ON the bank of the Tigris River, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) serves his guest some coffee. He first met him at the end of 1966 at the office of Ar-Rahmadani, a small company in Baghdad, Iraq, which imported textiles from Europe and America. The man’s name was Ramin.

Wahid worked as a translator for correspondence at the office. He worked from 11am to 2pm, spending his free time making extra money to buy books and watch films, if he was not in