely that the young will steadily shift what are quite conservative and restrictive cultures into lightly-held identity positions which brings us to the problematic of the West - identity politics.

They will thus be the same and not the same. The ones left behind will be forced defensively to be more conservative much as the African Protestant Churches continue to hold beliefs long since abandoned by Christians living in the advanced West.

Gerard Russell, the author, is pessimistic but I wonder what there is to be pessimistic about if the young of these religions, especially women, are liberated and can start to question thoughts and ideas that were constructed long before modern cosmology and reasoning had emerged.

What is required though is not for more migration into countries that are beginning to bridle at the costs of the chaos their political masters have caused but a restoration of secular or at least decent moderate Muslim order over a whole region that has been devastated by strife.

Ah, but that's the 64 trillion dollar question. How? One suspects that this tragedy has to work itself out for a few more decades at least. The West should hang its head in shame for putting abstract ideals ahead of the actual consequences of their own magical thinking on much older cultures.

This book is highly recommended as well written, informative and well researched with an excellent 'Sources and Further Readings' section at the end. It leaves me, alongside the author, wishing for a better world for ordinary folk who did not ask for history to cudgel them in this way.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book about the author's interactions with seven lesser-known religions.

These religions are: the Christian Copts in Egypt, the Kalasha in the remote northern valleys of Pakistan, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Druze in Lebanon, the Samaritans in Israel, the Mandaeans of Iraq and the Yazidis of Iraq, Syria, Armenia, and Georgia.

Gerard Russell learns their histories, participates in some of their festivals, and comes to understand the threats to their survival as more of the younger generation leave their native countries to live in various parts of the English-speaking world.

These religions represent some of the last vestiges of great empires and civilisations from ancient times such as Babylon, Egypt, and Persia. The questions are whether these religions survive and if they do, what form they'll take given the various diaspora that have taken place especially when, as is the case with the Druze, their traditions are not written down.

This book is full of fascinating insights into each of these religions and it made me want to find out more about each of them.

The epilogue is excellent too. In this Gerard Russell visits people from some of the featured religions who've made a new life for themselves in the USA.

Recommended.

[فايز غازي Fayez Ghazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتال "ورثة الممالك المنسية" لجيرارد راسل يتناول سبع أقليّات (يتفاوت عددها بالطبع) تعيش بين مصر وباكستان وقد خصصّ لكلّ أقليّة فصلًا ثم عاد في الخاتمة وجمع فيما بينها من خلال مشاهدات شخصية لأشخاص ينتمون الى هذه الأقليات في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ويشكلون مجتمعات داخلها، وبعضها مجتمعات بديلة بسبب الهجرة القسرية لبعضها.

تناول الكاتب المندائيون (العراق)، الإيزيديون (العراق)، الزرادشتيون (ايران)، الدروز (لبنان)، السامريون (فلسطين)، الأقباط (مصر)، الكلاشا (باكستان وافغانستان). وقد عرض بعض المقدمات العامة عن كلّ أقليّة بالإضافة الى حوارات مع اشخاص ينتمون الى هذه الأقليات و تجارب شخصية. عرّج ايضًا على بعض الأقليات الأخرى دون ان يخصص لها فصلًا مثل العلويين (وزارهم في جبل محسن = لبنان).

يمكن فهم لماذا هذا الكتاب من هذا الإقتباس في نهايته:

"بدأتُ هذا الكتاب ببعض الملاحظات حول سبب مغادرة الأقليات للشرق الأوسط. وبعد أن أمضيتُ أربع سنوات في مقابلتهم وقراءة تاريخهم، صرتُ أهتم بهم أكثرَ من أي وقتٍ مضى. إذن ما الذي يمكن فعله؟ إنها شعوب الشرق الأوسط هي التي يجب عليها، أكثرَ من أي شخص آخر، أن تُرمِّم مجتمعاتِها المحليةَ المفكَّكة. وقد يمنحهم الفهمُ الأفضل للتاريخ شيئًا يمكن للجميع، بغضِّ النظر عن الدين، أن يتشاركوا الشعورَ بالفخر تجاهه"

اسجّل اعتراضي على العنوان الثانوي للكتاب "ديانات آفلة في الشرق الأوسط"، لأن هذه الأقليات قد تجاوزت آلاف السنوات ولم تآفل، واذا أفلت في الشرق الأوسط فقد تزدهر في مكان آخر ومشاهدات الكاتب تؤكد هذا في ديترويت في فصله الأخير الذي وضعه في الكتاب.

يمكن اعتبار هذا الكتاب كتاب رحلة اكثر من كونه كتاب تاريخ، لفتني العديد من الأخطاء التاريخية وبعض الآراء غير الدقيقة داخله. كما ان فصل المراجع في نهايته كان فصلًا عامًا يعدد الكثير من الكتب. لكنّه يبقى كتابًا مفيدًا وممتعًا في آن حيث ان كاتبه يتمتع بروح فكاهة مميزة. كما لفتني ايضًا عدم انحيازه وتسمية الأشياء بمسمياتها (خصوصًا في الموضوع الفلسطيني).

من الملفت ايضًا ذلك الرأي الذي ساقه بشكلٍ واضح على انه يمكن للسامريون ان يشكلوا جسر عبور وقناة للتفاهم ما بين الفلسطينيين والإسرائيليين.

[Jacob Sebæk · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this partly travel literature and partly cultural - religious - history, Gerard Russell takes us through parts of the Middle East and western Asia that most of us have only read about.


We are in the company of our guide meeting the Mandaeans, the Yazidis, the Zoroastrians, the Druze, the Samaritans, the Copts and the Kalasha, and Gerard Russell is doing a very good job, if he was my personal guide in the area I would tip him generously.

We may sit back and wonder how the social structures of these pre-Christian and pre-Islamic religions have evolved, the written sources are indeed very limited.

But, there is the oral tradition and the "this was the way our forefathers did" and this must do for the followers of this or that faith.

Recommended for those of you who are curious about the old religions of the Middle East and how these have influenced society. If you are "spiritually inclined", you will probably enjoy the book as testimony of faith through the ages.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a total surprise. Got it off Kindle on offer and thought it was gonna be waaaay more academic than it is. Actually, this is a wonderful exploration of human life through the eyes of religions which have existed for far longer than the most prominent ones. Russell leads you with a gentle hand and reminds you all the time to not forget that behind labels, ideologies and religious beliefs lie human beings; and that behind the same things lies a rich history which the world would rather see forgotten.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

We tend to see the Middle East as one turgid mass of Sunni and Shi'a Muslims who are all at each others' throats. There are, however, a number of isolated religious communities that, over the last two thousand years, managed to retain a tenuous independence from the emerging mainstream. These include Mandaeans, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Coptic Christians, Kalashas, and others.

Gerard Russell has written a first-hand study of these groups in Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East. Russell traveled extensively to hidden corners of the Middle East, usually in isolated mountain areas, to find the remaining members of these groups and interviw them.

