Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the Gold Mines of King Solomon on Sudan’s Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud. As readable now as it was more than fifty years ago, Destination Mecca acts as a beacon for young adventurers and for more sedate armchair travellers.

‘Sayed Idries Shah has done much to explain the world of Islam to Westerners and in particular, to promote the study of Sufi philosophy among English-speaking people... Much of what he writes illuminates factors of permanent importance in the Middle East; and no one can read this book without carrying away a lasting impression of the vigour and vitality of Islamic culture, and of the many surprising manifestations of that culture in the Asian world of today.’ – The Times Literary Supplement