SOURCE: Ahmed, Akbar. “The Moors Murdered.” New Statesman and Society 5, no. 203 (22 May 1992): 39-40.

In the following review, Ahmed provides an overview of Ali's life and career, tracing his development as an author through Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree.

A review of Tariq Ali's new novel [Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree] requires a review of the author. In the 1960s, when he emerged as a student star in Oxford, I admired him, in common with most Pakistani undergraduates in England then, for his rebellious energy and boldness. He appeared to capture the mood of his generation.

When he became President of the Oxford Union, the press was predicting that he would become prime minister of Pakistan. Although another Union president, Benazir Bhutto, did assume that office, Tariq never really had a chance. In Pakistani politics it matters who you are, and Benazir's father had been prime minister.

In one...