Travel Writing; A critical study of William

Dalrymple’s “In Xanadu; A Quest”

International Islamic University, Islamabad, IIUI.

Sana Nisar

Comparative Literature

April 21, 2016

Travel Literature is travel writing of a non-fiction type. Travel writing is usually a record of
the experiences of travelers in some new places and environments. It includes striking and
powerful descriptions, illustrations of artworks and graphics, historical background, and
conceivably maps and diagrams. It occupies an equal status with other genres like romance,
action adventure, fantasy, mystery, detective fiction etc. with inclusion of different categories i.e.
creative non-fiction like memoir, narrative journalism, travel writing, personal essay and
descriptive storytelling. Carl Thompson, in his Travel Writing (2011), suggests that:

"To travel is to make a journey, a movement through space. Possibly this journey is epic in scale,
taking the traveler to the other side of the world or across a continent, or up a mountain; possibly,
it is more modest in scope, and takes place within the limits of the traveler’s own country or
region, or even just their immediate locality. Either way, to begin any journey or, indeed, simply
to set foot beyond one’s own front door, is quickly to encounter difference and otherness. All
journeys are in this way a confrontation with, or more optimistically a negotiation of, what is
sometimes termed alterity. Or, more precisely, since there are no foreign peoples with whom we
do not share a common humanity, and probably no environment on the planet for which we do
not have some sort of prior reference point, all travel requires us to negotiate a complex and
sometimes unsettling interplay between alterity and identity, difference and similarity."
(Thompson, 9, Emphasis in the original). The key words are journey, a movement in space
which can lead to discovery, alterity, identity, difference, similarity or complexity of the
discovery to follow the journey. Then, if travel is "the negotiation between self and other brought
about by movement in space" (Thompson, 9), then "all travel writing is at some level a record or
product of this encounter, and of the negotiation between similarity and difference that is
entailed." (Thompson, 10).

Travel Report or Travel Literature needs to be looked at from the horizon of its significance, the
form of written material and the involvement of the writer’s personality in process of writing,
socio-political situation of the author and the place both. It is not very easy to draw a clear
boundary between literary travel writing and non-literary writing. But some travelogues easily
stand out as noteworthy literary triumph. Journey is a symbol extensively used in all literatures.
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It is used as a literary device in scriptures, epics and widely read literary artifacts. Travel is used
for satire as in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels or a mean of conveying information in an
interesting manner.

William Dalrymple is travel writer, historiographer, broadcaster, researcher, article

writer who has literature in his blood as his father was a cousin of Virginia Woolf. He has
honorary doctorates of letters, from the University of St Andrews, University of Lucknow,
University of Bradford and University of Aberdeen. He has won a lot of prizes and awards for
his writings and his contribution to the historical literature including the Mungo Park Medal by
the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He
was born in Scotland in 1965 and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. William
Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Geographical Society and of
the Royal Asiatic Society, and is a founder and co-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival. He is
a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the Guardian, the TLS, and the New York Review of
Books, and is the Indian correspondent of the New Statesman. He is married to the artist Olivia
Fraser and they have three children. They now reside outside Delhi. He has also authored nine
books about India and the Islamic world, including City of Djinns (Thomas Cook Travel Book
Award and Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Prize), White Mughals (Wolfson
Prize for History and SAC Scottish Book of the Year Prize), The Last Mughal (Duff Cooper
Prize and Vodafone Award for Non-Fiction) and Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern
India (Asia House Literary Award) and Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan 1839–42.
He has written and presented three television series Stones of the Raj (Channel 4), Sufi Soul
(Channel 4) and Indian Journeys (BBC/PBS). He believes there are many more stories waiting to
be told. He has been shot at in Kashmir and in Palestine. He narrowly missed a sniper attack and
was nearly killed while researching a book in Afghanistan. “It must have been a mixture of
extreme strangeness and familiarity – the latter a result of the colonial rule – that I jumped at the
chance to go along to India.’ “It was the ruins in and around India’s capital that fascinated me,’’
says Dalrymple. “I kept imagining all the history lying buried there.’’ credits his love for the
country to “a small trickle of Bengali blood that’s in me’’. His maternal great-great-grandmother
Sophia Pattle was the daughter of a Bengali woman. “I’m sure at some level the familiarity must
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have come from that. Heredity works in its own ways,’’ he laughs.(William Dalrymple; if I had
five more lives I would live in India, Raj Anand OK, March1, 2013, Gulf news).

