My Love Affair with the land & People of Afghanistan I have never been a journal (diary) keeper, and my memory has faded rather badly. So, without fixing dates, here is my love story. Some seven years ago, there was some tension between my church leaders and myself. The burden seemed to be on me, and I stopped going. At the time I was attending a Messianic Jewish Congregation, but I felt left-out. I’m not Jewish, but I love Israel and the Jewish people. Without seeing the term used before, I labeled myself a Messianic Gentile. More about this some other time. My retired status left me plenty of time—too much time; I needed something to occupy my mind. Islam was causing lots of trouble in the world, so knowing nothing about the religion, I embarked on an intensive study. The books I selected1 were all favorable and, oddly, written by women. I say “oddly” because Islam has never been known for its respect for women. So, my education was slanted in the wrong direction. By that I mean, what I was reading was the romantic side of Islam’s beginnings and growth. I was so impressed that I considered converting from Messianic Gentile to Islam (yeah, nuts, I know). As Islam grew from a small group of Arab nomads living in what is now Saudi Arabia, most of the Arabs being attracted to this alternative way of thinking, were family and friends of Mohammad. In another place, at another time, I will tell you about Mohammad and Islam, but for now I’ll skip ahead several years and geographically move northward, as did Islam. No one in their right mind could say that Islam was a peaceful religion. It started out in violence and continued violently into present times, winning converts mostly through violence. My focus of reading expanded from the 1 A detailed bibliography will be provided eventually. Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 1 of 13 religion of Islam to include the history of the nations from which the northward power was advancing. It was about at this point when I realized the geography of my research was moving ever northward (eastward and westward too, but mostly northward). At the top of the world sits, among others, , a country I knew nothing about—absolutely nothing. My solution? Get some books. The books I “got” were a combination of country history and books about the war. Luckily, I also found some outstanding videos on YouTube, and I will list for you. Afghanistan: The Great Game (Part I) https://youtu.be/_m7uL4Q44ws Afghanistan: The Great Game (Part II) https://youtu.be/j6jItZF5ZeU Rory Stewart: Time to end the war in Afghanistan https://youtu.be/dwU8eavPInw Rory Stewart | The Truth About British Politics https://youtu.be/S9GpEvkXH18 To access a longer list of videos explaining many diverse subjects on Afghanistan, use this URL: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=afghani stan As I was working on this document, I happened across a new video, “96 Hours Inside Afghanistan in 2020.” The stories related in this video confirmed for me that my love for this country and its people is not misplaced. Please watch this video before you read the rest of my story. Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 2 of 13 I meet my first Afghan It isn’t easy remembering details from long ago—even maybe seven years. As I was learning about Afghanistan, I was also learning my way around Facebook (yeah; it has become an awful place, and dangerous too). Without knowing the impact of what I was doing, I asked a man if we could become friends. This is one of my best questions, the answer to which was YES. But rather than continuing to chat on FB, we used the application WHATSAPP. Here we could send photos and other items back-and-forth and make video and/or voice calls. For security reasons, I cannot tell you much about this young man. When we met, he was in high school. From the answers my friend, whom I will call Persia, to my questions I could direct my research in more specific ways. And through Persia I met other people—a variety of backgrounds—each different from the next. So, my love of Afghanistan moved forward on two fronts: population and geography. First geography. Afghanistan is a land-locked country, meaning it no access to the open sea. This is an enormous factor when considering the price of goods either imported or exported. Afghan farmers raise much more produce (in good years) than the country can consume, but export costs and delay times make overland transport not viable. The countries immediately surrounding Afghanistan are themselves underdeveloped and of little or no help to Afghan producers. Only in the few years that I’ve been studying the country has a railroad become operational. And it is short. Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 3 of 13 On this map you can see the provinces of the country. Provinces are like states in the United States. Provinces are further subdivided into 422 districts (as of 2018). To learn more about districts, consult this interactive map,(click on the right-hand tab, the tab for 2018) where you can find more information than you want to know. But there are features of this country that provide even more difficult hurdles than the political divisions. That feature is geography. Look at the following map. Unfortunately, the map extends no further north than Kabul. But if you can envision the terrain, you see in the upper right corner extending further northeast and getting only more unfriendly, you will have gotten “the picture” of what I’m trying to show you. More comments below the map. Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 4 of 13 I was hoping to show you how the Himalayas, or Himalaya, Mountain Range flows into Afghanistan providing the country’s topography. But this isn’t what happens. Origin: The highest and youngest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas are a geologic marvel that occurred when the Indo- Australian plate collided into the underbelly of the Eurasian plate, about 70 million years ago. The Tethys Sea that had existed in the location, disappeared, and as the Indian landmass continued to ram into Asia, the soft sediments that had lain at the bottom of the Tethys Sea were pushed up in a series of gigantic folds of the Earth’s lithosphere, to reach a height of 8850m straight from sea level. Since the Indo-Australian plate is still moving at 67 mm per year-the Himalayas are still rising, making the area geologically unstable and Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 5 of 13 seismically active. It is predicted that in the next 10 million years, the Indo-Australian plate will move 1,500 kilometers forward into Asia.2 If you would like more scientific information on these youngest and highest mountains on earth, check Himalayan Voices on the internet. Now that I’ve educated myself and you, I can correctly tell you that the mountains extending south from what looks like the Himalayans are more correctly known as the Hindu Kush Mountains. These mountains spill southward and spreading both east and west they provide immense challenges to the Afghan. Let me help you have some fun with mapping and touring the world without even leaving your computer. Download the free application, Google Earth Pro. The application is easy to use and you can spend hours learning its many features and visiting places you never thought possible. There is a “picture” feature you can turn on and the maps will put photo icons where previous users have taken photos and posted them to Google. By the way, you will have to install the program; follow the prompts. 2 Himalayan Voices, http://himalayanvoices.org/?q=onlinelib/readings/themes/origin, recovered February 13, 2021 Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 6 of 13 Enough of your education; back to my story. So, there I was, sitting in my lovely Bend, Oregon, estate, learning about Islam and Afghanistan. I’d tracked Islam past some of her most stunning conquests. For me, this meant Spain—al-Andalusia. I’m not intending on a lesson in the progress of Islam, but some information will help you see how I got to the top of the world and fell in love. Some dates: c. 570 CE Birth of Muhammad Very interesting prior life. c. 610 CE First visions, cave near Mecca Visions came slowly, told only to wife. 622 Muhammad & followers flee to Medina Could not get along with other tribes. 624 Muslims successfully attack Meccan caravans at Badr. Peaceful? Not from the beginning. 625 Muslims are defeated by Meccans at Uhud. 630 Muslims capture Mecca. Ka’ba is cleansed, pilgrimage rites are Muslims ‘evicted’ all other believers, Islamicized, tribes of Arabia vow allegiance to Muhammad. installed only Islamic ‘god’. 632 Death of Muhammad. Abu Bakr chosen as caliph. Muhammad left no successor. 633 Muslim conquests begin. 633-642 Muslim armies take Fertile Crescent, North African Coast, parts of Persian & Byzantine Empires. c. 650 Followers start recording Qur’an. 680 First split within Islam. Birth is Shi’a sect. 710 Arab armies enter Spain from North Africa Continued next page. Martin’s Love Affair with Afghanistan Page 7 of 13 732 Muslim empire reaches its furthest extent. Battle of Tours prevents further advance northwards. 750 Iraq conquered. 754 Bagdad becomes capital of Abbasid empire. 755 Umayyad Dynasty founded in Cordoba, Spain.