Travels in a Dervish Cloak

Travels in a Dervish Cloak PDF Author: Isambard Wilkinson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781780601502
Category : Pakistan
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Spellbound by his grandmother's Anglo-Indian heritage and the exuberant annual visits of her friend the Begum, Isambard Wilkinson became enthralled by Pakistan as a teenager, eventually working there as a foreign correspondent during the War on Terror. Seeking the land behind the headlines, he sets out to discover the essence of a country convulsed by Islamist violence. What of the old, mystical Pakistan has survived and what has been destroyed? We meet charismatic tribal chieftains making their last stand, hereditary saints blessing prostitutes, gangster bosses in violent slums and ecstatic Muslim pilgrims. Navigating a minefield of coups, conspiracies, cock-ups and bombs, Bard is reluctant to judge; his is a funny, hashish- and whisky-scented travel book from the frontline, full of open-hearted delight and a poignant lust for life. Photographs by Chev Wilkinson.

The Pashtun Question

The Pashtun Question PDF Author: Abubakar Siddique
Publisher: Hurst & Company Limited
ISBN: 1849042926
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
Most contemporary journalistic and scholarly accounts of the instability gripping Afghanistan and Pakistan have argued that violent Islamic extremism, including support for the Taliban and related groups, is either rooted in Pashtun history and culture, or finds willing hosts among their communities on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Abubakar Siddique sets out to demonstrate that the failure, or even unwillingness, of both Afghanistan and Pakistan to absorb the Pashtuns into their state structures and to incorporate them into the economic and political fabric is central to these dynamics, and a critical failure of nation- and state-building in both states. In his book he argues that religious extremism is the product of these critical failures and that responsibility for the situation lies to some degree with the elites of both countries. Partly an eye-witness account and partly meticulously researched scholarship, The Pashtun Question describes a people whose destiny will shape the future of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Fighting to the End

Fighting to the End PDF Author: C. Christine Fair
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199892709
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
The Pakistan Army is poised for perpetual conflict with India which it cannot win militarily or politically. What explains Pakistan's persistent revisionism despite increasing costs and decreasing likelihood of success? This book argues that an understanding of the army's strategic culture explains its willingness to fight to the end

Knots

Knots PDF Author: Nuruddin Farah
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101202025
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Book Description
From the internationally acclaimed author of North of Dawn comes "a beautiful, hopeful novel about one woman's return to war-ravaged Mogadishu" (Time) Called "one of the most sophisticated voices in modern fiction" (The New York Review of Books), Nuruddin Farah is widely recognized as a literary genius. He proves it yet again with Knots, the story of a woman who returns to her roots and discovers much more than herself. Born in Somalia but raised in North America, Cambara flees a failed marriage by traveling to Mogadishu. And there, amid the devastation and brutality, she finds that her most unlikely ambitions begin to seem possible. Conjuring the unforgettable extremes of a fractured Muslim culture and the wayward Somali state through the eyes of a strong, compelling heroine, Knots is another Farah masterwork.

Candide

Candide PDF Author: By Voltaire
Publisher: BookRix
ISBN: 3736801785
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is arguably taught more than any other work of French literature. It was listed as one of The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.

Passenger to Teheran

Passenger to Teheran PDF Author: Victoria Sackville-West
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Iran
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description

Enchanted Lands

Enchanted Lands PDF Author: Roland Michaud
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
ISBN: 9783791382159
Category : Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In their own eloquent words and stunning photographs, Roland and Sabrina Michaud narrate a lifetime of travel, adventure, and discovery in the world's most remote regions. Roland and Sabrina Michaud, now in their eighties, have spent most of their lives together exploring Africa and Asia. Their travels have taken them to far-flung places, including Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. Throughout their journeys Roland and Sabrina photographed and wrote about what they saw. This breathtaking account of their travels features nearly 500 color images that capture, with sensitivity, curiosity, and delight, the people they met and the landscapes they traversed. Organized into sections that focus on particular regions, the book takes readers to the monasteries and villages of China, the tents of Mongolian nomads, and the black rocks of northern Pakistan. Many of their images are indelible studies of faces: the weathered faces of Kazakhstani men, their heads wrapped in turbans; or the shy veiled face of an Iranian mother nursing her child atop a camel as she travels from summer pastures to the Persian Gulf. Throughout the book the Michauds' eloquent commentary gives context to these remarkable images and offers their uniquely humane perspective on what it means to encounter incredible beauty, harsh landscapes, and unfamiliar surroundings. Best of all, it describes the pleasures of meeting people whose joys, sorrows, and struggles we all share.
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