In Xanadu; A Quest is his first book which was published in 1989. In this book he sets off
to follow the footsteps of Marco Polo from Jerusalem (Palestine) to Turkestan in china. This
account of his journey, “In Xanadu”, is a bestseller and has won numerous awards and remains
one of the best-loved travel books of recent times. He travels across some 16,000 miles of
distinct landscape, from the disturbing ruins of Palestine to glorious cities of Iran, from the
lavishness of Lahore, to a broken down omnibus in Chinese Turkestan crowded with weeping
Pilgrims. Very sharply and sophisticatedly he compares and contrasts his experience to those of
his forerunners, from Ibn Battutah and Alexander the Great, to Richard Burton and T. E.
Lawrence. According to Dalrymple, 21st-century travel writing is almost always about people,
exploring the astonishing multiplicity that still breaths in the world underneath the covering of
globalization, (In the footsteps of Marco Polo: the journey that changed William Dalrymple’s
life, William, the spectator, 24th June, 2015). Keeping this view of diversity and
multiculturalism, we have thoroughly examined his travelogue “In Xanadu”. Title of the book
has been borrowed from famous English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla
Khan. In 1797, according to his own account, Coleridge was reading about Shangdu in Purchas’s
“His Pilgrimes”, fell asleep, and had an opium-inspired dream. The dream caused him to begin
the poem known as 'Kubla Khan'. Regrettably, Coleridge's lyrics were sporadic by an unnamed
"man from Porlock", causing him to forget much of his dream. But his sketches of Shangdu
became one of the more celebrated poems in the English language. Coleridge's description of
Shangdu has shadows of the works of both Marco Polo and Samuel Purchas. Through
Coleridge’s portrayal of Shangdu, Xanadu became a metaphor for magnificence, lavishness,
delight, glory and supremacy. Since then it is widely used in all literatures to symbolize splendor,
richness and authority. Xanadu originally identified as “Shangdu” was the center of Kublai
(Kubla) khan’s Yuan dynasty in People's Republic of China; before he decided to shift his throne
to the Jin dynasty’s headquarters which is present-day Beijing. Shangdu then became his summer
capital. Shangdu (Xanadu) was visited by the Italian traveler Marco Polo in about 1275, and was
destroyed in 1369 by the Ming dynasty under the role of Zhu Yuan zhang. In 1271, at age of 17,
Marco Polo left for china following the Silk Route( Silk Road or Silk Route was an very old
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network of trade routes that were linking the West and East from China to the Mediterranean
Sea) in the Yuan Dynasty. The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that were
central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting
the West and East from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road derives its name from
the money-spinning trade in Chinese silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han
dynasty. The Central Asian sections of the trade routes were extended by the Han dynasty,
largely through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoys. The Chinese had
immense concern for the protection of their trade products and extended the Great Wall of
China to make sure the security of the trade course. Traffic on the Silk Road was a momentous
feature in the growth of the civilizations of China, the Indian subcontinent, Persia, Europe,
Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance, political and economic relations between the
civilizations. So religions, syncretic philosophies, various technologies, as well as diseases, also
moved along the Silk Routes. The Silk Road served as a mean of carrying out cultural trade
among the civilizations along its network. After learning, Mongolian and Chinese as a merchant,
he spent much of his time in court of the great Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Under the prudent
control of the Mongolian rulers, Yuan Dynasty was urbanized equally well in agriculture,
handicraft industry, commerce and foreign trade. The Travel accounts of Polo, penned by him,
explained Chinese government system, economy, and culture in detail, which intensely aroused
the craving of west to go to China and had a great impact on the European routing and map-
making for purpose of trade and business.

Book begins with William Dalrymple’s introduction of his journey as an obvious sequel to
Marco polo’s expedition. During his college, one day he spots a journal that said Pakistan and
china has opened Silk Road (Karakorum highway) for foreigners, which basically prompts him
to travel. He plans it with his girlfriend introduced as Louisa who joins him in Pakistan. He starts
journey with another friend, Laura, well connected English business women. His first place of
arrival is Jerusalem, Palestine under Jewish rule. This quest starts in Jerusalem, with the
descriptive details of holy sepulcher inside the old city of Jerusalem. The location of the Church
of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is branded as the place both of the crucifixion and the crypt
of Jesus of Nazareth. In the past, the church has been a major pilgrimage center for Christians
from all over the world. But under the rule of Seljuk Turks in 1077, rumors began to flow that
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Christian pilgrims were deprived of right to enter the church. The release of Holy Sepulcher from
the control of Seljuk Turks was the key stimulus for the first Crusade between 1096 and 1099
between Muslims and Christian leading it to further eight battles in coming years. Through
Dalrymple’s record readers come to know that still Jerusalem is enclosed nursery of many faiths
and church is place of worship for both Greeks and Armenians who are not at good terms with
each other. Here writer explores the myth of holy oil that oil used in lamps inside the church
which is known as “oil from the mount of olives” is brought from an ordinary body shop. There
he quotes Marco polo’s historical venture conducted in 1271, during the time of last crusade
between Mameluke rulers and king Edward 1 of England. Dalrymple narrates polo’s word as
“Turks have vacated church, sacked and burnt cities” and he pictures the emblem of Baibars in
the St. Stephen’s gate. He puts is as “the symbol was a pair of lions rampant about to attack a
small rat. The lions (…..) were Mameluke, Egypt; the cornered rat, the crusaders. It was sadly
accurate picture”. Through this illustration he, talks about the fall of Christian empire because of
the “internal conflicts between catholic France and protestant England. After fall of Jerusalem
and its suburbs, both kingdoms decided to seek help from Mongol brothers, Hulagu and Kubla
Khan. According to historical accounts, Great khans were grandsons of famous warrior and
leader, Genghis khan, the Khagan of Mongolia in Yuan dynasty. Mongol invaders have made a
terrible conquest in the East conquering much of the Islamic world. They had become obvious
threat to Eastern Europe with savage incursions of Middle East in 1240-41. Crusaders, in order
to avoid two enemies, built friendly relationships with their enemy’s enemy to fight only one
battle. After the death of Saladin, throne of Islamic empire was established by Mamelukes, the
former slave-soldiers, whose leading man, the sultan Baibars, was an unstoppable exponent of
holy war and did much to bring the crusader states to their knees over the next two decade.
Marco Polo, his father Niccole and Uncle Maffeo Polo were the first Europeans (Italians) who
claimed to have met to great Kubla Khan and visited this summer palace Shangdu. Author quotes
from Polo’s account that Kubla Khan was interested in Christianity so this led Christians to seek
help from him and thus Polo returned to China with pope and few Christianity clerks. Here one
comes to understand the significance of faith through the chronological records of power-games
that cards have been played in the courtyard of the beliefs in all over the world and allegiances
have been established in the name of same religion. While discussing the historical connections
between the lands of South Asia, East Asia and Middle East, Dalrymple illustrates the
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geographical congruity of south Asian territories as Ayatollah Iran, battled- Afghanistan, and
enclosed china (Dalrymple, 11) in light of political disturbance and religious-sectarian conflicts
which have always been keeping this region in limelight. Author describes that a British school
of archeology, working in Capital of Israel shafts out the ruination of the old city recalling the
magnificence of Christian past. Travel writing is all about political handling of social and
cultural macrocosm of a civilization through pen. Because of multiculturalisms, we see both
Western and Eastern cultures in present day Jerusalem as writer identifies natives as Orients and
Occident. In term of binaries, Orient is stereotypical definition of Arabs and Muslim’s literature.
Author, sometimes ignores the socio-cultural significance of place and creates new world
according to his imagination for example he uses word “wailing” (Dalrymple, 15) for Azan
(prayer call). Wailing is a different situation from Azan. Then author mention the beauty,
splendor and silence of “The Dome of the Rock”. It is one of the most primitive extant buildings
from the Islamic world. Recognized as a mosque, this notable building is a vast open-air podium
that houses Al-Aqsa mosque, madrasas and several other religious buildings. Few places in it are
as holy for Christians, Jews and Muslims. He celebrates glorious past of Christian kingdoms, in
context of Islam’s conquest of Jerusalem. Discussing Islamic architecture author points out the
nonexistence of statues, images or sculptures of angels and saints as “koranic Ban” (Dalrymple
17) while comparing it to Christian religious traditions. At this point we come to know the role
of religious influences in shaping one’s perception and differences between Islam and
Christianity. There are few points which author should have ore explored that Islam doesn’t
prohibit aesthetic pleasures or sense of beauty but it prevents from it because several reasons
(acts of anti-Islamic customs like idol-worship or in context of prophet’s (PCBUH) times when
there were munafiqin (Arab idol worshipers) who pretended to be Muslims). In modern context,
we can explain it in a more moderate way, balancing it between liberalism and extremism, “it’s
all about Haram and Halal. It is noteworthy that religion is not complicated and burdensome
(Nasreen A, Islamstackexchange, June 28, 2012)”. In same paragraph he says that the insignias
of defeated Byzantine and Sassanian/Tasmanian empires are hanging on the walls of mosque like
“hunting trophies on the walls of English country houses” as “Dome of the Rock” is a monument
for Islamic victory. Additionally, he explicates this act of monument making and history
recording as “self-confidence and intolerance of new Islamic conquerors of Jerusalem”
(Dalrymple 17). One can easily comprehend that victorious solemnizations are universal culture
8|In Xanadu; A Quest

