Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

From the Land of Pashtuns to the Land of Maa: Memoir (2013) Kenyan-born Khan traces his father’s journey from his village in India (now within Pakistan) to Kenya in 1929, alone, at the age of 18 after a family dispute.

Here is the story of migration, of Khan’s father and other Pashtuns (mainly from the Punjab Province of Pakistan), to the Maasai tribal lands in rural Kenya. His father, Juma Khan, raised 18 children from two wives: the first was a Maasai woman who assumed a Muslim name after marriage, and the second was the daughter of a Pakistani father and Maasai mother. It was a time of colonial rule when mixed marriages – and children from them – were regarded with discrimination.

“Salamis” tells the story of possibly the greatest naval battle of the ancient world. Involving hundreds of thousands of combatants and well over a thousand triremes – the ranking naval war engine of the time – it was the culminating battle in a twenty-year struggle between the Persian Empire and the Greeks. Against all odds – and with the help of a little treachery, a brilliant strategy and a lucky wind – the Greeks defeated the Persians, and with it began the roll-back of the Persian Empire, and the beginning of the Hellenic imperium. This epic tale is told through the individual stories of twelve characters, six form each side, each of which played a major role in the battle and its aftermath.