Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East

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Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East Page 37

by Gerard Russell


  For context on the Great Game, details on the death of Alexander Burnes, and a great read, I recommend Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia (John Murray, 2006). News of Burnes’s death reached Britain only in February 1842, which is when his various obituaries were published. The Memoirs of Alexander Gardner were edited by Major Hugh Pearse and published by William Blackwood & Sons in 1898.

  In 1873 a British missionary called E. Downes wrote Kafiristan: An Account of the Country, Language, Religion and Customs of the Siah Posh Kafirs: Considering Especially Kafiristan as a Suitable Field for Missionary Labour (W. E. Ball, 1873), in which—perhaps feeling the need to attract less spiritual interest in the place—he hinted at fabulous reserves of gold and an aphrodisiac plant that might be found there.

  McNair’s visit to Kafiristan resulted in two publications: one for the general public, “A Visit to Kafiristan,” by W. W. McNair (Wm. Clowes & Sons, 1884), and one for the Indian government, “Report on the Explorations in Part of Eastern Afghanistan and in Kafiristan in 1883” (Dehra Dun, 1885). He died not long afterward, and his biography, Memoir of W. W. McNair, the First European Explorer of Kafiristan, was written by J. E. Howard (Keymer, 1889). A British attempt at cataloguing, Dardistan and Kafiristan: In Three Parts (Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1885), only ran to two parts, with that on Kafiristan absent.

  G. S. Robertson’s book Kafirs of the Hindu Kush, published first in 1896, was reprinted in 2001 by the Lahore-based publisher Sang-e-Meel. His secret report for the British government can be seen at the British Library under the title “Report on Journey to Kafiristan” (HMSO, 1894). His biography, The Unlikely Hero, by Dorothy Anderson (Spellmount, 2008), defends him against accusations that he should have done more to protect the Kafirs. Abdur Rahman Khan’s memoirs, The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, were published by John Murray in 1900.

  The Macnaghten quote “Here are your relations coming!” is from a talk that McNair gave to the Royal Geographical Society in January 1884, quoted in Howard’s Memoir of W. W. McNair. The Alan Bennett quote is from his play The History Boys (1995). The 2014 DNA survey, “A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History,” by Garrett Hellenthal, George B. J. Busby, and others, was published by Science magazine on February 14, 2014, and an interactive map of its data be seen at http://admixturemap.paintmychromosomes.com.

  Books on the post-conversion people of Nuristan include Max Klimburg’s The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush: Art and Society of the Waigal and Ashkun Kafirs (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999). Eric Newby gives Nuristan some attention in his travel memoir A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (Harper, 2010), and a trio of Kabul-based diplomats, Nicholas Barrington, Joseph T. Kendrick, and Reinhard Schlagintweit, visited the region and wrote down their impressions in A Passage to Nuristan: Exploring the Mysterious Afghan Hinterland (I. B. Tauris, 2005).

  The brothers Alberto and Augusto Cacopardo wrote a book called Gates of Peristan (IsIAO, 2001), which looks at the customs of Kafiristan, the Kalasha, and the people of nearby Gilgit and Hunza. R. C. F. Schomberg’s observations on the Kalasha are in Kafirs and Glaciers: Travels in Chitral (London, 1938), which is now out of print. The Man Who Would Be King, by Rudyard Kipling, is available through Wordsworth Editions in a 1994 reprint.

  M.S. Durrani’s book on the Kalash, Kalash Kafirs—The Urgent Need to Save a Vanishing People was written in 1982 but did not get published; I found a copy at the University of London’s SOAS Library.

  Epilogue: Detroit

  Thanks to Dr. Elaine Rumman, Yusif Barakat, George Khoury, Imam al-Qazwini, Wisam Breegi, Mirza Ismail, Abu Shihab, and the Yazidi community of Nebraska.

  Information on Iraq’s Christians comes from Dr. Suha Rassam’s Christianity in Iraq (Gracewing, 2005) and also Dr. Christoph Baumer’s The Church of the East. The story of Markos is touched upon in Voyager from Xanadu, by Morris Rossabi (Kodansha International, 1992). Telling Our Story: The Arab American National Museum was published in 2007. Lupieri’s book is cited in the notes to chapter 1. Naomi Schaefer Riley’s book Til Faith Do Us Part was published in 2013 by Oxford University Press.