and perhaps more rude and un-explainable examples can be seen in history of Christian, Jewish
or any other nations of world. We see also come to know about orthodox Jewish colonization of
Jerusalem making life hard to live in there. Eventually author declares Jerusalem as “sacred to
three religions, the city has witnessed the worst intolerance and self-righteousness of all of them”
(Dalrymple, 18) reflecting on the rise and fall of the city and its glories.

Then he moves to acre from Jerusalem, most commonly spelled as “Akka” in Arabic. Acre is
a city in the northern coastal plain region of Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. The
city occupies an important location, as it sits on the coast of the Mediterranean, traditionally
linking the waterways and commercial activity with outer domain. Acre is one of the oldest cities
in the world. Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. During the Crusades it was
known as St. John d'Acre after the Knights Hospitaller, who had their head office there. Author
covers all geographical congruity and structure of city as ruined, approving Polo’s view of Acre
in his logbook in 13th C. Acre has been very important is history because of its port and sea-
ways. We also read author’s views about similarities between his own reflections and Polo’s
commentary that “there was remarkable similarity, between the crusader kingdom and the state
of Israel. They had similar boundaries, both were rules from Jerusalem, and both were
effectively supported by west. Taking advantage of Arab disunity, established by force,
maintained by violence, religion and culture divided the two now as it did then” (Dalrymple, 23,
24). Here it comes out that throughout history religion and cultural differences has kept people in
clash to each other. Second important lesson which we learn from this argument is that
triumphant nations like Arabs fail to remember the price of sovereignty and cost of freedom and
gloom again in the darkness of ignorance. Another remarkable thing highlighted by Dalrymple is
that “here the Jews and the Arabs are friends. [….] the people want peace only the government
doesn’t (Dalrymple, 24). Discussing the horrors of “Isrealification” of Palestine, with a native
Arab in Acre, writer pictures opinion of common masses that they are not concerned with
politics and power-play of sharp minds but they look for humanity in each other regardless of
religious or cultural differences, in fact these are the ruling bodies which actually make people to
build a wall of hatred between them. We also see Acre as an old faded painting of Italian,
French, English and Arab culture. Chapter one ends with a silly chat between the travelers and
natives of Acre. An Arab asks them about their whereabouts and when travelers tell them that
they are off to Peking in china, readers encounter very weird answer like “you think me fool?
9|In Xanadu; A Quest

You think me animal? I tell you Arab man very clever. We invent astronomy! We invent
mathematics! Arab man finest artists in the world” (Dalrymple, 26). Perhaps it brings out the
nostalgia of natives, living in their past or probably longing for lost pride and sense of space in
history through recalling glorious achievements and inventions by their ancestors. We also see
treatment of Arabic words by author, sometimes untranslated and sometimes translated like chai,
terzi, keffiyeh, han, funduq, nargile, muezzin and refrences to other travelers and historians like
Omar Khayyam, Ibn e jubayr and James di Virty etc. overall chapter one provides readers with
detailed description of Palestine under Israeli colonial rule and it’s multiculturalism both as a
source of magnificent history and a tool of its destruction on the hands of several civilizations
from East and West. From Jerusalem, Dalrymple and his partner Laura, move towards Syria. He
puts his anticipations for this journey as “Unknown horrors of Syria”. Because of political
agitation and internal conflicts between Muslim states, there were not good images of Muslims
on global stratum.

