In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale

Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956) is an acclaimed Indian author and anthropologist who gained his doctorate in Social Anthropology from Oxford. During In an Antique Land, Ghosh is researching his doctoral thesis on social organization in Egyptian villages while tracing the journeys of Ben Yiju and his enslaved Indian man, Bomma. He acts as the first-person point-of-view for the Egypt sections and the narrator for the historical investigations, but he stresses his own struggles and beliefs in the historical study. This approach shows that the book is inescapably a personal product, based off Ghosh’s experiences and outlook on the world.

As with many of Ghosh’s other works, a central goal of In an Antique Land is to examine issues surrounding identity and the impacts of colonialism. Throughout the book he studies the identity of the Egyptians, the historical identity of those on the Indian Ocean trade routes, and his own relation to these people. Accordingly, the book acts partially as an autobiography or memoir as Ghosh seeks to find out where his own identity and culture fits into modern times and history.

A recurring aspect of Ghosh’s role in the book is his simultaneous study of the Egyptians and their curiosity about him.