This is a valuable corrective to many of our widely-held beliefs about this area of the world. Although there is a constant pressure by Muslims to convert, there are some sects, such as the Kalashas, that manage to live together, even in Pakistan's tribal territories.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A journalistic book, and a very good one: it's unlikely that you know much about the religions covered here (I certainly didn't), and Russell is a nice entry point. It's very mixed--some theology, some history, some sociology, but mostly travel narrative, interviews and memoir. Russell talks to and describes Mandaeans (mostly in the Iraqi marshes, followers of John the Baptist), Yazidi (very secretive, I'd describe them as gnostics), Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts and Kalasha (whom I hadn't even heard of).

It's not too often you get a book that's well written and fills an unnecessary lack. Only one real flaw, it's a bit repetitive. Better maps would have been nice, too.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about druze, mandeans, yazidi, samaratins, Copts, Zoroastrians, and Kalasha. Religions as eroding relics of the past but doomed it seems to eventual oblivion. The author is pretty poor at explaining what exactly the religions entail and how they came to be. However the sometimes exasperating vagueness on the beliefs themselves allows more time to be spent on the more universal theme of people trying to maintain their identity at all costs even if the why is not clear.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I am disappointed with this book, perhaps unfairly. In the introduction I read the following sentence:

Thus the groups featured in this book seem to me to address three things that troubled me during my time in the Middle East: humanity's collective ignorance of its own past, the growing alienation between Christianity and Islam, and the way the debate about religion has become increasingly the preserve of narrow-minded atheists and literalists.

As an atheist, I resent that on several levels. Firstly, I'm reading this book so clearly there are at least some atheists who are interested in religion and religious beliefs, at least from an academic or historical perspective and often from a psychological perspective also. Secondly, this sentence is clearly written from a Christian viewpoint, possibly with a coloring of Islam. But what I bought this book for was to learn about less well known religions Thirdly, I find that sentence to be pretentious and self-righteous, as well as being directed at the completely wrong audience, namely the readers of a book on minor religions. The author starts off my insulting and offending his own readers.

Moving on, I was disappointed that the book is more of a travelogue than an actual examination of different religions. At the end of several chapters, I found myself no more enlightened about the religious views of the people being discussed than I was before I started the chapter. In fact, there were times when I seriously could not remember anything about the religion at all since the chapter focused so much on the author's journeys that they overshadowed the people he was supposed to be describing.

That is not to say that the book was worthless, I'd give it only one star if I thought that. Here are some of my favorite passages.

About the Mandaeans he writes: "My favorite was the demon Dinanukht, who is half man and half book and 'sits by the waters between the worlds, reading himself.'" Now that's interesting. But there is no more about it.

About Zoroastrianism he wrote,: "The concept of free choice is especially important in Zoroastrianism, which holds that even Angra Mainyu [their version of the devil] is bad by choice. (This is why the story is told that Angra Mainyu created the peacock just to show that if he wished to, he could make beautiful things...)" The chapter on Zoroasterians is one of the better chapters of the book.

I wish I could give this a better review because it is a topic of great interest to me but its travelogue nature and its prejudice toward Christianity and monotheism diminish it.

[Eressea · Rating 3 out of 5]

不知道該給三星還是四星
雖然寫的不錯，但我用錯誤的預期打開本書
我在閱讀伊斯蘭教歷史和唐代三夷教論文的時候
常常看到本書說的許多少數宗教
所以得知這本書要出版時很期待
想說總算可以對這些幾乎沒中文書介紹的宗教有更多認識了

但看完是有些失望的，作者介紹宗教的地方不多
更多的是介紹中東少數宗教的現況
作者就像我一樣，盡外行人的努力找到各個宗教的介紹書籍
再搭配現場訪問，來拼湊自己對各教的認識
自身所知就不免片段了
對接收三手資訊的讀者來說更是難以理解
而且有些宗教對教理介紹相對很多，有些就只有一點點
像我很想知道的科普特正教，幾乎沒寫什麼宗教上的事情
祆教也是一樣，但曼達安人就跑題寫了一大堆摩尼教
另一個期待講更多的東方正統教會
放在附錄裡，只提了提連宗主教教座都移到美國去就沒了

而書中提到的教義
從我最熟悉的祆教和東方摩尼教來類推
作者對各宗教的理解不免有很多小錯誤
拿來當宗教入門顯然是不合適的
但不算厚的書要寫那麼多宗教，大概也是很難深入吧
雖然我還是從本書了解到自己對西方摩尼教的認識非常不足
只是業餘者不想看英文，西方摩尼教又沒中文書可看，就...算了吧~

但是用正確的讀法來看本書
其實是一本很棒的訪談錄
雖然看完挺難過的
在奧斯曼帝國末期，這些宗教的處境便日益艱難
民族主義和帝國主義大興之後更是變本加厲
這些小眾宗教對統治者來說突然都變很刺眼的存在
到了現代伊斯蘭已不復以往的寬容
加上各個小眾宗教都非常排外
對出教者嚴厲追殺，又不願接納改宗
外在環境就夠嗆了，內規又使得處境雪上加霜

在中東小眾宗教要活下去，沒有自己的武裝大概是不行的
像德魯茲人在黎巴嫩，有領地有軍隊
看來還可以延續上好一陣
對比埃及的科普特正教和黎巴嫩的馬龍派
一個是獨立教會沒軍隊，一個是羅馬教廷罩的又有民兵
誰處境比較好是很明顯的，或許因為這樣作者才選擇科普特正教做訪問對象吧

最後的附錄反而比較像結論
而且我覺得是全書的精華
作者訪問了移民美國的各個中東小眾宗教社群
移民都一致認為美國比原鄉更好
可以安心奉行自己的宗教
但流亡者失去原鄉的土壤後
宗教便慢慢無人奉行了
尤其新生代在西方強勢文化下
很難保持原本的認同
雖然這些社群在作者訪問的時後看起來還很興旺
再過三四十年就難說了
而且中東這些不同宗教
幾乎就是不同民族的同義辭
就算是普世的基督宗教
也變成世代承襲，沒有傳教的意願
到了美國，也許這些阿拉伯基督徒慢慢就會被天主教或新教拉過去了吧
其他的宗教像是雅茲迪，曼達安，原本就人數稀少
平信徒又被禁止了解教義，加上到了美國仍然排外
這樣是要怎麼在移民社會裡傳承呢?
就算有有識之士努力復興，未來大概也很難樂觀吧

[Al Bità · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerard Russell was a former diplomat in the Middle East mostly during the first decade of the 21st-century CE, and during his time there he discovered a number of small religious groups with ancient histories and traditions which are still extant in the region. His fascination with these groups lead him to find out a bit more about them, and this book on seven of these is a kind of introduction to them resulting from his research. So far, so good — and in my opinion his searching out of them, and the mini-travelogue nature of his activities in this regard, are the best parts of this book.

When it comes to a deeper understanding of these groups, there are questions as to the historical validity of some of the claims made about them. There is no question, of course, that, as at the beginning of the 21st-c CE, the people Russell talked to expressed their beliefs in certain terms which are undoubtedly part of their folklore, but it is quite another thing to suggest that these are necessarily historical. For example, we are told that the Mandaeans claim descent from Adam’s son Seth; or that the Kalasha may have had ancestors deriving from the influx of Indo-Europeans into India ca. 1900 BCE. Maybe. Maybe not. The claims are very general, and might just as well apply to wider groups as well.