Chapter two begins in Latakia “Ladhiqiyah” which is the principal port city of Syria. Latakia
has been subsequently ruled by the Romans, Ummayads, Byzantines, Fatimids, Turks,
Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamelukes, and Ottomans. After World War I, Latakia was assigned to
the French mandate of Syria, in which it served as the first city of the independent land of
the Alawites. This autonomous territory became the Alawite State in 1922, proclaiming its
independence a number of times until reintegrating into Syrian Arab Republic in 1944.
Dalrymple describes Latakia as “crowded with Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians,
hostile to each other” because of migration and immigration, as a result of political turmoil
caused by Hezbollah in Middle East. Here we encounter stereotypical character of “Orients”
when a Lebanese merchant on Latakia port asks Dalrymple and his partner Laura that “why
you’re coming to Syria?” Laura replies him that they are following Marco Polo and he poses his
next question that “when was Mr. Poodle coming to Syria?” Laura says many years ago and he
finds it quite strange and enquires that if he is not alive than why you’re following him”
(Dalrymple, 30). Reader can comprehend this incident into that maybe the subject/native is not
aware of culture of travel writing and traveling which was the basic factor of fall of Islamic
empire throughout the course of history. Second immediate incident which takes place in
immigration office while Dalrymple is to retrieve their passports, native clerks are introduced as
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vulgar, prone to sex and drunkards. The place where both travelers stay at night is described as
“horrible place with a pigeon in shower” (Dalrymple, 32). Author has described overall Latakia
as multihued worn jewel made of Roman, Byzantinian and Ottoman colors. Then they both move
towards Masyaf, a town which is located in Hama province of Syria, in the Orontes Valley. In
older times, this town has served to protect the trade routes to cities and inlands. Other important
significance of Masyaf is that it was once home of the much feared ancient “Order of Assassins”.
In late 11th century, a secret order of Nizari Ismailies (sect of Shi'ite Islam) was created in Persia
and Syria by a man called Hassan-i Sabbah. These were the infamous “Hashshashins” (the
fundamentalists) who were a great threat to Sunni-Seljuk authority in Persia. They formed a
group to be reckoned with, with their own policies, alliances and castles, initially in Persia but
soon spreading into Egypt, Iraq and Syria. Perhaps the Hashshashin, from which the name
‘assassins’ derives, are more famous for the way they got away with their opponents by means of
exceedingly proficient assassinations. Polo in his travelogue has also mentioned this assassin’s
creed. As religious conflicts has been very notorious part of Islamic history labeling all over
Muslims as “fanatical fundamentalists”. Author quotes Polo’s story of “Garden of the Old one”
(Dalrymple, 37) about the Hassan-i-Sabah who built a garden like paradise and allured young
men for Hoories to murder Muslim scholars, warriors and kings. This faction of fundamentalists
was destroyed by the Mongols, under the headship of Hulagu Khan. Both travelers arrive in
Masyaf in summertime when cotton is ripening. There they meet a native Youngman, a
merchant’s son who is student of English and is awfully inspired from English literature and the
English. Because of this, he invites Dalrymple and Laura to his home for night stay. And here for
the first time author appreciates Arabic food and hospitality denying older comments of hostility
and least friendliness as “undreamt of food was laid before us” and “more to the point, his supper
was ours” (Dalrymple, 39). Here readers come to know about the dissimilar eating culture of
East and West as, “it was a completely different concept to the western idea of a meal where
everyone has their own” (Dalrymple, 40). Eastern part of world still has the traditional family
culture of sitting together and eating but with nuclear family system, we see such customs fading
in West, he has also mentioned few Muslim and Christian scholars who have described splendor
of Masyaf in their times. He encounters a native who has been migrating between England,
France and Syria because of unstable socio, economic situation of Middle East. Further author
travels towards Aleppo (Ḥalab) which is the largest and most populous city in Syria and serves
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as the capital of the Aleppo province. Aleppo has been the biggest city of the Ottoman Empire
after Constantinople and Cairo. Aleppo is one of the oldest ceaselessly settled cities in the world.
It has been inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC. Situation of Aleppo is bit
better and different from Latakia and Masyaf. Like other parts of Middle East, Aleppo too has
seen rise and fall of all beliefs. It has been impregnated by “Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians,
Arabs, Persians, Mongols, ottomans” (Dalrymple, 53). Other very surprising thing which is
revealed in later part of the 2nd chapter is presence of Night Clubs’ in Aleppo which is because of
Christian population and its hold in Aleppo. Instead of finding Arab women and belly dancers,
author introduces us with Armenian singer and music. In the end of chapter 2, both partners are
about to travel to Turkey with an end note from native host that “be careful with the Turks. They
are bustards, evil men. They kill, rob money. Rape women. Big problem” (Dalrymple, 58).
Syrian–Turkish relations officially do not exist. Turkey shares its longest common
border with Syria. The traditional apprehension in both lands has been due to disputes including
the “self-annexation of the Hatay Province to Turkey in 1939”, “water disputes resulting from
the Southeastern Anatolia Project”, and “Syria's support for the Kurdistan Workers Party”
(abbreviated as PKK) and the “now-dissolved Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia” (abbreviated as ASALA) which has been documented as a radical union by NATO,
EU, and many other states. Syrian civil war is also an important strain to liaison between the two
countries, leading to the deferment of diplomatic contact. Here readers again get the gist of Arab
conflicts in Middle East in times of 80’s and 90’s.

