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Born in rural Wales to a German mother and a Professor of German father, Diana Darke seemed at first to be set on a German conveyor belt. Then as an Oxford undergraduate she suddenly jumped off it, switching from German & Philosophy to Arabic, and never looked back. After extensive government-sponsored language training that included a spell living with a Bedouin tribe near Wadi Rum, she worked for GCHQ and a variety of government departments for many years. Her travel writing began as a hobby after a holiday to Turkey, with her first guide published in 1986. She has now written 17 books, all on Turkey and the Middle East - the hobby has taken over.
In 2005 she bankrupted herself buying a semi-derelict 18th century courtyard house in the Old Walled City of Damascus, and spent the next three years restoring it. This extraordinary experience led her back into the academic world, and after completing an MA in Islamic Architecture, she is now studying for a PhD investigating the residential architecture of Old Damascus. The house is the focus of her book "My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Crisis" first published March 2014, third edition February 2016 by Haus Publishing, London. In March 2019 it became available as an audio book.
In April 2018 her book "The Merchant of Syria: A History of Survival" was published by Hurst in the UK and by Oxford University Press in the US. Written in an original parallel structure, it alternates between a social economic history of Syria from the 20th century onwards and the biography of a Syrian textile merchant from Homs who lived from 1921 to 2013.
In April 2019 the book she co-authored with Syrian Alaa Al-Jaleel aka "The Cat Man of Aleppo" was published by Headline, an imprint of Hodder/Hachette, under the title "The Last Sanctuary of Aleppo". Alaa, an Arabic speaker only, is still inside Syria, in opposition-held Aleppo province, so Diana is his voice in the UK.
In August 2020 her book "Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture shaped Europe" was published by Hurst in the UK (and by Oxford University Press in the USA on 1st November 2020). It sold out on the first day, necessitating an immediate reprint. It has been reviewed by the architecture critics of The Guardian, The Observer, The Morning Star and the Financial Times among others, and has caused a stir among alt-right white supremacist social media accounts taking umbrage at the premise of the book. However, with endorsements from Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury) who described it as "exhilarating" and "learned", Michael Palin and leading professors in the field, the majority of the academic community appears to agree with the book's thesis.
In October 2022 her book "The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy" was published by Thames & Hudson, to mark the centenary of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, followed by the paperback in 2024.
Her book "Islamesque: The Forgotten Craftsmen Who Built Europe's Medieval Monuments" was published in November 2024 as a sister volume to "Stealing From the Saracens". It challenges the 19th century European concept of 'Romanesque' and makes the case that this architectural period, if it needs to be called anything, should more accurately be called 'Islamesque'. Publishers Weekly described it as 'a meticulous and piercing reassessment of the origins of the “Romanesque” style in medieval architecture...Darke portrays a medieval Europe home to thriving Muslim communities that left a deep and lasting, but long overlooked, legacy. The result is a revelatory work of scholarship.'
Mountaineering has always been a lifelong love, and in 2009 she completed the ascent of Mount Ararat, pictured here, as part of her researches for the Bradt guide to Eastern Turkey. She is married with two children, both born in Cairo.
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