At Dar Ahlam, we believe that setting off on a journey is a way to broaden your perspective on the world.

Why travel? This is a question we’d like you to consider. After all, we never choose a place or a destination randomly.

To help you get into the mindset of great intellectual travelers, here is a prelude of readings, quotes, and inner journeys. Philosophers, too, all set out on a quest. Their itinerary was not only made up of landscapes, but also of questions.

So, why do we travel?

Montaigne, for the sake of curiosity.

Montaigne was one of the first philosophers to praise travel for its own sake, without considering it merely a moment between two encounters, two stages of a journey.

“I, who have most often traveled for pleasure, am not so badly at navigating. If the weather is bad to the right, I turn left; if I find myself ill-suited to riding, I stop. By doing so, I truly find nothing as agreeable and comfortable as my own home. It is true that I always find luxury superfluous and that I notice discomfort even in refinement and abundance. Have I left something to see behind me? I go back; it is always my way. I do not trace any fixed line, neither straight nor curved. Do I not find at the place where I go what I was told to find? As it often happens that the judgments of others do not agree with mine, and as I have most often found them wrong, I do not regret my trouble: I have learned that what was said is not there.” (Essays, Book 3)

Rousseau, for introspection.

The figure of the walker is inseparable from Rousseau’s own image. This journey allows one to confront oneself, without sensitivity being clouded by trivial conversations, social distinctions, and the demands of appearances. Solitary wandering within an untouched space evokes a heightened awareness of the senses, which is its true value.

“It is useful for man to know all the places where one can live, in order to then choose those where one can live most comfortably. If everyone were self-sufficient, it would only matter to them to know the extent of the country that can feed them. The savage, who needs no one and covets nothing in the world, knows and seeks to know no other countries than his own. But for us, for whom civil life is necessary, it is in each of our interests to frequent the countries where we find the most to devour. That is why everything flows to Rome, to Paris, to London. It is always in capitals that human blood is sold most cheaply. Thus, we only know the great nations, and all great nations are alike.” (Emile, or On Education)

“I felt that a new paradise awaited me at the gate; I thought only of going to find it. I am, in recounting my travels, as I was in making them; I could never arrive.” (The Confessions)

Nietzsche, to return to the origin.

Nietzsche’s teaching is entirely contained in his initiatory ladder for travelers: at each stage on life’s journey, we are always at home.

“Among travelers, we will distinguish five degrees: those of the first degree, the lowest, are the people who travel and are seen in the process – they are properly led on a journey, as if blind; the next ones actually see the world themselves; the third ones derive some lived experience from their vision; the fourth ones assimilate the experience in a vivid way and carry it with them; finally, there are some people of superior energy who must necessarily, after having lived and assimilated it, relive in the end all that they have seen by projecting it outwards, in actions and works, as soon as they have returned home.” (Mixed Opinions and Sentences).

Wittgenstein, to think.

Throughout his life, Wittgenstein searched for a « house of thought. » He planned to build a cabin in a desolate spot in Ireland to test himself. Beneath the guise of a « scientific » thinker, he was a philosopher in the Greek sense of the word, for whom the fundamental question remained that of existence. Thinking was, therefore, in his view, an entirely internal journey—the surrounding landscapes serving only to provide him with the peaceful gravity which, he said, alone was conducive to his quest.

« The solution to the problem you see in life is a way of living that makes the problem disappear. » (Mixed remarks).

We invite you to make a stop before departure: at your local bookstore. Choose a travel companion there; it’s the only baggage we recommend you add to your luggage.

Marco Polo, The Book of Marvels
Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
Nicolas Bouvier, The Way of the World
Sylvain Tesson, Surrendering to Life
Alexandre Poussin, Africa Trek
Alexandra David-Néel, Voyages and Adventures of the Mind
Joseph Kessel, The Lion
Blaise Cendrars, To Roam
Ryszard Kapuściński, Ebony
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
Ella Maillart, The Cruel Way
Anne-France Dautheville, And I Followed the Wind
Axel Kahn, Thoughts Along the Way
Olivier Weber, Borders
Lucie Azema, The Use of Tea: A Sensitive History from the Ends of the Earth
Bernard Moitessier, The Long Road
Alexis Jenni, Mr. Nansen’s Passport
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Pierre Loti, Aziyadé
Paul Théroux, Safari black
Guillaume Jan, Alias ​​Lejean