William Dalrymple continues his journey with his companion Laura and moves to Turkey in this
chapter. Both the travelers explore certain places in Turkey which includes Ayas, a district of
Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, Sis, the city to the south of the current
Turkish town of Kozan, Mersin, a city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey
and Sivas, a city in central Turkey. The main things noted and discussed by Dalrymple about
these places are culture which includes their foods, dresses and festivals, the important historical
buildings with special reference to their architecture and social and moral codes related to their
behavior and manners. At several places, the writer can be seen mocking Islam and Muslims as
well.
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In the very first paragraph of the chapter three while describing the old and modern Turks, he
says:“Modern Turks are a far cry from the turbaned, sabre wielding dervish---the Terrible Turk-
--who haunted Europe for so long.”(61) The words like “terrible” and “haunt” are very
significant here. These words create a sort of gothic imagery which shows how dreadful the
image of Turks is in the west. For modern Turks, he says that they are “curious, kind and slightly
earnest.” (61)During the journey, writer comes across a Turkish student who asks several
questions to him about his visit and views about Turkey. The curiosity of the student reflected
through his questions does not reveal that all Turks are alike but the statement given by writer
gives a general view that all Turks are curious. Another statement about the Turks says that “The
Turks are very sensitive about their country”. (69) Dalrymple is asked several times by Turks the
question “Turkey good?” which compels him to give the above statement. What I think is that
it’s not just Turks who are so much bothered to know if others like their country or not. It’s a
general thing and this curiosity is there in every nation because everyone has a deep sense of
belongingness and love for his country. Another interpretation of this statement can be that
writer thinks that Turks want others to admire their country especially the western world but it’s
not the truth. Turks ask the question to others to just show that how much they love and are
concerned about their country. Detailed description of Turkish men and women is given by
writer. He has not only focused on their dresses but their physical features also. He says,

“The younger men were thuggish-looking, muscular creatures, their faces tanned and tough,
sitting about half naked on fallen pillars, smoking. --------. They wore tweed jackets, shirts with
large collars, fine clipped moustaches and on their heads dirty tweed flat caps”. (63)

At another place he says,

“Good looks have been shared out unevenly among the Turks. Their men are almost all
handsome with dark, supple skin and strong features: good bones, sharp eyes and tall, masculine
bodies. But the women shared their men folk’s pronounced features in a most unflattering way.
Very few are beautiful. Their noses are too large, their chins too prominent”. (71)

The description shows how the writer has just talked about the physical appearance of Turkish
people and simply ignored if they have any intellectual abilities or not as if they are just bodies
and have no brain or intellect. Secondly, the way he describes women seems very inhuman. The
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food items, writer gains a chance to taste in Turkey mainly include chai which shows how much
Turkish are fond of chai. Describing it, he says “Turkish tea---hot, sweet and very strong”.
(71)The way writer talks about chai stalls gives an image to the reader that in almost every small
and big market area of Turkey, at least one chai shop is present. Another important thing writer
mentions about chai is that in Turkey, it is served in small glasses instead of cups. Other food
items includes pilau rice and shorba soup. The most important thing regarding food to be noted
in Turkey is the separate menu for English people found by Dalrymple and Laura in “Kujuk
Ayas Family Restaurant” titled as InglizMenuyu (69). It shows the cultural differences between
English and Turkish people in terms of the food they eat. In cultural festivals, the Agriculture
day celebrations at Sivas are discussed by the writer. The celebrations show that at gatherings,
men and women sit separately. He says,

“Already, at 8 o’clock in the morning, these villages were in the full swing of the agricultural
day. Women were carrying piles of firewood towards their houses, while the men began solemnly
to disembowel their tractors. Children were sitting, watching the grazing sheep or throwing
grains to the hens”.

The description portrays a typical image of village life which is very and close to nature and
unfortunately in west there are no such places. Historical buildings are a great asset for Turkey.
Some of the historical places visited and mentioned by the writer in his travelogue are Bayazit
and Sulemaniye mosques in Istanbul, Ulu Jami which is the oldest mosque in Sivas, Gok
Medresse and the Ottoman mosque. “Ottoman Mosque has never appealed me”, says the writer.
He has not stated any other thing about the building or architecture of the mosque just because he
doesn’t feel it appealing which shows his biasness that he does not even want to talk about the
thing which he does not like. The two buildings about which a detailed description is given are
Ulu Jami and Gok Medresse. While describing Ulu Jami, Dalrymple compares it with the Roman
Cathedral. He says that architecture and especially the inner structure of both buildings are same.
Here, the writer generalizes the whole structure of the mosque because it’s not true that the
Turkish mosque is an imitation of Roman Cathedral church. Only the arches made inside the Ulu
Jami are like those present in the church. Otherwise, the inner structure of mosque and church is
completely different. Making generalizations on the basis of just one common thing is not at all
acceptable.
14 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

Same is the attitude of writer when he describes the decorative work done on the walls of Gok
Medresse. He states that Celtic decorative work is used in its architecture which was also used by
the western artists at the time of Anglo Saxon Age. In order to prove the so called superiority of
the western culture he criticizes the Celtic work done in Gok Medresse by saying that it gives a
violent and barbaric look to it whereas when it’s done by western artists it enhances the beauty of
any building. It shows that how westerns think low of eastern culture. This type of attitude of
writer shows that how he does not want to recognize Turkish architecture as something unique
and different. Every society has some positive and negative characteristics but usually when
western writers describe east they ignore the positive things and focus more on the negative
aspects. In this travelogue, writer can be seen making fun of Turkish society and mentality of its
people. He mocks the transport system of Turkey when he had to wait for a long time for bus and
train. He continuously says that he has heard that in Turkey train and buses are always at time.
His tone seems quite sarcastic while saying this and he also mocks the bus driver who starts to
wash his bus on every stop it stops and the conductor who comes on each stop to offer
passengers some biscuits. This can be a custom in their society and according to them it comes
under the category of good manners so writer has no right to judge or criticize these people just
because he himself thinks washing the bus on each stop as funny and disturbing the sleeping
passengers at every stop just to give biscuits as something ill mannered.