  Index

  Aaron, 127, 153, 180

  A.B.—The Samaritan News, 156, 157

  Abbas, Hajji, 57

  Abbasid Empire, 61, 92

  Abbasids, 63, 125, 126

  Abdullah, Abdul-Jabbar, 32

  Abraham, 10, 13, 18, 28, 43, 45

  Isaac and, 149–150

  Abu Shihab, 54, 72, 73, 272–273, 274–275, 277

  daughter Naalin, 273, 275

  foreign policy and, 272

  photo of, 40

  son Farhan, 272

  Abu Simbel, temple at, 196

  Abu Zayd, 267

  Abu’l Suud, 197

  Academy of Plato, 95, 116

  Adam, 2, 6, 10, 13, 23, 25, 62, 69

  Adi, Sheikh, 57, 58, 59, 63, 65, 67–68

  Adultery, 233, 251

  Advent, Copts and, 186

  After the Moon (Haidar), 53

  Ahura Mazda, 77–78, 79, 81, 87, 101, 108

  Akef, Mehdi, 204

  Akhenaten, 191, 192, 206

  Akiko (Japanese Kalasha), 239

  photo of, 239

  al-Ahram, 202

  al-Aql, Sheikh, 121–122, 142

  al-Azhar mosque, 126, 188, 192, 198

  al-Banna, Hassan, 199, 200

  al-Bayyada, 143

  al-Darazi, Nashtaqin, 127

  al-Farabi, 117, 126

  al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, 208

  al-Ghazali, xxii, 140

  al-Gohary, Murgan, Sphinx/pyramids and, 194

  al-Hakim bi Amr Allah, 126, 128, 142

  al-Ja’di, 90

  al-Khattab, Omar ibn: assassination of, 90

  al-Kindi, 117

  al-Loz, 151, 158, 162, 170

  al-Mahdi, Caliph, 17, 126

  al-Maqrizi, 209

  al-Masri, Munib, 175, 178

  al-Mas’udi, 7, 8–9

  al-Qaeda, 226

  al-Qazwini, Hassan, 266

  al-Shaarawi, Huda, 205

  Alamuddin, Amal, 142

  Alawites, 117, 141

  Assad regime and, 53

  criticism of, 128–129

  described, 51, 52

  moon/planets and, 52–53

  prayer by, 54

  violence against, xxiii

  Alexander the Great, 5, 11, 45, 52, 141, 226, 227–228, 248

  Arab world and, 81

  Aristotle and, 94

  death of, 5, 229

  Hindu Kush and, 220, 221, 228–229, 232

  Kalasha and, 228

  Persian Empire and, 81, 220

  Samaritans and, 150–151

  Ali (son-in-law of Mohammed), 53, 92, 99

  Alawites and, 52

  Ali, Mohammad (ruler of Egypt), 197, 200

  Ali, Sheikh, 139–140

  Ali, Tariq, 121

  Ali, Wazir, 243, 245, 247, 249, 250, 253, 254

  on Islamic households, 251

  on Nuristani golf, 251–252

  photo of, 254

  American University of Beirut, 145

  Amulets, 30, 31, 67

  Anderson, James, xxix

  Angels, 44, 60

  Anglo-Afghan War, 222

  Angra Mainyu, 64, 77–78, 79–80, 83, 105

  battle against, 92

  Satan and, 80

  Anti-Semites, 34

  Antoninus of Piacenza, 152

  Arab American Institute, 263

  Arab American Museum, 262

  Arabian Nights, The, 6, 88

  Arabic, xxviii, 25, 56, 185, 232–233, 257, 272

  Islam and, 184

  slang/adopting, 161

&nbs
p; speaking, 153

  Arabs, 40, 45, 71, 81, 196

  Islam and, 89

  Kurds and, xxiv

  Persian culture and, 90

  Samaritans and, 155

  Arafat, Yasser: Samaritans and, 174, 175

  Aramaic, 45, 130, 257, 259, 260

