The Market of Seleukia

''As a work of descripton and evocation [The Market of Seleukia] is wonderful ... showing us the enthralling interplay of politics, avarice, hate, national pride, and religious fanaticism in that part of the globe.'' The New Yorker

The Market of Seleukia is a portrait of the Middle East at the catalytic moment of the Suez Crisis. Jan Morris covers the vast, colourful and dramatic ground of Egypt and Sudan; Lebanon, Syria, Jordan; the Arabian Peninsula; Iraq and Iran. With superb liveliness and lucidity, she traces the complicated and shifting patterns in this most tangled of webs: the Anglo-American oil war; the American Soviet struggle for dominance; the explosive impact of Nasser''s nationalism; irrigation and reclamation; Islam; Israel.

But Market of Seleukia is much more than political reporting: with wit, style and feeling, it captures the very texture of the Middle East. It is brilliantly observed and magnificently written, a book of major importance for today.