Writer also mentions some of the policemen who are on duty at railway station with whom he
plays cards while waiting for the train. He writes how they win each game from him by cheating.
He criticizes Turkish men on duty as morally corrupt people. Here also he is doing generalization
by saying that on duty all Turkish men are corrupt because if he has seen few people involved in
corruption it does not mean that all the country will be like this. Every society has its own flaws
but the writer portrays the Turkish society in such a mocking way as if his own society is
flawless. The only true picture of Turkish society is presented by the writer when he narrates his
meeting with a German girl who spends half of her year in Turkey and half in Germany. The
writer asks her that which country she prefers more whether Turkey or Germany, she gives an
account of life in both the countries which reveal the social and moral values of two different
societies. About Turkey she says, “Life here is very hard. We have to go a long way for water
and sometimes we are hungry---but here people are more concerned with each other. Here
people smile more. Really. They are happier. I can go to any house. I can spend the night; sleep
15 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

here and there will be no scandal.”The statement of this girl is free from any sort of
prejudices.She explains both that what she likes about Turkey and what she doesn’t. The same
German girl is asked several questions related to Islam and Muslims by Dalrymple. He inquires
about the inferior status of women and discrimination on the basis of gender in Islam. She tells
him that “Separating the sexes and making the women slaves is not Islam, it is Turkish. We are
good Muslims”. It shows how the characteristics of a particular society are attached with Islam
which is just generalization that customs of one Muslim country are misunderstood as teachings
of Islam.

At few places in the travelogue, the writer has been making fun of Azaan and Recitation of Holy
Quran. He refers to the recitation of Holy Quran as “noise”. He says, “There was noise of a
mullah holding a Koran class”. He also uses the phrase “wailing sound of the muezzin” for
Recitation of Holy Quran and Azaan. If we see the word ‘Wailing’, it means mourning or cursing
whereas the recitation of Quran and Azaan is something very pleasant to ears. So, his use of
word ‘wailing’ is very contradictory and offensive too for Muslims. Writer has shown baseness
and misrepresented Turkish people and culture at several places but has also shown true picture
of Turkey especially when he quotes any native. Throughout the travelogue there is a sort of side
by side comparison of Turkish and English nation which can be concluded with the quote of
Byron which is himself quoted by William Dalrymple in his travelogue which says:

“I see not much difference between ourselves and the Turks, save that we have foreskins and
they have none, that they have very long dresses and we short, and that we talk much and they
little. In England the vices in fashion are whoring and drinking, in Turkey sodomy and smoking,
we prefer a girl and a bottle, they a pipe and a phatic. They are sensible people”.

In next chapter, the writer leaves for Iran. The main thing about Iran which is satirized by the
writer is the distinction or rather discrimination on the basis of Shia and Sunni sects. When he
reaches Iran, he comes to know about the Judge of Revolution, Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali. A
person tells him that “the judge once sentenced fifty-six Kurds to death in one day” (119). The
person further states that “it does not matter because they were not Shi’ites” (119).
This conversation of the writer with that person shows that in Iran just the lives of Shi’ites are
precious and Sunnis are not even considered as human beings. Dalrymple notices most of the
people in Iran are wearing chador. What he finds more striking and humorous is that even the
16 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

people with beards are wearing chador because according to him chador is something associated
with females and beard with males so the combination of both is quite ridiculous for him. As his
last visited country was Turkey, so when he enters Iran he starts comparing these nations, their
people and their cultures. He says that “they all spoke perfect English, and seemed far more
westernized than their counterparts on the Turkish side of the border.” Another textual example
which can be quoted here and shows the advancement and luxurious life style of people on Iran
says that even the religious scholars i.e. mullah or molvi use to enjoy the rides of luxurious and
expensive cars. Dalrymple writes, “We watched the mullahs speeding past in their sporty
Renault 5s.”

Dalrymple satirizes the present Ayatollah of that time while talking about the inscriptions pasted
on walls with pictures of Ayatollah. The inscriptions say that “BEING HYGENIC IS
DIRECTLY RELATED ON THE MAN’S PERSONALITY”. The writer after reading the
inscription criticizes Ayatollah for being an ecologist as well apart from a religious leader while
saying in a taunting tone that “we had expected anything of the Ayatollah.” We found some
misrepresentations about brown people in this book. Like in chapters five and six we found some
cultural misrepresentations in this travelogue about Afghan people and their appearances. In
these chapters three countries are discussed Iran, Pakistan and India. “The place was crowded
with piratical-looking Afghans. Given a few peg legs, eye patches and macaws they could have
happily stood in as extras for Treasure Island or The Pirates of Penzance. Yet although they all
shared a look of unmistakable villainy, they were otherwise a remarkably diverse bunch”. Here
mock on the physical appearances of Afghan people is obvious because the writer uses the word
piratical looking which is unfair. Not everybody seems piratical. Afghan people are considered
very beautiful people. The cultural dressing of Afghan people is criticized and appearances as
well. “He wore a smart double breasted waistcoat, a voluminous salwar kameez, and over his
shoulder he had draped a thick, brown patou blanket. He reminded me of woodcuts of young
Hercules in the ancient Latin text books at school. Nearby stood a blue eyed Rasputin, with
shaven head, a thick, tangled beard and a malevolent grin”. The appearances of Afghan people is
exaggerated and showed beast like figures. Again, Afghan people are shown such beings that do
not follow any manners and they are represented as harsh people. “Munching loudly and
chattering away in guttural Farsi”. The writer gave us the harsh image of Farsi because it is
spoken by Afghans but in fact Farsi is the sweet language. The cultural unity of Afghan
17 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

community is mocked as well. “They had downy, embryonic beards and all wore a style of
salwar kameez that I had not seen before, buttoned at the shoulder like a dentist’s smock and
obviously de rigueur among the young bloods of the expat Afghan community”.