Russell comes across as a very gentle, considerate and non-judgemental reporter; he is aware that his presentation is peculiar and personal. In his introduction he states: “My own perspective is that of a British-American Roman Catholic speaker of Arabic and Farsi.” That perspective needs to be taken into account when reading the book. Also needing to be taken into consideration is the fact that Russell’s position as a diplomat connected with the invading Americans, and the fact that he is male, as this would indicate both a certain level of acceptability (all the religious groups in this book are patriarchic) as well as a judicious reserve as to the extent with which access is given to secret and specialised knowledge (which would never be revealed to a complete stranger or to a non-adherent of their faith). That being said, it is ironic that those same “reservations” are what make Russell’s revelations all the more accessible and informative to outsiders!

It seems to me that Russell is generally arguing that all of these seven (at least) faiths are part of a common historical contribution to much of Western religious development, regardless of their actual origins. This is compounded by the order in which he presents them: first, the Mandaeans, then the Yazidi, the Zoroastrians, the Druze, the Samaritans, the Copts, and finally the Kalasha. If I were to attempt to list these chronologically, I would suggest the following order: the oldest are the Zoroastrians (ca. 1000 BCE), then the Samaritans (ca. 600 BCE), then perhaps the Kalasha (ca. 5th-c BCE), followed by the Copts (1st-c CE), the Mandaeans (ca. 3rd -c CE), the Druze (ca. 1070 CE), and finally the Yazidi (ca. 1160 CE). By presenting his order as he does, Russell’s book emphasises a confusing overlapping of historical and folkloric material which, while individually interesting in itself, serves only to confound rather than elucidate, and left me ultimately feeling quite nonplussed.

In the end, my judgement of the book is that it is like that of the proverbial curate’s egg: good in parts.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please bear in mind, Dear Readers, that this was an audiobook that took a while for me to get through, so I don't have an actual copy for reference. Overall, it's a well-presented mix of history, travel narrative and theology (although the Druze don't really have a theology as such). First couple of entries were disappointing on the travel front, as they were interviews with folks in London, but the rest were "in the field" (as it were), including the final chapter on the Middle Eastern diaspora focusing on the Detroit area, where the author was shocked to overhear Aramaic being spoken in public.

History is probably the most consistent factor for each entry, with travel narrative fitting in well to complement the lives of sect members, rather than a Theroux or Bryson (general) approach. Copts are given special attention as the author attended Copt services while he lived in Cairo, making friends there. Zoroastrians are another group given a longer look, though I don't find them as "endangered" perhaps because they appear to be thriving in India?

As with another nonfiction book I read a while back, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places) I'm not certain that audio is the way to go here for most folks. The narrator does a great job, and the material isn't particularly dense, but the audio format made the book feel as though it longer. So, I'm going to recommend the printed format here.

Speaking of other books I've read, in my review of Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta I felt the author uniquely qualified to tell that story, which I feel is the case here as well.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both less substantively revealing and more personally engaging than I expected, Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms combines travelogue with history and anthropology of religion. The chief virtue of the book is that it identifies seven different minority Middle Eastern faiths and portrays their adherents with sympathy and respect. Several of the religions are fairly secretive about their beliefs, rituals, and philosophies, and so there's not a lot of detail about some of the faiths' dogmas or cosmologies. A recurring theme across several of the chapters is the diaspora of believers from the Middle East to Europe and the United States. This scattering offers significant improvements in opportunities for some families, but increases pressure for outmarriage and therefore for the ultimate dissolution of these very small religious traditions. Although the author is consistently modest, he comes across as someone it would be a real delight to know: intrepid, curious, and apparently possessed of a genuine gift for learning languages. One can hope he publishes more on this topic in the future; at any rate, this book is a fine jumping off point for further reading about the Mandaeans, Yazidi, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts, and Kalasha.

[Stephen Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A startlingly informative book on a fascinating subject. I consider myself fairly well informed, but was delighted that Russell lifted a veil of ignorance on the peoples and history of this region.

Highly, highly recommended.

SR

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at seven obscure religions. I stumbled on this book when I was looking for material on the Yizidis, but my favorite chapter by far was on the Kalasha of northern Pakistan (do you think I could convince my husband to take a vacation on the Pakistani-Afghan border?) It seems like a lot of these religions are about tradition rather than belief - it's an on-going theme that the practitioners of these religions actually have no idea what the doctrine is.

The author definitely has rose-colored glasses - sure the Samaritans say they would slaughter their sister like a sheep for marrying someone outside of the religion but there's no direct evidence that has been going on (as an example). But I appreciated his need to see the good in people and go out of his way to find people living in harmony. I thought for the most part he did a good job showing appreciation for different ways of living without embracing cultural relativism. And the brilliant forward by Rory Stewart will put you in the right headspace for it. I'd recommend.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Islam has historically been a religion more tolerant of others than has been Christianity. Thus while the older faith cultures of Europe were eliminated, some of those in the Middle East have survived. This book, written by one with long experience in several of the countries of the region, one conversant in Arabic, Farsi and other languages, describes several of these traditions, some of which may reflect beliefs and practices antedating the rise of the ostensibly monotheistic Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.

If one seeks an exposition of the doctrines of these peoples, this book serves as no more than a glancing introduction. The author is neither a theologian nor a philosopher. Indeed, most of the text is of the character of a travelogue, an account of journeys, locales and conversations. However, the author was a diplomat and his approach to these varied peoples is 'diplomatic' in the best sense of the word.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Amazon review - http://www.amazon.com/review/R3DFLG3P...

Please give me a helpful vote.

This is an extremely interesting and extremely informative survey of the non-Islamic religions that have survived in the Islamic world, but which face extinction in their homelands in the face of resurgent fundamentalist Islam. The author, Gerard Russell, is an Arabic and Persian speaking British diplomat. His narrative features a kind of "diplomatic portfolio" of background, theology and history of these surviving communities plus his own interactions with members of the communities, which allows the reader to see how these communities are experienced outside the pages of a textbook. The writing is well-done. The author obviously shares an interest in the people who are the subjects of his book. The "travelogue" features of the book reminds an older reader of documentaries by Lowell Thomas about visits to exotic places where life is different and sometimes dangerous.

This book is important for obtaining an understanding of modern Islam. Most people have no idea of the religious diversity that has existed in the Islamic world up until quite recently. I remember reading the following exchange in the Hugo award winning science fiction novel "This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny between the characters Hassan and Conrad Nomikos:

"“My father was a very good and land and religious man,” he said. “He worshipped Malak Tawûs, whom the benighted Shi’ites” (he spat here) “call Iblis— or Shaitan, or Satan— and he always paid his respects to Hallâj and the others of the Sandjaq. He was well-known for his piety, his many kindnesses."

Hassan goes on to mention that his father worshiped the "Peacock Angel."

That exchange has stuck with me for forty years, but I did not know that the people Zelazny was describing was a community of 500,000 in northern Iraq until ISIS began its extermination campaign and the world learned about the Yazidis.

