Category: Allegory, parable, rhetoric

Dec 2015

I don’t remember much of Middle East history from school. My generation was caught up in Far East Asia society, culture and politics. Like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the like. Even the Bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 didn’t capture my interest other than another sad event and loss of Marines. I didn’t become aware of the Middle East until a conversation with my younger brother stimulated my interest. It was obvious he had a much better grasp of their society, culture, politics and religion than I.

Through this, I have developed an interest in Genghis Khan (Chingghis Khan in Mongolian). You know who I mean, that young Mongolian (and I don’t mean a kid with Down Syndrome, but the one from Mongolia) boy that rose to conquer the largest mass of people and land in the world, ever. And, he is the only one who has conquered Afghanistan, ever. Some will disagree, citing that the British did in the 1800s and America did more recently. I posit that each of the later only briefly occupied the region. For a real historical perspective, one must be fluent in a multitude of languages from the Middle East to be able to get a history of the Mongol invasion. The Mongols didn’t write much down themselves. Like the lore of the American Cowboy who wouldn’t go anywhere he couldn’t ride a horse, the Mongol wouldn’t write anything down if he couldn’t use a sword or arrow to do it, and in those cases, he used a permanent ink.

So, us monolingual dupes have to rely on others who can and have read the documents of the conquered about the battles and the actions of Genghis and his clan(s). One of my favorite books on Genghis is “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World”. This is not your usual historic reference. In fact, one of the many criticisms of the book is that the author is “no historian”. It is pointed out that he uses other forms of intuitive data to support his conclusions. He uses topography, ecology, culture, religion, anthropology and other social factors to support his position.

But the fact remains that Genghis and his Mongols dominated an area about the size of Africa, including most of the Muslim world. Until he got tired and went home. Once defeated, the survivors of the Mongol invasions were separated into groups of fertile males, males that were educated or skilled, and women and children. The first group was executed, the members of the second group were castrated and enslaved to work and teach in their specialty and the last 2 groups were brought into the horde to become members of the Mongol family, concubines or slaves.

But there is more to this story, as you might have guessed. The area of concern here is Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and surrounding areas. Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Man Who Would Be King” in 1888. This story was located in Kafiristan, a northeast providence of Afghanistan, and involved the Nuristani people who inhabited the area. They were not Muslims but Pagans. [As an aside, a Kafir is a Nuri word to describe the Nuristani people. Kafir was later abbreviated to mean infidel to the Muslims. Later it was again abbreviated to mean a person that doesn’t “believe in what I do” to the South African Whites during Apartheid.] The Kafir’s lifestyle was about what you’d expect of a culture that survived the Mongol horde as defined above, several centuries later. There are similarities between Kipling’s tale and the true life experiences of James Brooke and Josiah Harlan, in the early 1800’s. In Kipling’s story, the protagonist, posing as a deity-king, gets into trouble when he marries a local girl and tries to consummate their marriage. The young girl is scared and bites his tongue when he tries to kiss her. The locals notice that he bleeds and that is proof enough that he is mortal and not a God. Like the Mongols, he is now of no use and possibly a threat to them. Yup, he is put to death.

Recently, I acquired a book, “Retracing Genghis Khan”. It is old, musty smelling but fascinating. Two American adventurers (read clueless rednecks of aristocratic origin) decide to leave northwest India, cross Afghanistan, Persia (now Iran), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and end up in Jerusalem. This was in 1926 and the Jews had not arrived, so Jerusalem was Muslim at that time. What is fascinating about the story, at least to me, is the description of the society and culture that they found as they went along their way.

Basically, the living conditions were the same as would have been found in 1200 ad. No electricity, plumbing, roads, hotels or other modern conveniences. The cities and many smaller towns were surrounded by large mud walls and the gates were closed at night. No one was allowed in or out until morning. Most of the country was open to the whim of the locals; assistance, robbery or murder could as likely be provided to strangers found traveling with lesser strength. Even in 1926, strangers were viewed with suspicion until they were felt to be innocuous.

These 2 adventurers traveled with an Indian servant by automobile. Much of their narrative was about repairs to the vehicle or problems encountered in crossing terrain meant to accommodate horses, camels and goats. To give them credit, they were the first non-Asians to cross Afghanistan in a car. There are only a few pictures but modern pictures show that the terrain hasn’t changed much. So if you’ve seen pictures on the cable news you’ve seen what they drove across in a 1926 vehicle. Amazing!

In Afghanistan, they reported corruption, threats of kidnapping, violence, bodily harm, inclement weather, and ignorance. They were charged a toll on every bridge, a fee to both enter and exit the major cities (of which there were only 3 in Afghanistan, then). The predominant religion was Muslim, reflecting a re-population of the losses experienced at the hands of the Mongol horde 726 years earlier. In Kabul, there were no hotel facilities, baths, sewer, plumbing or electricity. In Kandahar, there was a hotel that advertised a bath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t functional. At one outlying village, there was a hotel for Arabs that was so vermin-infested that they slept on the floor instead of the bed and still got sick. Once they crossed the border into Persia, they waxed eloquently about the friendliness of the people, the cleanliness of the cities and the beauty of the land.

Their description of the land was easy. Rocks, sand, mountains and desert. Desert, mountains, sand and rocks. Basically, Afghanistan makes the American Southwest look like a lush tropical paradise. There were no trees, bushes, or grass, except in a very few cultivated (read irrigated) farms. Then the finale. It seems that they entered Afghanistan 3 weeks before a revolution of intra-tribal rivalry in which the natives vented anger on non-Asian infidels. Typical of young adult males, the travelers were clueless until after the fact.

So, it seems that much of the middle east is still recovering from the Great Khan.

A book report from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Genghis-Khan-Making- Modern-World/dp/0609809644

“Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World”, Jack
Weatherford, 2005.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Retracing_Genghis_Khan.
html?id=vXEBAAAAMAAJ

“Retracing Genghis Khan”, John A. Herrmann, Cecil Robert Borg,
1937.

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/296/

“The Man Who Would Be King”, Rudyard Kipling, 1888.

http://URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10378

Timothy May. Review of Weatherford, Jack, Genghis
Khan and the Making of the Modern World. H-World, H-Net
Reviews. March, 2005.

Weary