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Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples

v.s. naipaul

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The Nobel Prize-winning author offers an insightful follow-up to his landmark travelogue Among the Believers : a "brilliant … powerfully observed, stylistically elegant exploration" ( The New York Times ) that’s the result of a five-month journey through Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia, countries where dreams of Islamic purity clash with economic and political realities. 

Fourteen years after the publication of his landmark travel narrative Among the Believers , V. S. Naipaul returned to the four non-Arab Islamic countries he reported on so vividly at the time of Ayatollah Khomeini's triumph in Iran. Beyond Belief is the result of his five-month journey in 1995 through lands where descendants of Muslim converts live at odds with indigenous traditions.

In extended conversations with a vast number of people—a rare survivor of the martyr brigades of the Iran-Iraq war, a young intellectual training as a Marxist guerilla in Baluchistan, an impoverished elderly couple in Teheran whose dusty Baccarat chandeliers preserve the memory of vanished wealth, and countless others—V. S. Naipaul deliberately effaces himself to let the voices of his subjects come through. Yet the result is a collection of stories that has the author's unmistakable stamp. With its incisive observation and brilliant cultural analysis, Beyond Belief is a startling and revelatory addition to the Naipaul canon.

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 7,1998

This edition

Format
432 pages, Paperback
Published
December 7, 1999 by Vintage
ISBN
9780375706486
ASIN
0375706488
Language
English

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About the author

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v.s. naipaul

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V. S. Naipaul was a British writer of Indo-Trinidadian descent known for his sharp, often controversial explorations of postcolonial societies, identity, and displacement. His works, which include both fiction and nonfiction, often depict themes of exile, cultural alienation, and the lingering effects of colonialism.
He gained early recognition with A House for Mr Biswas, a novel inspired by his father's struggles in Trinidad. His later works, such as The Mimic Men, In a Free State, and A Bend in the River, cemented his reputation as a masterful and incisive writer. Beyond fiction, his travelogues and essays, including Among the Believers and India: A Million Mutinies Now, reflected his critical perspective on societies in transition.
Naipaul received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded for his ability to blend deep observation with literary artistry. While praised for his prose, his often unsparing portrayals of postcolonial nations and controversial statements sparked both admiration and criticism.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 74 votes)
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74 reviews All reviews
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scxence
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I enjoyed the the parts about Indonesia and Malaysia . They really touched on some current affairs in the muslim world,but the others I personally found boring . It took me about 2 weeks to finish it but it seemed like forever
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Grey_Anime
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I read this book probably ten years ago and recall it was quite good. I'll have to refresh myself if I can ever find the copy. The author has character flaws though.
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Aspaa
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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the follow up to his "among the Believers..." 15 years later. also excellent.
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cherushi-chan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Stating that he has a strongopinion is understatement, and I believe due to his Indian heritage and his own view on Indian history his sharp insight into Pakistan's state is almost oracle-ish, when he accuses the state of beong a thief (mind you in 1995!) he could have been accused of being bigoted but it seems over next decade and a half Pakistan state has worked hard in proving him right.
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BeedrillHive
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Not a review... but an excerpt from Edward Said's Orientalism which is relevant to this reading.. going to leave this here
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"Arabs and Muslims have been told that victimology and dwelling on the depredations of empire are only ways of evading responsibility in the present. You have failed, you have gone wrong, says the modern Orientalist. This, of course, is also V. S. Naipaul's contribution to literature, that the victims of empire wail on while their country goes to the dogs. But what a shallow calculation of the imperial intrusion that is, how summarily it scants the immense distortion introduced by the empire into the lives of "lesser" peoples and "subject races" generation after generation, how little it wishes to face the long succession of years through which empire continues to work its way in the lives of, say, Palestinians or Congolese or Algerians or Iraqis. We allow justly that the Holocaust has permanently altered the consciousness of our time: why do we not accord the same epistemological mutation in what imperialism has done, and what Orientalism continues to do? Think of the line that starts with Napoleon, continues with the rise of Oriental studies and the takeover of North Africa, and goes on in similar undertakings in Vietnam, in Egypt, in Palestine and, during the entire twentieth century, in the struggle over oil and strategic control in the Gulf, in Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Afghanistan. Then think contrapuntally of the rise of anti-colonial nationalism, through the short period of liberal independence, the era of military coups, of insurgency, civil war, religious fanaticism, irrational struggle and uncompromising brutality against the latest bunch of "natives." Each of these phases and eras produces its own distorted knowledge of the other, each its own reductive images, its own disputatious polemics."
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BassDrumjay
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Conservo mi asco por los sistemas políticos islámicos chiítas, pero también la curiosidad por ese mundo vedado a nuestros ojos occidentales. Me gustó la diversidad de historias y la cítrica del autor hacia la fe puesta al servicio de la destrucción de la identidad, porque el islam desconoce tu pasado y tu cultura, todo allí es la meca y el mundo árabe. Y sin embargo el sincretismo cultural conserva raíces fuertes, la lucha por un mundo con derechos humanos se encuentra todavía al filo de la locura cuando la fe y las tradiciones marcan puntos de no retorno sobre la vida ajena.

Por otro lado, Asia guarda mucho que quisiera seguir explorando, al final me quedó el deseo de visitar un Kampung en Malasia y de haber sido también nómada en Pakistán, recordé cuando un japonés me preguntó si yo era malayo, y qué ganas de haber mentido porque a veces la piel dice más de las conexiones invisibles que cargamos con nuestros antepasados; A veces la vida nos pesa con cada revolución mal gastada y las distancias de veinte años entre relatos nos dan un vestigio del cansancio por la lucha infructuosa. Hay cosas del libro que me costaron bancarme, pero en general agradezco la semilla de curiosidad que me plantó con respecto a Indonesia, Irán, Pakistán y Malasia.
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