Russell describes his encounters with the Mandaean of southern Iraq, who claim John the Baptist as a prophet, and the Yazidis, who revere the Peacock Angel as the closes approximation to the unknowable God, and the Zoroastrians, dualists who were the original religion of Iran, and the Druze, who may or may not be Islamic but have a substantial community in Lebanon, and the Copts, who were the original Christian community in Egypt, and the Samaritans, 800 or so survivors of a variant Judaism that worshiped on Mount Gerizim and not in Jerusalem, and the Kalasha, the last pagans of Afghanistan. There was even a interaction the Alawites of Syria, a Muslim sect that drinks wine and baptizes and is the religion of Syria's dictator. Russell offers the interesting thesis that Mandaeans are what Gnosticism could have, or did, evolve into and that the Druze retain much of the ancient Pythagorean religious system.

Most of these communities are substantial - numbering in the hundreds of thousands with heartlands geographically protected by marsh or desert or mountain. What they all have in common is that they have survived on the sufferance of Islam, a sufferance which has been sorely absent at various times in history, but they have all managed to persevere into modernity.

What was also interesting to me is that all of these religions - except the Kalasha and Zoroastrian - appear to be essentially monotheistic. Even the Yazidis recognize a distant, incomprehensible "one" that is represented by a lieutenant, Maelek Taoos, the Peacock Angel. The Zoroastrians recognize two divine principles, but they are called to serve the Good principle against the Evil principle, which seems fordained to lose in the end. This got me to wondering about the nature of monotheism. Did these religions survive because they were essentially monotheistic?, or did they bury the non-monotheism to survive?, or is it the case that monotheism is far more common than we are taught?

What the reader also gets is how these survivals swore off proselytization. Some religions - the Druze and the Yazidi - limit their religion to their own ethnic community. Others are keenly aware that aggressive proselytization can and will provoke a violent reaction by their dominant Muslim neighbors.

I also found it interesting that the lay adherents of many of these religions are institutionally unable to explain the doctrines of their faith. The author mentions that Druze and Yazidi lay people are not taught the doctrines of their religion, leaving such knowledge to their sheikhs. The lay people are therefore at a disadvantage in the emerging world when they emigrate and are challenged by the adherents of other religions.

The author also presents a picture of recent history where Islam was not what it is today. It seems that Islam was liberalizing under the nationalism of the early 20th century, as, for example, Egyptians began to stress their common nationality instead of their separate religious identity. This reduced religious bigotry and expanded opportunity for Copts. This process was undermined in Egypt by "the last Arab," i.e., Gamel Nasser, who wanted to create a pan-Arab state, not an Egyptian one. Then, Sadat supported fundamentalist Muslims against sectarian Communists. The rest is history, that is still working itself out.Likewise, the murderous autocrat Saddam Hussein put the lid on sectarianism in Iraq in the interest of building an Iraqi nation, which had the effect of making his dictatorship more open to non-Islamic religious minorities. All of this was undone by the war and the rise of ISIS. Religious minority communities have to be careful in picking sides because they are so vulnerable. They usually find it expedient to support the government. When things become chaotic, however, their neutrality makes them a target for all sides. This fear also explains the tradition of "honor killings"; marriages between minority religions threaten the survival of the community as the wives are expected to raise their children in their husband's religion and the community can then lose fertile women, on the one hand, but, worse, such marriages force the minority religious community into the web of politics and feuds in the larger community.

Russell does present a history that suggests that Islamic states were more pluralistic and tolerant at some time. It would seem that this is not a constant state of affairs, Russell mentions numerous occasions in the memory of these communities when they were subjected to persecution, mass-murder or forced conversion. The most recent of such occurred in the last 100 years in the mountains of Afghanistan when the Kafiristan pagan peoples, who had defeated every invader since Alexander the Great, succumbed to an Islamic invasion in 1895. Kafiristan was renamed Nuristan and the people were forcibly converted to Islam, apart from a remnant who continued to worship the old gods in one or two scattered communities.

Russell does not feel optimistic about the fate of these communities in their homeland. The demographics support pessimism. Minority religious communities are dying in the Middle East. There are more Copts in Michigan than Cairo. Russell observes:

"In 1987 Iraq’s Christians numbered 1.4 million, which was 8 percent of the country’s population. Now they are down to 1 percent. Sanctions impoverished their country and forced many to flee in the 1980s and 1990s. Then, beginning in 2004, more than sixty Christian churches were bombed. Christians were attacked— sometimes out of religious hostility, sometimes out of greed for their homes, which gangs would seize once the owners had left. No wonder the Christian Iraqi population of metropolitan Detroit has swelled by at least a hundred thousand."

Russell concludes with a narrative about the diverse Arab community of Michigan where Druze, Copts, and Mandeans have settled. But he points out that these communities are probably fighting a holding action against assimilation.

The book is well-written. I listened to it as an audiobook and it was absorbing. The book, however, has pictures and maps that add to to the experience.

[Steve Cran · Rating 5 out of 5]

For countless centuries the Middle East has been home to a variety of religions that do not fall into the mainstream. People will find it hard to believe that non Muslim minorities could survive so long in the Middle East. Fact of the matter is that the Muslim Middle East was more tolerant than Christian Europe . That does not mean that life was easy for non Muslims in the Middle East, as these minorities have undergone persecution.  Islam bespeaks tolerance and protection for people of the book ie Christians, Jews and sometimes Zoroastrians and Samaritans. Many of these minorioities survived by hiding out in hard to reach places like high mountains or marshlands. These minorities have also been tenacious.

Now things are changing. In ancient times the Muslim governments did not wish to route out followers of other faiths, after all Muslims profited from the extra jizya tax. THe Muslim governments did not have the power to get at people in those hard to reach places. Now they do. While life in the past was relatively stable, modern times has proven lots more precarious.

In Iraq you have the Mandaeans and Yazidis.  THe author Gerard Russel is a British Diplomat who decided to travel and visit these people who are holding out and clinging to their traditions. In the south he visited the Mandaeans. THe Mandaean liv e in the sourthern marshland of Iraq and Iran. Thanks to blind fanaticism and the fact the that the marshlands are no longer a safe haven, many of the Iraqi Mandaeans have let their native Iraq. The faith of the Mandaeans is a gnostic faith. This means that the material world was created by an evil deity meant to imprison souls. THe Mandaeans hold that they are descended from Seth , Adam's third son. John the baptist is the Messiah and Jesus was a rebel against the order. They are most known for having baptisms for every occasion and their sign is a cross dressed in a white sheet.  The white sheet stands for purity and the cross symbolized four directions. THe evil Goddess Rouha created the world to trap souls. Mandaean thought had an impact on Manicheism. 

THE second group in Iraq live in the Northern part of the country. Many live in Sinjar, while others live in Qunitra. In the past the Yzidi have been much left alone. Now things have changed with the onslaught of ISIS. Many have fled to Lalish the place  where a founding member is buried. Many do not know the fundamentals of  their faith. There is a learned group and an unlearned group. Most Yezidis fall into the unlearned group. Yezidis have been thought of as devil worshipper. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Much like earlier legends, Satan or Melek Taus, was God's head angel. The head angel loved god but refused to bow down to man. For that he was flung into Hell.But while in Hell he repented. His tears quelled the fires from Hell. He tasted redemmpfion and he rules the the world. AS GODS  lieutenant he is revered along with the sun and the moon. It is believed that there were 7 peacock made only two survive. 