  abandoning, 153

  Mandaean dialect of, 25

  Aristokrates, 26

  Aristotle, xx, 14, 95, 116, 117, 127, 140

  Alexander and, 94

  Plato and, 123

  Armenians, 18, 86, 195, 198

  massacre of, xxiv, 259

  Armstrong, Neil, 53

  Arnold, Matthew, 113

  Arslan, Prince Talal, 118, 122, 125, 131, 133

  Jumblatt and, 143

  Arslan family, 118, 125–126

  Artemisia, 23

  Asceticism, 11–12, 13–14, 18, 123, 209

  Assad, Bashar al-, 51, 120

  Assad, Hafez al-: Jumblatt and, 138

  Assyrian Church, 258

  Assyrian Empire, 5, 40, 44, 64

  Samaritans and, 150

  Assyrians, xxiv, 57, 86, 149, 161, 260, 261

  Church of the East and, 57

  religious practices of, 49

  sun and, 44

  Aswad, Du’a Khalil: murder of, 70

  Ateshkadeh

  photo of, 103

  visiting, 102–103

  Avesta, 77, 78, 79, 100, 106

  interpreting, 110

  messiah and, 91–92

  Awadi, Tariq el-, 189

  Ayad, 67, 68, 69

  Kurdish identity and, 66

  theory of, 64–65

  Azeris, 86

  Baalshamin, 64

  Baalzebub, 64

  Baba Sheikh, 68

  Babak, 90

  Babis, 96

  Babylon, 2, 12, 40, 81, 150

  Aramaic in, 25

  astronomy of, 26, 139

  civil war in, 5

  Babylonian Empire, 5

  Babylonian exile, 12, 149

  Babylonians, 19, 22, 40

  influence of, 88

  Iraqi Marshes and, 7, 9

  Mandaeans and, 11, 25, 27, 28–29

  predictions by, 26

  religious practices of, 4–5, 49

  Bacchae (Euripides), 94

  Bacchus, 138

  Badger, Percy, 53, 59

  Baghdad, 200

  demonstrators in, 35

  Jewish community in, 33

  Baha’i, 96, 107

  Balfour, Alfred, xxvi, 107

  Balimain, 240

  Baptism, 10

  Christian, 42

  Mandaean, 2 (photo), 23–24, 24 (photo), 27–28, 270, 271

  Bar Anhar, Hermez: on worship, 27

  Bar Penkaye, Yohannan, 29

  Barakat, Yusif, 267, 270

  photo of, 263

  relationship of, 264–265

  Bedouins, 161, 162, 210

  Beg, Azem, 236, 239, 241, 242, 243, 247, 253, 254

  on dancing, 240

  Kalasha song and, 244–245

  photo of, 254

  Beirut, 121, 125, 130

  described, 113

  Bel (sun god), 11

  Belem, 21

  photo of, 20

  Belshazzar, 5

  Ben Yehuda, Eliezer: Hebrew and, 148, 161

  Ben-Zvi, Yitzhak, 167

  Bennett, Alan, 228

  Berbers, 126

  Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali: Islamic conservatism and, 233

  Bible, 10, 65, 174, 202

  Egypt and, 198

  Bin Ali, Hamza: Druze and, 127

  Bin Musafir, Sheikh Adi: controversy over, 58–59

  Biruni, xxii, xxix, 50, 54

  described, 8–9

  Blavatsky, Madame, 135

  Blood feuds, 213, 224

  Bodleian Library, 28

  Book of Daniel, 165

  Book of Exodus, 150, 179

  Book of Genesis, 2

  Book of Isaiah, 165

  Book of John, 27

  Book of Kings, 150

  Boyce, Mary, 78–79

  Bread, Coptic letters on, 210 (photo)

  Breegi, Wisam, 270, 271

  British Druze Cavalry Regiment, illustration of, 137 (fig.)

