"A path breaking book... [Euben] makes clear the unsatisfactory nature of the representational categories of 'Islam' and the 'West', which have come to have such dangerous weight for extremist thinkers, both Western and Islamic, in the contemporary world... The arguments of this book are important, persuasive and nuanced."
Francis Robinson, Times Literary Supplement "Thoroughly grounded in Arabic as well as Western sources, Euben has produced a remarkable book of great value both for its contribution to specialist scholarship, and for its relevance to the urgent public policy debates of our troubled times."
Donald Malcolm Reid, International History Review "In this highly stimulating book ... Roxanne Euben examines the role of travel in the formation of one's picture of societies Islamic and Western. She is one of the rare scholars who can demonstrate thorough knowledge of both the Islamic and European material
classical Greek, English and French literature (the last in translation)."
Ahmad Gunny, Journal of Islamic Studies "This well-argued book breaks new ground in the conceptualization of travel relevant to political theory and cultural studies, and provides arguments that are rooted in close analysis of texts across time about how the politics and mechanisms that inform travel could be relevant to bridging the gap between the so-called West and the world of Islam. Through this analysis, Euben challenges the misconceptions that frame the Islamic world as insular and immobile and the West as the realm of mobility and cosmopolitanism; in this she provides a critical and timely corrective, especially in the post-9/11 world where pundits and proselytizers alike prefer broad and unexamined stereotypes rather than historicized critical readings."
Ahmed Idrissi Alami, Studies in Travel Writing