Shahan Mufti's family history, which he can trace back 1,400 years to the inner circle of the prophet Muhammad, offers an engrossing perspective on the frequently mystifying history of Pakistan. Mufti uses the stories of his ancestors, many of whom served as judges and jurists in Muslim Sharia courts of South Asia for many centuries, to reveal the deepest roots - real and imagined - of Islamic civilisation in Pakistan. More than a personal history, this captures the larger story of the world's first Islamic democracy and explains how such a promising story now threatens to crumble.