  British Library, 172

  British Mandate, 155

  Browne, Edward, 96, 99–100

  Browne, William: Egyptian identity and, 196

  Buckley, Jorunn, 11

  Buddhism, 12

  Budhaluk, described, 240

  Burnes, Sir Alexander, 221

  Burns, Robbie, 221

  Bush, George W., 9

  Busnaya, Yusuf, 61–62

  Butros, Zakaria, 215

  Buzani, Khairi, 63

  Byzantine Empire, xxii, 46, 90

  Egypt and, 195

  religious minorities in, 95

  Byzantines, 45, 49, 126, 195, 258

  defeat of, 46

  holy fire and, 89

  Byzantium, 46, 95, 117

  Copts and, 195

  Persian Empire and, 7

  Cairo, 192–194, 201, 204, 206

  Copts in, 205

  described, 191

  Samaritans in, 153

  visiting, 183, 184, 185–186, 188

  Calendars

  Mandaean, 21

  Muslim, xxviii

  Samaritan, xxviii, 157

  Western, 181

  Zoroastrian, xxviii

  Carmelites, 185

  Carmen (Karima), reincarnation of, 141

  Carnarvon, Lord, 136, 138, 145

  Druze and, 134–135

  Castes, 224

  Yazidi, 57, 274, 276

  Zoroastrian, 89

  Catalhuyuk, 103

  Catholic Uniate Church, Copts and, 210

  Chaldean News, 260, 261

  Chaldeans, 115, 264, 265, 267

  conservatism of, 261

  Charsema Sor, 59, 276

  Charshanbeh-e-Suri, described, 105

  Chaumos

  celebrating, 232, 237, 238, 240, 241, 244, 248

  photo of, 245, 246, 254

  Cheops, Pharaoh: Great Pyramid and, 4

  Chitral, 223, 227, 231, 250, 253, 255

  annexation of, 233

  described, 232

  visiting, 233–234

  Christianity, x, 1, 47, 116, 194, 245

  Constantine and, xxix

  conversion to, 141, 151, 161, 214

  in Egypt, 181, 183

  Greek philosophy and, 131

  Islam alienation with, xx

  Mandaeans and, 18

  monotheism of, 152

  Roman Empire and, 194–195

  spread of, 182, 258

  understanding of, 217

  Christianity in Iraq (Rassam), xxvi

  Christians, xxiv, 50, 61, 185, 186

  Arab, 261, 267, 268

  asylum for, 279

  Egyptian, xxvi–xxvii, 195–196

  emigration of, 279

  Iraqi, 259, 262

  Jews and, 177

  Lebanese, 262

  massacre of, 182

  mistreatment of, 217

  Muslims and, 8, 118, 127, 129, 188, 197, 198, 199, 204, 205, 213, 214, 217, 263, 279

  Orthodox, 265, 266

  Palestinians and, 262, 266–267

  Samaritans and, 155

  sects of, 1

  Syrian, 201, 265

  tolerance for, 90

  Yazidis and, 41


  Chronicles of Narnia, The (Lewis), 78

  Church of the East, 57, 258

  Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Easter Mass at, 155

  Church of the Nativity, 77

  Circumcision, 166, 192, 193

  Citizenship, 69, 201

  Israeli, 158, 160

  Cleopatra, Egyptian customs and, 194

  Clooney, George, 142

  Communism, xxv, xxvi, 33

  Constantine, Christianity and, xxix

  Coptic Museum, 198

  Coptic Orthodox Church, xxiv, 181, 195, 202, 210, 212

  conversions and, 14

  divorce and, 214

  Mubarak and, 203–204

  renaissance of, 209

  in US, 217–218

  Coptic priests, 214, 216

  photo of, 215

  Copts, xx, xxii, xxiv–xxv, 186, 187, 188, 194, 261, 264, 279

  Byzantium and, 195

  Catholic Uniate Church and, 210

  Egyptians and, 196, 197, 198–199, 203

  emigration of, 204, 205, 217, 218

  history of, 202, 207

  influence/status of, 196, 200

  Islamic movements and, 200

  Jesus and, 195

  leadership of, 181–182, 201

  monasticism and, 182

  Muslim Brotherhood and, 204

  Muslims and, 200, 203, 215, 217

  number of, 181, 182

  persecution of, 182, 208

  social networks of, 214

  Council of Chalcedon, 195

  Crassus, 46, 94

  Creator of the Universe, 123, 131, 145

  Crescent and cross symbol, photo of, 199

  Crusades, xxiii, 45, 127, 142–143, 152, 196, 200

  Culture, xiii

  Babylonian, 7

  Druze, 269

  Kalasha, 254

  Middle Eastern, 124

  Palestinian, 148

  Persian, 90

  religions and, 7

  Zoroastrian, 79

  Cyrus, King, 80, 84

  Dabkeh, 263, 264

  photo of, 263

  Dakheel, Qahtaniyah attack and, 70–71

  Dakhma, 102, 103, 105

  photo of, 104

  Dari language, 228, 230

  Darius, 82, 110

  David, King, xxv, 150, 191

  de Goes, Bento, 236

  De Vitriaco, Jacob, 53

  Death

  Assyrians and, 259

  Chaldeans and, 259

  Copts and, 201

  Druze and, 128

  Kam and, 225

  Mandaeans and, 17–18, 37–38

  Shi’a and, 254

  Zoroastrians and, 79

  Deir Abu Fana, 208, 209

 

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