THe third group takes us to Iran, coincidentally enough to the Iranian city of Yazid. This is the central place  of their faith. Their number are in decline because of increased persecution. Zoroastrianism was the official
 Iranian religion prior to accepting Islam.  Islam had a debate as to  whether Zoroastrians were people of the book. While maintaining a belief in monotheism they do believe in a dualistic world. Ahura Mazda is the god of life and light while Angra Mainyu was the evil god always going against him. It should worthy of note that all thrtee faiths discussed thus far read the stars and allow their dead to be eaten  by birds before being buried.

The next two groups have a presence in Israel. They are the Druze and the Samaritans.  The Druze live in three countries and they are Lebanon, Syria and Israel. On principal they fight for the county they live in. Druze get a lot of their ideas from Pthagoras. They believe in the Universal mind which gave rise to the Universal Soul and Intelligence. THey also believe in reincarnation and that all Druze will bve born into the body of another Druze. Sometimes they have souls that go to  China. Much like the Yazidi  they have two groups of people, the learned and the unlearned. The Druze religion is not a very demanding religion.

The Samaritans live in Colon, Israel and in the Palestinian city of Nablus upon the hill of mount Gerizim. THe Samaritan are very similiar to Jews. In fact they claim to be remnants of the Lost Tribes of Israel left over from the Assyrian conquest. THe Jews in the past have thought that they were descended from settlers transferred to Northern Israel by the Assyrians. THe two groups have not always gotten along and in New Testament times they were at each others throats.  THe Talmud says contradictory things about the Samaritans. Now relation are improving and the Samaritans might be a bridge between the Palestinians and the Israeli Jews. But Samaritan number are dwindling. IN terms of history it is only recently that they  have allowed wives from outside the community to convert into  the Samaritan society. Every year at Passover tourists flock to  the Samaritan celebration.
Lately  the Samaritans have opened up even more. Now they are putting out literature for those who want to live the Samaritan way. This may help bolster their decreasing numbers. I  think they should allow men to convert into their community for marriage just like they do for the women.


THe final two groups that the author visited are the Copts and the Kalasha. The Copts are located in Egypt and were introduced to Christianity via the apostle MArk. For centuries they were tolerated but recent history has shown that things are turning against them. unbar Pasha increased many of their opportunities and allowed for  them to have positions in the government. This pretty much happened under King Farouk. With the over throw of Farouk the era f Sadat was ushered in .Under his leadership the Muslims brotherhood got increased power. This was bad for  the copts. Increased fanatical presence on university campus has led to aN ISLAMIFICATION of curriculum. Christianity is not taught at all. Also it has been harder since Sadat to build neddw churches or repair  the older ones. under Mubarak things went on like before with few improvement . Mubark still worked  with the Brotherhood. Since things have gotten bad many Copts  have choses to get closer to the church . It must not be forgotten that Muslims and CHristians   helped overthrow Mubarak and that Muslims and Christians formed human chains to prevent the destruction of CHurches. in the  south the fanatics are a lot more ruthless. Then again the Copts are more numerous in the South and have the ability to fight back.

The Kalasha live in the Hindu Kush mountain bordering in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. They worship old gods from Pagan times. they have solsticee celebrations for Spring and and Winter as do  the Zoroastrians. The author arrived in the winter. The Kalasha have their pantheon o0f gods and they get on with their Muslim  neighbors. Like many Middle Eastern groups women during their  menstruation have stay separated .There are also laws that demand ritual  purity that only they can do.

THe book finished in Detroit where in discussion venters on how emigres  from the Middle East are coping. Many do not know their religion so it is hard to maintain the faith. assimilation is a problem and each group is trying to come to grips with it. Many Christians find that they are befriending and even marrying Jews. Several Palestinians have. In a lll this is a timely work. It does not include all of  the minorities in the Middle East. A good book to complement this work is "Minorities in the Middle East" by Mordechai Nissan.

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly useful and informative, and cogently presented, look at various faiths whose adherents number less in their lands of origin as time passes and as their geographical locations (a mountain here, a swamp there, for instance) are encroached on by geopolitics, religious bias, and other faiths. Gerard Russell's multilingual abilities and diplomacy skills come in handy, overtly and implicitly, as he spends time with Zoroastrians, Druze, Mandarins, and Kalash, to mention a few groups, and learns from them with sympathetic understanding. He explains their beliefs (as much as possible, for some don't know why they do what they do except that certain beliefs and rituals have always been done) and goes into their past and potential future (emigration to the West is a common theme).

Though this book came out in 2014, and references events in that year, it seems even more timely considering the upheavals that have occurred in parts of africa and asia since then. It's a book that can be read for pleasure and for education.

[Andrew Dombrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, although as other reviewers has pointed out, it is very much a travelogue rather than a scholarly analysis of the religious communities under discussion (Mandaeans, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts, and Kalasha). That said, the book's focus is clearly stated in the title, so I don't think that's a very serious problem.

There are definitely nits to pick in this book. At times, the author relies on time-worn travelogue tropes in a way that is very wearing because he certainly knows better. For example, he frequently frames his trips along the lines of "And I realized that in order to reach a true understanding of [insert community] I had to travel to [insert place]." That's cute, except that (1) a visit does not automatically confer a deep understanding of a place; (2) the author was a professional diplomat posted in the area, not some naif randomly traveling around searching for some nebulous sort of self-actualization; and (3) you get the distinct sense that the author knows better on some level. Similarly, the author sometimes romanticizes the historical continuity of these communities in a wince-inducing way, especially because these wince-inducing moments coexist with other points in the book where he pays close attention to how religious communities and traditions evolve over time. Again, you get the sense that he really does know better, which is frustrating. As a linguist, for all that I appreciate his real knowledge of Arabic and Farsi, it's frustrating that his knowledge of historical linguistics is very superficial, especially in the last chapter on the Kalasha, where historical linguistics can offer some very interesting perspectives.

That said, this is definitely a five-star read. A particularly important aspect of this book is how it focuses both on the historical roots of these communities and on the contemporary situations they face. Reading this book provides a much deeper and more nuanced sense of modern religious dynamics in the Middle East and, more remarkably, a sense of how this current political moment fits into the bigger picture of history. This book is a tremendous, tremendous contribution, and should be required reading for anyone with any level of interest in the region.

[Elliot Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be incredibly interesting, the author focuses on a different religion in each chapter, drawing on personal relations to unravel the complex origins and rituals involved in each of them.

The book has an overall melancholic tone throughout and with the subject matter being so, this makes sense. From the overall perspective of humanity we are not at a 'net loss' as these ancient religions assimilate into Islam or Christianity.

However when the time comes for the Grandchildren, or Great Grandchildren of those mentioned in the book decide that the effort involved in organising or attending a 'Chaumos' festival is not worth it, then something ancient is gone for good and a unique quirk of humanity has been smoothed over.

Although many of these communities have survived persecution for millennia, it was their homeland that gave them common ground. With so much migration to Europe or America, rituals and ceremonies followed that made sense in their homeland will seem strange and pointless, further accelerating the abandonment of them.

Overall, minority religions serve as a kind of barometer for tolerance and stability in their home countries, and with the mass of emigration It doesn't paint a pretty picture of the current situation in the middle east.