In this chapter, we can find the typical image of brown people especially Afghan people
represented by white people that they are inhumane. “Personally I wouldn’t recommend it.
Afghans are animals. I would wait until tomorrow. Quite apart from the smell, those barbarians
are more than likely to rob you of everything you possess.”Typical mockery on the religious
verses is present in the book which is something very bad because every religion should be
respected. “The Kalimeh, a short chant that sounds more like a rugby song”. People were having
hatred for their own country which has been penned by the writer very well because the writer
himself is white man and he quoted Iranian man and his hatred for Iran. “Iran is worse than
Pakistan”. Our image in their minds is barbaric. “May be it is worse. I have a little surgery in the
desert south of Quetta. The people are Baluchis and always they kill each other. Always they are
giving grenades to each other’s houses. To be a surgeon in the desert south of Quetta is a terrible
thing.”

The impact of India on Pakistani people is also misrepresented because we are separate from
India. We Pakistanis are having hatred for our neighboring country India. If few people watch
their movies or listen songs does not develop love for India and cannot remove hatred for the
country. “All the time the radio banged with loud music from Indian films which the Pakistanis
enjoy.” Western people take themselves a well colonized and sophisticated people but according
to them brown people are unsophisticated and they need to be colonized. “She had been swept
off her feet by a General in to he Cold stream Guards and after her marriage was suddenly
transported from a large, cold country house in Norfolk to the wilds of Baluchistan”. The
superiority complex of white men is shown here. They even degrade and disrespect the food.
“Men selling samosas passed along the windows shoving their greasy triangles through the bars”.
Westernization in Pakistan is appreciated by the writer but he represents it in a way that is
degrading like we the natives do not appreciates the values and norms of our culture. If we live
abroad or study in abroad that does not cut our roots. We are still from where we belong. Here is
the example of Pakistani native Mozaffar who studied from Cambridge. “William, darling, how
wonderful to see you. But, my dear, you are absolutely filthy. And why are you wearing those
18 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

beastly Paki clothes?” Again we found the typical thinking of western people about Pakistani
native Pathans and the misrepresentation of their culture and customs is also discussed in this
book. “Oh gentleman sahib, these Pathans, they are barely human, he said, they have no
civilization. They are not using right thinking”. “Gentleman sahib they are Junglies”. The image
of Pathan women is also misrepresented. In this book their image is portrayed cruel but in fact
Pathan women are oppressed and are bound to obey males. They respect male dominancy. “The
Pathan women are of a very lusty nature”. “Among them there are many witches. Witches? The
Pathan women. They are more wicked even than the men. If a Pathanwitch lady wants `to go to
see a friend she climbs up a tree and she flies this tree wherever she wants”. William Dalrymple
continues his journey to Russia in this chapter. The main things noted and discussed by
Dalrymple about this place are culture which includes even infrastructural facilities. The
misrepresentation is seen in this chapter like: “The babies and small children go naked in warm
weather. The rooms have been dived up into dormitories, the stables turned into rows of stinking
squatter loops, the garden left to run riot.” He called problem to one woman who was his visitor.
She was unusual among other women of Russia. She wore no chadder and had the bearing of a
person of some power and importance. Then we come across about prayer area. Beautiful
description is there. The main prayer area is not a basilica but an open-fronted pavilion in the
manner of the chihil sutan in Isfahan.“There Islam was discouraged, as was the uigur language.
All teaching was in mandarin, and the uigur students were taught to despite their tongue and
Islamic culture.”Here concept of Russian Communist is there, as Americans are capitalist, so
concept of communism is something hazardous for Muslims. The most exciting discovery
according to writer was there were still Nestorian Christians in kashgar.

Last chapter of this travelogue has no such misrepresentations like previous ones have. This
journey is towards China. Before reaching there he has presupposed many things about that
place. Much has been written on the supposed discomforts of Chinese trains. They are meant to
be overcrowded, noisy and filthy, their occupants displaying all the worst Chinese vices:
boorishness, arrogance and insensitivity. There were many things that we liked about Peking: the
grinning dentists caressing their pliers outside the surgeries, the delicate boys in the barber shops,
the old women hobbling past on unbound feet, the lines of plane trees and the silver poplars, the
bird cages hanging from the street lamps. But best of all we loved the chocolate éclairs. Chinese
pride in their civilization and Nationalism has been beautifully explained by the writer. China
19 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

had been the super power in past too. ‘The Chinese had no interest in the English; they knew
little about them and had no desire to enlarge on that knowledge. According to the Huang Ch’ing
chih-kung t’u, it is an illustrated Imperial handbook to ‘the tribute nations’, English belonged to
Holland. Writer has neutral response about china during his journey. Ch’ien-lung may not have
been interested in English, but he was very interested in his gardens at chendge. Here, at the back
of his summer palace, he created a huge willow –pattern world of lakes and pagodas.

The chief way in which In Xanadu represents its protagonist (and therefore the crucial manner of
representation for the text itself) is directly related to the class and mobility of this particular
traveler. William is represented as a bumbling, ineffectual, upper-class traveler, which forms a
vehicle for much of the text’s humor. This representational strategy fits remarkably well with the
trope of the anachronistic (English) gentleman traveler identified by Patrick Holland and Graham
Huggan as “a means of reinstalling a myth of imperial past”. They describe the capacity for self-
deprecation that most marks the gentleman’s progress: an indication not only that he doesn’t take
himself too seriously, but that we shouldn’t take him too seriously either. … The foppishness of
some of these writers, who tend to make light of their misadventures, provides a useful alibi for
their cultural gaffes and, at times, their arrogance.

