In an Antique Land tells the story of two Indian men in Egypt. The first was a 12th century slave; the second is anthropologist and novelist Amitav Ghosh, who stumbled upon the slave in the margins of letters that were written by the slave’s master. His curiosity piqued - even ill-defined, the slave’s presence in the records of medieval history was completely out of the ordinary - Ghosh journeyed to Egypt in 1980 to try to fill in the details of the slave’s life. His search - which would last for ten years - leads him to discover an ‘elusive and mysterious acquaintance’ in the slave, with whom he seemed to share, across 800 years, the experience of dislocation. The author, a Hindu, comes face to face with the Muslim world and culture of modern Egypt, in a narrative that juxtaposes ancient history and modern travelogue.