[Omar Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing tour de force. Covering everyone from the Druze and the Copts to the Bahais and the Kalasha of Pakistan. A great read. Some of these groups will likely be gone soon, but there seems to be no easy solution.
Best discovery for me: that the Samaritans (of "the good Samaritan" fame, from the New Testament) still exist and about 800 or so are hanging on in Israel/Palestine. Amazing story. Gerard Russell is a very empathetic and balanced observer. He occasionally tries some false modesty and yes, thanks to his British foreign office training, he still thinks "secular Jinnah" had some project quite unlike what Pakistan has become. An objective observer would note that the project had the current problems built into it. But that is just one line in a very long very good book. A must read book.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful book provides the opportunity to learn about esoteric and unusual religious practices. The focus is on sects associated with the Middle East and Eastern Europe having an association with Islamic roots. The knowledge gained is only eclipsed by the empathy obtained for people’s life circumstances so different from our own. This author’s work will expand your worldview while opening new opportunities for deeper exploration into very misunderstood faiths and cultures.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Middle East is one of the earliest centres of ancient human civilizations. Stretching from Iran to Egypt, it brackets the Persian, Babylonian, Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations. Religion accompanies high culture and the number of independent pagan religions that flourished in the area run into the hundreds. Polytheism is inherently tolerant as it is always easy to accommodate one more god into the pantheon as the kith and kin of one already there. As the monotheistic Semitic religions grew in influence, Paganism began its retreat from the cities of high cultures into remote desert oases or hardy mountain fastnesses. A significant event in their downturn was the closure of Plato’s Academy in 529 CE by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, which threw out the pagan philosophers who resided there. Curiously, this date is traditionally taken as marking the beginning of the Dark Ages. With the advent of Islam in the next few centuries, most of the people converted to it – either through peaceful means or forced. However, a few of those groups clung to their faith in the face of great oppression and survived to this day. Even now, the persecution against them has not fully abated. The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq massacred the Yazidis and took their women as sex slaves in 2016. The Coptic Christians in Egypt are still at the receiving end of a brutal ethnic cleansing instituted by the proscribed Muslim Brotherhood. Pakistan – though not exactly located geographically in the Middle East, yet do so culturally – indulges in its own series of elimination of the minorities through suicide blasts, mob violence and strict imposition of blasphemy laws. This book painstakingly finds the exotic religions by assiduously locating their practitioners and celebrates their heritage and traditions. A first step in toleration is the knowledge of the beliefs, customs and rituals of those religions and this book greatly contributes to it. Gerard Russell is a British diplomat and author who spent 14 years representing Britain in the Middle East. Unlike Britishers in general, Russell is a polyglot fluent in Arabic, Farsi and Dari languages, which readily opened many doors for him while researching this book.

The tome, split into seven chapters, describes the history, traditions and present life of the Yazidis, Mandaeans, Zoroastrians, Druze, Samaritans, Copts and Kalasha, dwelling in the Middle East. Braving severe persecution from mainstream Semitic religions, these held on to remote or impenetrable places, often under the veil of a strict code of secrecy. Some of these religions are Gnostic, in the sense that they instructed their followers to punish or subordinate the body so that the mind can be made free for speculating on the true nature of god and the world. These faiths were more sophisticated than pre-Christian European religions. A part of the blame for failing to survive must be put on these religions too, as it keeps the believers away from the tenets of the religion, which is known only to the priests and teachers of law. This makes the lay followers at a loss to explain to others what they believe in and the significance of the arcane rituals. Their only response in such cases is the self-defeating admission that these practices were handed over to them from great antiquity and hence they still follow it with diffidence. All kinds of strange customs are employed. The Manichees are vegetarians and they were widespread in Central Asia at one time. The Yazidis and Mandaeans still employ a rudimentary caste system that is still seen in India.

Russell narrates the brutal way in which Islamic societies treated their minorities. The Koran recognized the ‘People of the Book’ – Jews, Christians and Sabians – and offered protection to them. But, the polytheists were outside this protective umbrella and had to choose between forced conversion and death. Even the Jews and Christians who were given the pitiable status of Dhimmis were second- or third-rate citizens of the society. They were not allowed to serve in the military and were denied the right to testify against a Muslim in front of a judge. They also had to pay the hated poll tax of Jizya. Whatever tolerance the minorities obtained came under the rule of tyrants and dictators like Saddam Hussein, Shah Reza Pahlavi or Hosni Mubarak who ruled with an iron hand whose might was directed more at the majority. Jews once constituted a third of the population of Baghdad, but is now totally eliminated or converted. So much for tolerance! Purges continued even in modern times. In 1941, 700 Jews were killed in a single day. Islamic regimes are notorious for their shameless ruses to convert people to their religion. Iranian law allows converted Zoroastrians a greater share in the inheritance of their parents at the expense of the siblings. Among the seven communities detailed in the book, the Lebanese Druze are slightly better off, as Lebanon is still not fully dominated by the Muslims. Reading this book, we get a chilling realization that had the state of Israel was not formed in 1948, Jews also would’ve featured as one of the chapters in this book!

It is futile and pointless to repeat again and again the coldblooded handling meted out to the religious minorities living amidst Islamic societies, but there’s a clear need to showcase them in detail to underline the depths to which religious bigotry can degrade an individual who is otherwise a decent guy. In Baghdad, the Mandaeans are the victims of a kind of untouchability. The book states that in Suq al-Shuyukh area, there are restaurants that refuse to serve Mandaeans because they are believed to pollute the utensils they eat with (p.42). They are subjected to forced conversion, kidnapping and murder. Between 2003 and 2011, as many as 175 were murdered, 275 kidnapped and hundreds converted from this community which number only a few thousand souls (p.44). Even before the ISIS came on the scene, the Yazidis were targeted at the drop of a hat. In Qahtaniya in 2007, coordinated suicide truck bombs left 800 Yazidis dead in the most gruesome terror attack in the world after 9/11. The reason was an issue of an interreligious love marriage among them. A Yazidi woman who wanted to marry a Muslim man was killed by her relatives to protect their ‘honour’. Rumours spread that she had converted and the Jihadis decided to teach the entire community a lesson in savagery. The Samaritans of Palestine fare no better. In Nablus, the old laws required them to wear bells around the neck when venturing outside their homes and banned them from riding horses. In an emergency, they could drive mules! The Copts in Egypt have a miserable episode to tell of their lives. A German monk reported in 1672 that the Copts were so fearful from continued tyrannies that at the least noise, they trembled like leaves (p.233). Sufis, often trumpeted as the embodiment of syncretism, turned bigots when a chance presented itself. It was a Sufi mystic who smashed the Sphinx’s nose in the fourteenth century in Egypt, enraged by the local peasants making offering to it as a god. The Kalasha people of Chitral valley in Pakistan are hounded by Pakistani tourists in the expectation that because Kalasha women did not wear veils and were not Muslims, they’d be available for sex. Russell mentions a Pakistani survey conducted as recently as 2010, in which 76 per cent of the respondents thought abandoning Islam merited the death penalty. Even just a rumour that a person has left Islam can spark mob violence and lynching in Pakistan.

