EVERY-DAY LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN 



By Frederick Simpich and "Haji Mirza Hussein" 



The following article is based upon the observations of (( Haji Mirza Hussein" 

 during his stay in Kabul as the guest of the Amir of Afghanistan and upon informa- 

 tion gathered during his caravan travels throughout the country. Haji Mirza Hussein 

 is a pseudonym adopted by this European observer 3 whose mission was of both 

 political and military significance ; hence the compulsion to travel in the disguise of 

 a Persian pilgrim. Mr. Simpich, who has translated and edited these notes, was 

 formerly United States Consul at Bagdad and has traveled extensively through 

 south Persia and India. 



THE BUFFER State of Afghani- 

 stan, historic shock-absorber be- 

 tween Great Britain and Russia in 

 middle Asia, years ago put up a "Keep 

 Out" sign, a ''This Means You" warning, 

 to all white men and Christians. The land 

 is "posted," — to use a poacher's phrase — 

 posted against trade and concession hunt- 

 ers, against missionaries, and against all 

 military and political hunters in particu- 

 lar. 



Time and again the British have pushed 

 up from India to invade this high, rough 

 region hard by the "roof of the world." 

 More than once their envoys have been 

 massacred or driven back, or imprisoned, 

 with their wives and children, in the 

 frowning, gloomy citadel of Kabul ; and 

 once a retreating white army "shot it. 

 out" almost to a man, scattering its bones 

 all the way from Kabul back to the 

 Indian frontier. 



the "keep out" sign is stiee up 



In sheer drama, in swift, startling ac- 

 tion, in amazing, smashing climax, no 

 chapter in all the tales of the romantic 

 East is more absorbing than this story 

 of Britain's wars with the Afghans. And 

 Russians, too, in the splendid glittering 

 days of the Tsars, waged their fierce 

 campaigns from the North, over the 

 steppes of Turkestan, with wild Cossack 

 pitted against wary Afghan. 



But the "Keep Out" sign is still up. 

 Today the foreigner is no more welcome 

 in Afghanistan than he was a hundred 

 years ago. Forbidden Lhasa itself is no 

 more exclusive than brooding, suspicious 

 Kabul, the capital of this isolate, un- 

 friendly realm of fanatic tribes, of rocks, 

 deserts, irrigated valleys, and towering 

 unsurveyed ranges (see pages 86-87). 



No railways or telegraph lines cross 

 this hermit country or run into it, and its 

 six or seven million people are hardly on 

 speaking terms with any other nation. 



Night and day, from stone watch- 

 towers and hidden nooks along the an- 

 cient caravan trails that lead in from 

 India, from Persia and Russia — trails 

 used long ago by Alexander and Jenghiz 

 Khan — squads of bearded, turbaned Af- 

 ghans, with imported field-glasses and 

 long rifles, are keeping watch against 

 trespassers from without. 



For reasons of foreign policy, the Amir 

 has long felt the necessity of secluding 

 his little-known land to the greatest pos- 

 sible extent from the outside world. 

 Only a few Europeans, mostly British, 

 but occasionally also an American and 

 now and then a few Russians or Ger- 

 mans, have had permission to come into 

 this country and to sojourn for a wkile 

 in its curious capital. But even on such 

 rare occasions as when a foreign engi- 

 neer, or a doctor whose services are 

 badly needed, is admitted by the grace of 

 the Amir, the visitor is subject to a sur- 

 veillance that amounts almost to imprison- 

 ment. 



No ambassadors or ministers, not even 

 missionaries, are permitted to reside in 

 this forbidden Moslem land. "Splendid 

 isolation" is a sort of Afghan tradition, a 

 conviction that the coming of the for- 

 eigner will spell the end of the Amir and 

 his unique, absolute rule. 



THE AMIR NEVER WAEKS 



Today no other monarch anywhere 

 wields such undisputed authority or is in 

 closer touch with the every-day life of 

 his subjects. He personally runs his 

 country's religion, its foreign affairs, and 



85 



