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Kafiristan, or "The Land of the Infidels," was a region of eastern Afghanistan where the inhabitants had retained their traditional pagan culture and religion and rejected conversion to Islam. The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush is a detailed ethnographic account of the Kafirs, written by George Scott Robertson (1852-1916), a British administrator in India. With the approval of the government of India, Robertson made a preliminary visit to Kafiristan in October 1889, and then lived among the Kafirs for almost a year, from October 1890 to September 1891. Robertson describes his journey from Chitral (in present-day Pakistan) to Kafiristan and the difficulties he encountered in traveling about the country and in gaining information about the Kafir culture and religion. The latter, he writes, "is a somewhat low form of idolatry, with an admixture of ancestor-worship and some traces of fire-worship also. The gods and goddesses are numerous, and of varying degrees of importance or popularity." Robertson describes religious practices and ceremonies, the tribal and clan structure of Kafir society, the role of slavery, the different villages in the region, and everyday life and social customs, including dress, diet, festivals, sport, the role of women in society, and much else that he observed first-hand. The book is illustrated with drawings, and it concludes with a large fold-out topographical map, which shows the author's route in Kafiristan. In 1896 the ruler of Afghanistan, Amir 'Abd al-Rahman Khan (reigned 1880-1901), conquered the area and brought it under Afghan control. The Kafirs became Muslims and in 1906 the region was renamed Nuristan, meaning the "Land of Light," a reference to the enlightenment brought by Islam.
Kafiristan, or "The Land of the Infidels," was a region of eastern Afghanistan where the inhabitants had retained their traditional pagan culture and religion and rejected conversion to Islam. The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush is a detailed ethnographic account of the Kafirs, written by George Scott Robertson (1852-1916), a British administrator in India. With the approval of the government of India, Robertson made a preliminary visit to Kafiristan in October 1889, and then lived among the Kafirs for almost a year, from October 1890 to September 1891. Robertson describes his journey from Chitral (in present-day Pakistan) to Kafiristan and the difficulties he encountered in traveling about the country and in gaining information about the Kafir culture and religion. The latter, he writes, "is a somewhat low form of idolatry, with an admixture of ancestor-worship and some traces of fire-worship also. The gods and goddesses are numerous, and of varying degrees of importance or popularity." Robertson describes religious practices and ceremonies, the tribal and clan structure of Kafir society, the role of slavery, the different villages in the region, and everyday life and social customs, including dress, diet, festivals, sport, the role of women in society, and much else that he observed first-hand. The book is illustrated with drawings, and it concludes with a large fold-out topographical map, which shows the author's route in Kafiristan. In 1896 the ruler of Afghanistan, Amir 'Abd al-Rahman Khan (reigned 1880-1901), conquered the area and brought it under Afghan control. The Kafirs became Muslims and in 1906 the region was renamed Nuristan, meaning the "Land of Light," a reference to the enlightenment brought by Islam.
An exploration of the lives of women among the Kalasha, a tiny, vibrant community in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
* Complete, updated English translation of a seminal work on Central Asian religions first available in German in 1975* An extensive new bibliography of over 950 entries listing works that have updated Jettmar's original studies to the present time* An essential reference for all people and institutions with a interest in Asian religion* Relevant not only to students of the cultures of the Hindukush region but also to those with an interest in the current practice of popular religion in the borderlands of Tibet, such as Ladakh "It may safely be assumed that this study will not be replaced as a standard work of reference." - Per Kvaerne, Journal of the Tibet Society. " ... future scholars of this region must take Jettmar as their indispensable guide and point of departure." - Peter Parkes, Man, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 3.The traditional religion and rituals of the remote tribal groups along the borderlands of eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, with their complex cosmology of gods and demons, preserved elements from archaic Indo-Aryan, and possibly even pre-Vedic, beliefs. While the peoples of this region were converted to Islam by the turn of the 20th century, geography and the deeply conservative nature of these tribes combined to preserve ancient folk religious practices long extinct elsewhere. The author integrates the diverse scholarly findings of colleagues in the fields of linguistics, cultural history and archaeology with his own field investigations to construct an authoritative, yet highly readable account of the religious practices of this remote and little understood corner of Asia. A ground-breaking and indispensable reference both for the general student of Asian religions and for those with a special focus on the tribal cultures of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The work has also been updated with an extensive new bibliography.
This important catalogue presents the collection in its entirety, before the looting and destruction of war. It is an invaluable tool in the fight against illicit trafficking and the preservation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage. Situated at the crossroads of the world's oldest trade routes and populated by a mosaic of cultures, Afghanistan has been the theatre of repeated conflicts over its long and complex history. In the midst of the warfare and civil unrest that ravaged this ancient land during the last two decades of the twentieth century, hundreds of precious artefacts were plundered from the collections of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, which was founded in the early 1930s. The destruction of these irreplaceable treasures like the much-publicized Bamiyan Buddhas that were brutally destroyed in 2001 represents a tremendous loss not only for the people of Afghanistan but for all of humanity.With the aim of keeping alive the memory of the museum's scattered collections, specialist Francine Tissot has compiled a systematic listing of the holdings as they were conserved, in their intact state, in the museum's showcases and reserve collections until 1985. This comprehensive catalogue, is illustrated with over 1,600 photographs and drawings.
*Named one of Wall Street Journal's Best Books of 2015 *Selected as a Military Times's Best Book of the Year “You’re going up the Valley.” Black didn’t know its name, but he knew it lay deeper and higher than any other place Americans had ventured. You had to travel through a network of interlinked valleys, past all the other remote American outposts, just to get to its mouth. Everything about the place was myth and rumor, but one fact was clear: There were many valleys in the mountains of Afghanistan, and most were hard places where people died hard deaths. But there was only one Valley. It was the farthest, and the hardest, and the worst. When Black, a deskbound admin officer, is sent up the Valley to investigate a warning shot fired by a near-forgotten platoon, he can only see it as the final bureaucratic insult in a short and unhappy Army career. What he doesn’t know is that his investigation puts at risk the centuries-old arrangements that keep this violent land in fragile balance, and will launch a shattering personal odyssey of obsession and discovery as Black reckons with the platoon’s dark secrets, accumulated over endless hours fighting and dying in defense of an indefensible piece of land. The Valley is a riveting tour de force that changes our understanding of the men who fight our wars and announces John Renehan as one of the great American storytellers of our time.
“If you liked The Kite Runner, you must read this riveting, firsthand account by one of the real Afghan mujahideen . . . An extraordinary tale.” —Leslie Cockburn Masood Farivar was ten years old when his childhood in peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan was shattered by the Soviet invasion of 1979. Although he was born into a long line of religious and political leaders who had shaped his nation’s history for centuries, Farivar fled to Pakistan with his family and came of age in a madrassa for refugees. At eighteen, he defied his parents and returned home to join the jihad, fighting beside not only the Afghan mujahideen but also Arab and Pakistani volunteers. When the Soviets withdrew, Farivar moved to America and attended the prestigious Lawrenceville School and Harvard, and ultimately became a journalist in New York. Farivar draws on his unique experience as a native Afghan, a former mujahideen fighter, and a longtime US resident to provide unprecedented insight into the ongoing collision between Islam and the West. This is a visceral, clear-eyed, and illuminating memoir from an indispensable new voice on the world stage. “Like the war poets who told you what it was really like to be in the trenches, Farivar survived to tell us about life on the front lines of the clash of civilizations—and it rings with more truth than any other account of these famous events I’ve ever read. In these troubled times, this is a book that is brave, honest, humane, and full of love.” —Aidan Hartley, author of The Zanzibar Chest