Indians would be astonished at the similarities the religious symbols of the Yazidis share with Hinduism. They revere Melek Taoos, the peacock angel, whose depiction has a strong affinity to that of god Murugan in India who rides on a peacock. Taoos is identified with Azazeel or Iblis, which in the tradition of Abrahamic religions stand for the devil. Consequently, they are called ‘devil worshippers’. Incidentally, the Yazidis adore the sun too and employ a hierarchical caste system.

The book contains a good number of pictures depicting some of the rituals, customs and notable points in the daily life of the adherents of these disappearing religions. The author has travelled widely in the region collecting data for this book, which doubles as a nice travelogue of some of the not-so-easily accessible places. Russell muses on the future of these religions which appear to be very bleak in the Middle East. The minorities continue to live there with the feeling that they are not wanted in those societies. However, he falls short of identifying the real reason – religious fanaticism and notions of Islamic superiority over all other religions. Instead he blames the foreign policy of Western powers such as the US and UK. They infuriate the Jihadis who in turn vent their impotent rage on their neighbours who belong to minority sects, and the author accepts this as the most natural thing in the world! However, it is heartening to note that almost 90 per cent of those people had now emigrated to the West and are leading peaceful and prosperous lives there.

The book is highly recommended.

[Justin Tapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East by Gerard Russell

Gerard Russell was a career diplomat in the British Foreign Service with postings around the Middle East and Afghanistan. His personal memoir would surely be fascinating, particularly his time in Israel and being witness to elements of the peace process. Instead, he's devoted his energies to researching and chronicling the histories of ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, some of which are in peril of assimilation, either in their Middle Eastern home or other countries (such as the USA) where they have fled for refuge. He describes his 14 year career as 10 years of travel and four years of study, learning both Arabic and Dari (the Farsi of Afghanistan). His position granted him access to lands and people that others would not have obtained; Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the West Bank, etc. I respect him for using this for the benefit of research. On one occasion, he visits the head of a religion with a British Ambassador, otherwise the meeting may not have happened.

In many places, he pushes cultural and legal boundaries as far as he can to get that rare glimpse, that difficult interview, that historic location.

I listened to the audiobook as I traveled Cyprus, a land where some of these minorities have fled for refuge as well as a land with its own ancient histories and traditions clouded by the mists of time. It reminded me of my years in Azerbaijan, encountering ancient minorities in the Caucauses Mountains whose origins and beliefs also overlap with traditions recorded by Russell. The written version of the book contains helpful maps and photos.

My favorite quote comes from someone he interviews upon learning of the probable title of his book: "Forgotten Kingdoms? WE haven't forgotten!"

The book is a wonderful overview that provides so much information requiring further study. By chapter, the author covers:

1. Mandaeans

2. Yazidis

3. Zoroastrians

4. Druze

5. Samaritans

6. Copts

7. Kalasha

Epilogue: Chaldeans and other minorities Detroit and elsewhere in the USA.

The author begins the book investigating the mysterious Mandaean religion found in marshy area of what was once ancient Babylon, modern Iraq. The whole exploration of rituals, highly-protected written traditions, secrets and mystery are a theme of the book. Many people in the same minority have different traditions related to their own origins and beliefs. There is much overlap among several of the beliefs and practices of the groups. Mandaeans and Yezidis along with ancient Harranians and modern Alawites show overlap with Mithras worshippers of Ancient Rome. Both Yezidis and Alawites pray three times daily toward the sun, for example.

One forgets that the Persian Empire conquered at least 23 separate peoples or nations. The author gets to escape his handlers in Iran and travel to "Southern Azerbaijan" where he encounters those maintaining the traditions of Zoroastrianism, and today's Iranian Shia and Zoroastrians maintain similar worldviews. The author reminds the reader that Iran only became Shia in 1500, and various other traditions flourished before that.

The Druze of Lebanon have beliefs that may originally trace to Neoplatonism, a relic of the settlement of the Greek diaspora in the Levant long ago. They have already experienced forms of war and ethnic cleansing going back a thousand years. Very few Druze are even allowed to know what their precise religious beliefs are, simply knowing that they identify as "Druze." The Druze belief in reincarnation put them at odds with both Shia and Sunni Islamic elements around them, and currently the Druze feel besieged by surrounding Shia elements.

The author's intentional effort to travel to the Palestinian Territories to experience a Samaritan Easter is interesting. Only a few hundred Samaritans remain, and are largely unknown to their Jewish cousins, but make an outsized place in the book. Samaritans have a different history of Hebrew history (as evident in the Gospels), maintaining it was the Judeans returning from Babylonian exile who adopted heresies and not the opposite, as claimed by Jews. They still keep a passover with real lambs and reject any traditions or customs after the Torah.

Cairo was the author's first posting and he seems to have a sentimental attachment to it, and deep sympathy for the Coptic Christians who have seen their freedoms erode over the recent decades. Even today, the Coptic Church has more actively-professing Christians than you will find in the UK. The author recounts Egyptian history to show the traditional history of tolerance. Copts were shown tolerance when Egypt was governed by Isma'il Pasha in the late Ottoman Period while the pasha attempted modernization and reforms. Russell points out that only with the rise of Nasser did Egypt become an Arab-aligned state, and Anwar Sadat made it a truly Islamic one, beginning a more widespread persecution of Copts. Coptic traditions and songs trace back to the earliest days of Christianity. Just like the Islam practiced in Egypt, some traditions may incorporate elements of ancient Egyptian rituals (the author discusses the history of the "evil eye" amulet as found in the region and especially Turkey). Some Egyptians claim that even the Psalms of David are taken from ancient Egyptian songs of the time. (Not surprising, really. If Hebrews lived in Egypt for centuries before the Exodus, they would have taken many of the art, customs, and songs with them-- as the Torah itself suggests.)

Perhaps the most interesting chapter is that of the Kalasha, an Indo-Aryan people who live in a remote area of Pakistan that few are able to travel to; even the author has a challenging time getting a visa. The group may trace its origin to the original Indo-European settlers who likewise settled Western Europe; hence the author claims a relationship between Kalashan language and English. People may incorrectly ascribe the genes behind blond-haired, blue-eyed children of Pakistan and Afghanistan to Greeks coming with Alexander the Great; the reality may be much more ancient. Kalash beliefs incorporate many traditions that could trace back to the Greeks but have at least incorporated parts of Hindu and Islamic beliefs as well. They adhere to extreme purity beliefs, particularly as it relates to women and menstruation, which are similar to that of ancient Jews. Dwindling in number, today's Kalasha often convert to Islam to save money and hassle. (The isolation of the people again reminds me of isolated villages in the Caucasus with their own specific languages and custom)

The epilogue examines Chaldean refugees from the mountains of Iraq, having fled most recently in the aftermath of Saddam and rise of ISIS and other hostile elements. Chaldeans are Aramaic speakers who trace their origins to days before Christ, and their Christian traditions to its earliest days as well. There are now more Aramaic speakers in Detroit than in Iraq, sadly. Parents are concerned about their children losing the ancient traditions and language. The author encounters other minority groups in the United States, particularly recently-arrived refugees that have fled the Syrian crisis. Some of these are growing in new centers in small towns west of the Mississippi. All of them face the challenges of modernization, assimilation, and maintaining a sense of identity so far from their ritual homelands. Having survived thousands of years of war, persecution, and more, they're now vanishing in a new environment-- freedom.

