Simeon Stylites was a Syrian Christian ascetic in 5th century AD.
He enjoyed people but abhorred physical contact. So he set himself on a small platform atop a tall pillar beside a major road in northern Syria that linked the Orient and Mediterranean worlds.
There he lived for over 30 years, achieving fame far and wide. Soon after his death in 459, the Byznatine Emperor ordered a magnificant basilica to be built around the pillar named Qalaat Simaan.
Over the years thousands came to venerate the site, as did I.
Known locally as the Jinn, Simeon was still giving comfort 1500 years later to those uprooted by the politics of the Middle East.
This is my version of the saga of Simeon's Jinn.
Published:
Print ISBN:
Ebook ISBN:
9781399987745
9781399987752
Print Length:
300 Pages
Price:
£12.99
Price:
£3.99
Available in paperback and ebook
This is a brilliant and magical book, using all the author’s deep knowledge and love of the history, landscapes, peoples and cultures of Syria and its neighbouring territories to construct a rich narrative centred around the 5th century ascetic Simeon Stylites but interwoven with her personal journeys over many years linking the past and the present.
Sarah Searight’s rich imagination and descriptive gifts evoke all the aromas, sights, sounds and tastes of the area with memorable incidents and characters and a lively narrative, interspersed with insights into the schisms and power struggles of a Christian world balanced between Rome and Constantinople, and a region whose way of life was increasingly threatened by a world in disorder, as it is now. It is grounded in research and factual veracity, as one would expect from someone with a background in journalism who has also written scholarly works on the Middle East.
Mike Barrett OBE, former cultural diplomat