Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

What About Afghanistan?

Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar have both been in the news lately, as the they engage in that odd pre-negotiation that seems to be a necessary precursor to international peace talks. On Sunday, Karzai announced that despite international pressure not to, he would guarantee Omar's security if he came to Afghanistan to participate in talks; and the next day, Taliban leaders rejected Karzai's offer, saying they won't engage in talks until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

When I stop to think about current events in Afghanistan, I'm often frustrated by the complexity of the political and cultural history there. Reading the news about Karzai and Omar and the question of whether they'll be able to negotiate a peace, I began to wonder if there might be a few well-written, engaging books that can help me understand Afghanistan, its people, and their history.

Since I'm a librarian, I know lots of other librarians who can suggest the perfect book, and I started my search by asking my colleague Markrid if she had any suggestions. She came up with a great book to help me start my reading! Here's how she describes it: "It's too bad that books like Peter Marsden's The Taliban come along so seldom: short, clear, impartial, and elegantly written, it manages to identify the historical and social forces motivating the players in a famously complicated part of the world. Marsden skillfully integrates anthropology, economics, and religion as he describes the five main tribal groups in Afghanistan, the legacy of the long war with the Soviet Union, and, most importantly, the views and values of the Pushtun culture, whose members dominate the Taliban. Look for an updated edition soon."

Often when I am interested in a place I've never been, I like to read about other people's travels there. The Road to Oxiana is the story of Englishman Robert Byron's 1933 journey from Cyprus through Syria to Afghanistan and all points between. Unlike most travel books, The Road to Oxiana isn't arranged chronologically – Byron instead sorted the pieces of his narrative into categories of his own design. Observations on current events, descriptions of small delays and travel disasters, letters, transcriptions of signs and public notices, and comic dialogues between members of Byron's party and the people they encountered along the way are juxtaposed like a crazy quilt. The book is funny, irreverent, and often politically incorrect (by modern standards), and it paints a startlingly vivid picture of the lands Byron traveled through.

Afghanistan has been wracked with active guerilla and military conflict for nearly thirty years, and the consequent violence and turmoil has often endangered Afghans' cultural heritage as well as their safety and way of life. But the staff of the Afghan National Museum removed thousands of precious antique artifacts and hid them away to keep them safe from looters and cultural revisionists. Many of these precious objects are now part of a traveling exhibit, which is currently touring the United States. Unfortunately, the exhibit isn't coming to Portland (it is at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco right now!), but we can read about the artifacts and their place in history in the exhibition catalog Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. More importantly, we can feast our eyes on hundreds of gorgeous photographs of the jewelry, sculpture, burial objects, glassware, pottery, and other ancient objects in the exhibit.