Five stars.

[Dschreiber · Rating 3 out of 5]

When ISIS swept into Iraq from Syria in the summer of 2014, driving a group of religionists known as the Yazidi onto Mount Sinjar, not only aid workers were sent scrambling. Journalists, too, were caught flatfooted. Who are the Yazidis? Aren’t they Muslims? What do they believe? Why does ISIS call them devil-worshippers? There are answers to these questions and many more like them in Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East by Gerard Russell, a scholar and former diplomat for both the U.K. and the U.N., fluent in Arabic and Farsi. Writing in an easy travelogue style, with descriptions of the land, the people he meets, their beliefs and practices, adorned with abundant historical quotations, he presents a Middle East that is surprisingly variegated not only in ethnicities but in religions as well. Behind the Muslim monolith that we tend to imagine lies a colourful, fascinating welter of minority religions with roots stretching back to Babylonian times and earlier.

Journalists found little to say about Yazidis because Yazidis themselves know little about their faith. Theirs is a mystery religion whose truths are revealed only to the clergy in secret meetings and ceremonies, while the laity is allowed to know only some customs and rituals. Why are Yazidi forbidden to eat lettuce? No one knows. Why are they forbidden to wear blue? It’s a mystery. The Yazidi may be an offshoot of the most famous of all ancient mystery cults, the cult of Mithras, wildly popular in the Roman army. It was near Yazidi territory that Roman soldiers first discovered the cult of Mithras while fighting the Persians, adopting it so passionately that in the western parts of the empire Mithraism resisted Christianity for several centuries. There are similarities between the Yazidi religion and the cult of Mithras: both pray three times a day with a girdle around the waist, both show a special reverence for the sun, and both include a key ceremony involving the sacrifice of bulls. And, what’s been passed down even to us today, is the custom of greeting someone with a handshake, a practice that the Yazidis appear to have copied from the cult of Mithras.

ISIS is almost correct in accusing the Yazidi of devil worship. They do revere Azazael, one of the “emanations” of the supreme being, the greatest of all the angels who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven, known to others as Satan (the Yazidi have a horror of pronouncing the name Satan). However, in Yazidi stories, Azazael repented, extinguished Hell with his tears and was restored to his preeminent place among the angels, turning their worship of “Satan” into the worship of the redeemed chief angel, a figure of goodness, not of evil. ISIS fails to appreciate this distinction. Azazael is represented in Yazidi iconography by the figure of the Peacock Angel. Why a peacock? That’s another mystery.

Russell devotes a chapter to each of six other religions. The Druze are the Mormons of Islam in that they accept a revelation different from that of mainstream Muslims. Like the Yazidi, they restrict knowledge of their religion to a priestly caste who devote themselves to lives of contemplation and poverty. The laity are known as “the ignorant ones.” The group nearest to extinction is the Samaritans with only 750 adherents. Calling themselves the true descendants of the ancient Israelites, more faithful and more pure than the most orthodox of Jews, they accept only the Pentateuch (or Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament), rejecting all scriptures, teachings and practices that came after 597 B.C. when the Jews were exiled to Babylon. Austerity is the watchword of Copts or Egyptian Christians, who fast 210 days of the year. Their religion has echoes of the Egypt of the pharaohs: even in their church in London they pray for the “rising of the water of the rivers,” follow a pharaonic calendar, and maintain that the psalms of David were written by the pharoah Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamun. Zoroastrians are well known, in name if nothing else, because Zarathustra, their founder, is memorialized in the title of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and Richard Strauss’s tone poem, used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Their branch in India, known as the Parsees, were often written about by the British in colonial times, who thought very highly of them. Founded about 1000 B.C. with a dualistic outlook that sees the world as a constant battleground between the forces of good and evil, Zoroastrianism appears to have influenced several later world religions. It teaches that the souls of those who choose to do good in life are rewarded with an eternal life in heaven, with hell awaiting the others. And their sacred book, the Avesta, prophesies a Messiah or redeemer who will lead the armies of good in their final battle, which will conclude with the end of the world and the resurrection of the dead. The Kalasha, the “last pagans of Pakistan,” all four thousand of whom live in three remote valleys in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, are given a chapter, as are the Mandaeans, who believe that their religion was passed down to them from the Garden of Eden as secret teachings whispered into the ear of Seth by his father, Adam. And there are digressions on other groups, such as Manichees, Alawites, Babis (later to become Baha’is), Kam, and Harranians.

All these minority religions of the Middle East have survived through many centuries largely by retreating to remote areas, such as mountain valleys or the vast marshlands of southern Iraq, where earlier governments had difficulty reaching them. Today, with better transportation and communications and with the rise of extremist forms of Islam, they are under threat. It is quite possible that some, despite having maintained a continuous, living connection with the earliest periods of recorded history, will disappear within a few decades.

[Daniel Greear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself constantly drawn to and interested in the Middle East. From a modern perspective in relation to geopolitics, the reason why is obvious. From a historical perspective, I think I am drawn to it because the Middle East is the foundation of our civilization. To understand the world, writ large, you have to understand the Middle East. Understanding the Middle East is not an easy task. Like most everything in history, understanding it is not done by using binary measurements. That to me, generally, is why history itself is so fascinating.

In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, Gerard Russell takes the reader on an odyssey that is both historical and personal. In the crisp 281 pages of text, you are given a lot of information. I feel like I highlighted the entire book. There are very few books I’ve read which can relay so much information so succinctly. Even I, who enjoys long books of history and details, appreciates that. The Middle East is also near and dear to Mr. Russell’s heart, which makes the book all the more fascinating and worthwhile. He, as a British civil servant, has dedicated his life to the Middle East and its people. He understands the customs and speaks the languages. To that, I give him credit. It was fascinating to follow him around the region and explain his experiences, many of which are in dangerous areas. I also loved the forward by Rory Stewart (it was a surprise to find it at the start of the book).

Mr. Russell focuses on several ancient and dying religions: The Mandaeans, the Yazidis, the Zoroastrians, the Druze, the Samaritans, the Copts, and the Kalasha. Additionally, various other groups such as the Alawites, the Assyrian Christians, and the Kafirs are explained as well. The reader learns their histories, their beliefs, their practices, and their modern struggles. It’s a journey, and it’s a bit hard to keep a few of them straight now that I’ve finished. Yazidis vs. Druze? Hmmmm

The reader also learns their relation to one another(and to other, larger religions) and how their cohesiveness has allowed them to survive over the centuries. I find it utterly fascinating that Zoroastrianism, the religion of the ancient Persians, still exists. I find it equally perplexing that so much of the religions of the Druze and Yazidis are shrouded in mystery, even to its own members. Lastly, I’ll mention that I love how the Kalasha people in Pakistan, thanks to DNA studies, could plausibly be descended from Alexander the Great’s soldiers. Modern Greeks in Afghanistan! What?!

It makes me sad that these religions are dying out due to geopolitics in the region. Conversely, it makes me proud that western countries like the United States have provided asylum for these people, so that they may continue to not only survive, but thrive.

There is really too much else to mention. The above is just a summary of my thoughts after finishing. I could reference my highlights and go on and on but I wont. I’ll just say that if you’re in need of a good travel or history book, give this a read.