Cabool


Book Description

Cabool: A Personal Narrative of a Journey to, and Residence in that City, in the Years 1836, 7, and 8 is an account of an 18-month voyage undertaken by Sir Alexander Burnes and three companions by order of the governor-general of India. The purpose of the journey was to survey the Indus River and the territories adjoining it, with the aim of opening up the river to commerce. Following a route that took them up the Indus from its mouth in present-day Pakistan, Burnes and his party visited Shikarpur, Peshawar, Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad, before completing their journey in Lahore. The book contains detailed information about the ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups living in Afghanistan and parts of present-day Pakistan, and observations about the war underway at that time between the Sikh Empire and the Emirate of Afghanistan. Also included is a brief account of the formal audience with the amir of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan, who cordially received the visitors as representatives of the governor-general of India. Of particular interest is the economic and demographic data compiled by Burnes and his party, which is presented in striking detail. The book notes, for example, that the bazaar at Dera Ghazee Khan (present-day Dera Ghazi Khan City, Pakistan) had 1,597 shops, of which 115 were sellers of cloth, 25 sellers of silk, 60 jewelers, 18 paper sellers, and so forth. Equally detailed information is given about the prices of grains and other commodities, the production of dates and pomegranates, and the number of Hazaras living in the region between Kabul and Herat, which is put at 66,900. Burnes was killed in Afghanistan in 1841, and this book was published posthumously, with the first edition published in London by John Murray in 1842. Presented here is the second edition, also published in London by John Murray in 1843. A one-volume, U.S. edition, which was also published in 1843, was based on this second edition. It was published in Philadelphia by Carey and Hart.













War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan


Book Description

In the 1970s John Baily conducted extensive ethnomusicological research in Afghanistan, principally in the city of Herat but also in Kabul. Then, with Taraki’s coup in 1978, came conflict, war, and the dispersal of many musicians to locations far and wide. This new publication is the culmination of Baily’s further research on Afghan music over the 35 years that followed. This took him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, the USA, Australia and parts of Europe - London, Hamburg and Dublin. Arranged chronologically, the narrative traces the sequence of political events - from 1978, through the Soviet invasion, to the coming of the Taliban and, finally, the aftermath of the US-led invasion in 2001. He examines the effects of the ever-changing situation on the lives and works of Afghan musicians, following individual musicians in fascinating detail. At the heart of his analysis are privileged vignettes of ten musical personalities - some of friends, and some newly discovered. The result is a remarkable personal memoir by an eminent ethnomusicologist known for his deep commitment to Afghanistan, Afghan musicians and Afghan musical culture. John Baily is also an ethnographic filmmaker. Four of his films relating to his research are included on the downloadable resources that accompanies the text.




The Man Who Would Be King


Book Description

The untold story of the nineteenth-century American Quaker who tried to build a kingdom in Afghanistan: “A thrilling real-life yarn.” —Booklist In the year 1838, a young adventurer, surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan. He declared himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great. The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before, yet the life and writings of this extraordinary man echo down the centuries. This “riveting, scrupulously researched” book reveals the full history behind the renowned Rudyard Kipling short story and John Huston’s film classic (The New York Times Book Review). “One of the most remarkable discoveries in the history of biography.” —The New York Review of Books “Macintyre recounts Harlan’s travels with dispatch, and draws on unpublished journals to let his subject’s voice seep through.” —The New Yorker “Here is a writer who seems as taken as I am with crackpottery, delusion, grandiosity, chicanery, and impersonation, but who manages to write about it all with amused restraint, without, that is, the air of the ogler.” —The Boston Globe “Macintyre gives readers both Harlan’s story and a thought-provoking perspective on the history of superpower intervention in Afghanistan . . . Harlan’s story alone is fascinating, but its resonance with modern-day struggles—Harlan urging the British to try ‘fiscal diplomacy’ (i.e., gold) instead of ‘invading and subjugating an unoffending people’—makes it compelling.” —Publishers Weekly




Pashtun Identity and Geopolitics in Southwest Asia


Book Description

This book juxtaposes vital issues of Pashtun identity, state formation, Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line, Frontier Crimes Regulation, security prerogative and the civil societies of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which since 9/11, have been posited in a rather precarious geopolitics.




The Persian Contributions to the English Language


Book Description

The Persian Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary contains 811 main entries. Its major purpose is to advance the historical study of comprehensive, chiefly lexical borrowing between languages in contact. The ancillary purpose is to show how a collected corpus of loans can shed light on multiple disciplines. This wide-ranging, innovative book is the largest, most up-to-date collection of English words and multiword lexical units borrowed from Persian, directly or through a mediating language such as Hindi/Urdu, Arabic or Turkish. All general English dictionaries were searched, including electronic retrieval from the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. A major feature of the tome is that each dictionary entry gives its first known recorded date in written English, its semantic field, any modern variant form and labels, etymology including 'native' meaning(s), English definitions in chronological order as could be dated, any derivative forms includ-ing functional shifts and compounds, sometimes a grammatical note, the symbolized sources where the loan is recorded, and the degree of naturalization in English.