'Magnus Marsden has joined the ranks of the great ethnographers of the British Empire who described and wrote about the peoples of the Indian subcontinent with accuracy and even affection. Marsden's lucid and insightful work, based in Chitral, one of the most isolated and least known societies in the subcontinent, comes as a relief after the stereotypes and caricatures which pass for commentary in the media about Muslim societies.' Akbar Ahmed, The Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies and Professor of International Relations, American University, Washington D.C.