Dalrymple’s constant shortcomings in the practical matters of travel, highlighted through his
juxtaposition with his more efficient companions, enable Dalrymple to introduce his (often
negative) opinions to the reader. At the same time, these are characterized as somehow harmless,
or less important, due to William’s foppish eccentricity. Author is introduced through an
entertaining autobiographical vignette describing his schoolboy fascination with Polo: “At my
primary school we knew all about Marco Polo. He wore a turban, a stripy robe a bit like a
dressing gown and he rode a camel with only one hump. The Ladybird book which had this
picture on the cover was the most heavily thumbed book on the school bookshelf. One day, my
friends and I put some biscuits in a handkerchief, tied the handkerchief to a stick and set off to
China. It was an exhausting walk as there were no camels in Scotland, and by tea time we had
eaten all our biscuits. There was also the problem that we were not absolutely sure where China
was. It was beyond England, of that we were certain, but then we were not absolutely sure where
England was either. Nonetheless we strode off manfully towards Haddington were there was a
shop. We could ask there, we said. But when it began to get dark we turned around and went
20 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

home for supper. After consultation we decided to put the plan on the shelf for a while. China
could wait”.

This piece of amusing memoir constructs the cuteness, and the somewhat ineffectual nature of
the younger William, as well as emphasizing the continuing youthfulness of the protagonist,
linking his present quest with his childlike curiosity. However, the schoolboy William is
represented as a particular type of child: not a muscular, capable, Boy Scout type, but instead
constructed as rather keen and slightly bewildered. Here again Dalrymple is participating in what
Holland and Huggan term “the cult of gentlemanliness in contemporary Anglophone travel
writing” characterized by the expression (and, to a certain extent, parody) of the “anachronistic
ideals of (English) gentlemanliness ... [that are] likely to attest to the traveler’s honesty and
courage, his sense of fair play” .The text represents the protagonist as an enthusiastic, though
amusingly flawed figure. It is telling that this anecdote concludes with the postponement of
William’s childhood plan, positioning the present trip as the fulfillment of a long-held childhood
dream. The influence of Bruce Chatwin on Dalrymple’s writing can be seen in the device of
using a childhood object / obsession to kick-start a travel story, recalling the role of the mylodon
skin in Chatwin’s “In Patagonia” (a text whose title bears a clear intertextual relationship to
Dalrymple’s). While In Xanadu devotes a reasonable amount of words to chronicling the
conception and planning of the expedition, there is no similar narrative of the conception of the
journey’s chief production of the text itself.

The text leaves an overall impression of a celebration of unreconstructed Orientalism,

advanced by the representation of the protagonist as a privileged, nineteenth-century-style
amateur intellectual, in combination with the narrator’s pronouncements about the places and
people visited in the course of In Xanadu. The personal dimensions of travel writing, the
celebration of the traveler and the journey which gives travel writing its narrative flavor,
disguises the way in which it is also the expression of a social group characterized by both a
cultural conviction that the experience and observations of European people should be recorded,
and an economic and physical capacity to undertake long and often difficult journeys. In other
words, the focus on the heroic, personalized aspects of travel conceals the fact that it is a class
activity, enabled by financial status and cultural knowledge. Dalrymple’s denial of the use of
fictional elements in the construction of the iterations of the character of William glosses any
21 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

changes in the ways in which William is represented (within individual texts, or, particularly,
across Dalrymple’s body of work) as accurate reflections of Dalrymple’s intellectual and
emotional development. Such a disingenuous approach necessarily privileges the centrality of the
authorial figure, and relies upon the (inherently personal) authority of autobiography for its
legitimacy. Dalrymple represents William as a travel writer throughout In Xanadu (although in
specific terms, emphasizing the creative, intellectual motivations for travel and travel writing):
“Where are you from?” asked the mullah. “What is your job?” “I am from Scotland and I am a
travel writer,” I replied. “What is Scotland?” asked the mullah. “It’s a bit like Inglistan.” …
“What is ‘travel writer’?” In Turkish, travel writing sounds like a very sinister occupation. “It’s a
man who travels for his living,” I said. “Like a bus driver?” “Yes, like a bus driver.” (151-52)
The conflation of William’s, Laura’s and Louisa’s attributes reinforces this image of resourceful
British travelers, with even the (upper-class) women contributing to the model. The anachronistic
characterization of William and his companions sets the tone for the work and necessitates its
own group of conventions of appropriate travelling behavior, influenced by class. In Xanadu is a
text that is inextricably linked to the representation of its author, both within and outside its
textual boundaries. Dalrymple’s construction of William as a travel writer throughout the work is
pure self fashioning, as during the journey undertaken for In Xanadu he is not yet a travel writer
at all. His self-identification, then, is both bold and strategic and forms a significant part of his
characterization. As if to test the wisdom that discourse creates its object.
22 | I n X a n a d u ; A Q u e s t

Works Cited

1. A, Nasreen. "Re: Islam Beta." Weblog comment. Islam Stack Exchange. N.p., 28 June
2012. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
2. Dalrymple, William. In Xanadu. Penguin Books India, 2004.
3. Morris, Jan. "The Allure of Travel Writing." SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE(Sept. 2009): n.
pag. Print.
4. Thompson, Carl. Travel writing. Routledge, 2011.
5. "Willaim Dalrymple." Review. Web log post. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2016.
6. "William Dalrymple: If I Had Five More Lives, I’d Live Them All in India." Interview
by Anand Raj OK. Gulf News PEOPLE 1 Mar. 2013: n. pag.Friday Magazine. Web. 9
Apr. 2016.