More than 40 years ago I went to the Middle East to study the languages spoken there. I saw myself as following in the footsteps of such travelers as Sir Richard Burton, the great British explorer who translated the Thousand and One Nights for western audiences. I arrived at a critical moment, when traditional cultures were not yet destroyed by war or bent beyond recognition by the forces of global capitalism. I saw the Tabriz bazaar and the old caravanserais (pictured above) where merchants and travelers had piled their goods for centuries. As a writer of fiction I have tried to trace the intersections among culture, setting, and character.