Fidler chose to give his book the same title as one of his favourite sources - The Book of Roads and Kingdoms, compiled by Ibn Khordadbeh, "a compendium of maps, trade routes, and descriptions of foreign lands lying north, south, east and west of Baghdad".

He warmed to his subject. "Medieval Baghdad...an immortal city of the imagination, as a dream-like labyrinth filled with bold thieves and bottled jinn, giant birds and talking fish, with princes and princely doppelgangers with hidden gardens and houses inhabited by strange and dangerous women..."

Fidler's work is divided into six "books". The first begins with the Roman and Persian empires contesting to control the region. Then out of Arabia, led by Muhammed, comes a third power which eclipses them both.

A sequence of Caliphs, their conquests, births, deaths - often assassinations - and battles take the reader to the year 762 and the founding of Baghdad. Wisely, Fidler includes a timeline listing all the events described.

Early in this first book, Fidler makes the point that "the invasion of Christian-dominated lands by the early Islamic State were often cruel and brutal, but they were not the totalising campaigns of religious extermination associated with the modern Islamic army....the early Arab conquests fought to impose political rather than religious supremacy over the subject population."

The next four books are titled West, East, South and North - the directions of expansion of the Moslem empire from Baghdad.

West: Moslems cross northern Africa, then to Spain, and the Islamic influence on the history of Sicily. There's also an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Constantinople; they negotiate with Charlemagne and realise the limit of their advance into the Holy Roman Empire.

East: In search of a fabled wall constructed by Alexander the Great, Moslems find traces of ancient cities buried in the sands of the Talamakan desert.

Fidler here, moves forward to the nineteenth century to relate how Europeans investigated this region and found a branch of the Great Wall of China and unique Buddhist habitations - including a repository of ancient documents.

South: Moslem seafarers who sail to East Africa, India and Sri Lanka, and became involved in local rebellions. This Book contains several stories and legends from these regions.

North: A Moslem expedition travels from Baghdad, north, between the Caspian and Aral Seas to the kingdom of the Bulgars on the Upper Volga River - a distance of over 4,000 kilometres.

Fidler's source for this journey is the work of a conscientious diarist, Ibn Fadlan. He witnessed a horrific Viking funeral ceremony.

The sixth book covers the devastating incursion of Genghis Khan and his "Mongol hordes". Their brutality exceeded that displayed by the earlier Moslem armies; the word "slaughter" occurs frequently in this final Book. The Mongol campaign culminates with a grandson of Khan reaching Baghdad.

There are a multitude of historical figures in the narrative, with unfamiliar Arabic names. Again, wisely, preceding each of Fidler's books is a list of the major characters involved. There are also good maps.

From the Doug Anthony Allstars, Richard Fidler moved to radio and currently hosts a popular ABC podcast The Conversation. Fidler has published books describing his experiences and the history of Prague (The Golden Maze) and Instanbul/Constantinople (Ghost Empire). He has also co-written a book on Icelend (Saga Land). The Book of Roads and Kingdoms is less personal than these previous titles.

Like many successful writers, Fidler grew up in a house full of books, and is interested in the derivation of words.

He often pauses in his narrative to give one: "The word 'monsoon' is derived from mawsim, Arabic for 'season for sailing'."

The Book of Roads and Kingdoms encompasses a period of 700 years, so Fidler has had to decide which historical persons are most relevant to his story and, having made that decision, he then has to decide which events in the chosen persons' lives were the most significant and interesting.

This, Fidler has done successfully - all the while being aware that "medieval accounts of true historical events were often spiced with exaggerations and fabrications slanted to suit the prejudices of their intended audiences".