The Places in Between- Rory Stewart
o Major Characters:
Rory Stewart- Major character who walked across Afghanistan. He walked across
India, and Nepal, then Iran. He wanted to fill in the places in between.
Abdul Haq- One of the men that protected Rory until Chaghcharan
Qasim- A seyyed that accompanied Rory to Chaghcharan
Aziz- Qasim’s brother that accompanied them after Qasim invited him
Babur (king)- the 1st emperor of the Mughal Empire, and the parallel to Rory’s
journey. Traveled from Herat to Kabul
Babur (dog)- the dog that Rory is given by Hussein in Dahan-e-Rezak (dies)
Yuzifi- Good friend of Rory and am Afghan government worker
o His Goal:
Prove that Afghanistan is not as hostile as people say
Show the compassionate and hospitable side on the Afghans
Fill in the places in between his other travels, “Afghanistan was the missing section
of my walk, the place in between the desserts and the Himalayas, between Persian,
hellinic, and Hindu culture, between Islam and Buddhism, between mystical and
militant islam. I wanted to see where these two culture merged in one” (Stewart 25)
Follow the route of Babur from Herat to Kabul
o His Travel:
In most cities he stayed in mosques if he was not welcome, or he stayed in a
wealthier person’s house if he had a letter of introduction.
Major Cities- Herat, Chaghcharan, Bamiyan, Maidan Shahr, and Kabul
All Cities-
Herat
Herat Sha’ede
Turon
Buriabaf
Dideros
Rakwaje
Chist-e-Sarif
Shir Haj
Dahan-e-Rezak
Kamenj
Garmao
Jam
Ghar
Chesme Sakina
Barra Khana
Chaghcharan
Badgah
Daulatyar
Sang-i-zara
Katish
Qala-e-Nau
Siar Chisme
Yakawalang
Band-e-Amir
Ghorak
Shaidan
Bamiyan
Kalu
Dahan-e-Shahr
Maidan Shahr
Kabul
o Provinces and Ethnicities:
Herat- Tajik
Ghor- Himark
Bamiyan- Hazara
Wardak- Pastan
o Vocab:
Dang- staff/ walking stick
Qasim- the divider
Babur- tiger
Brahma- pale green flowers
Hari-Rud- a river that flows through the center of Afghanistan (Rory’s route)
Nan- Bread
Caravanserai- way stations for merchants along the silk route
Meman- guest
Mostafer- traveler
Madress- School building
Kursi- Table
Kalashnikov- weapon designed by Russians, made by Iranians, and used by
Afghans on the US side.
Amniat- Security
Taliban- a strict Islamic group that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001
Mujahadin- holy worriors
Shaitan- devils
Aaabag- cry for dogs
Farsang- a day’s walk
Jhorid- a descendent of the rulers of the province of Ghorid
Walaya- spiritual authority of the profit
Welaya- divine love
Chistiyah- music (famous in Chist)
Sama- people who bring along ecstasy by music and dance
Esewi- a Christian
Jahdui- a jew
Firuzkuhi- aimaq of the Turquoise mountains
Hafiz- memorized the whole Koran
Commandant- millitary commander
Khan- family had been one of the two largest land owners
Yazidas- syncretic faith combining Islam, Zoastrianism, and Christianity.
Chinooks- giant helicopters
Sag-e-Aimaq- an aimaq dog
Imams- leaders
Begs- Turkic word for leaders
Ibex- a very large mountain goat
Koz- two miles
Mir Bacheha- children of the mir
Al-Qaeda- an international Islamic fundamentalist organization associated with
several terrorist incidents, including the attack on the World Trade Center, New
York (2001). Al-Qaeda was established by Osama bin Laden in 1989 and was based
in Afghanistan until driven out by U.S. and coalition forces in 2001.
Shalwar- trousers/ pants/ pajama pants
Basraq- tiny, sweet, curled pastries
Haju- tiny, sweet, curled pastries
Plot summary/ Review by Rosmary Colt:
If you’re looking for adventure travel from the safety of an armchair, Stewart is your
man. This captivating book recounts a walk across Afghanistan in the winter of 2002, hardly
a time when tourists were flocking there. A Scotsman, Stewart was educated at Oxford and is
a former fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of
Government. He also served in the British diplomatic service in Iraq, which he has written
about in The Prince of Marshes, a book that preceded this one.
Why Afghanistan? As Stewart puts it, “I had just spent sixteen months walking twenty to
twenty-two miles a day across Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. I had wanted to walk every
step of the way and I had intended to cross Afghanistan a year earlier.” Then the Iranians
took his visa away, the Taliban refused him entry into Afghanistan and Pakistan barred him
from Baluchistan. Eager to complete the journey, when he heard of the Taliban’s fall Stewart
returned to Afghanistan to begin walking from Herat to Kabul “in a straight line through the
central mountains. The normal dogleg through Kandahar was flatter and easier, and free of
snow. But it was also longer and controlled in parts by the Taliban.”
When Stewart told the Afghan Security Service his plans, he was warned that he was “the
first tourist in Afganistan. It is midwinter . . . there are wolves, and this is a war. You will
die, I can guarantee.” Afghanistan was, after all, a country that “had been at war for twenty-
five years; the new government had been in place for only two weeks; there was no
electricity between Heart and Kabul, no television and no T-shirts. . . . In many houses the
only piece of foreign technology was a Kalashnikov, and the only global brand was Islam.”
None of this deterred the intrepid Stewart, a traveler in the tradition of his countryman
Richard Burton.
When the authorities finally decided to let him proceed, they insisted that he take along
for part of the journey two escorts singularly ill-equipped for the trek. But then so was
Stewart, at least by travel catalogue standards. Wearing Afghan clothes and carrying a crude
homemade walking stick, he toted a backpack covered with a “plastic rice bag to make it
look more like something a villager would carry.” His few supplies included a towel and a
toothbrush, some antibiotics and a little morphine. He had a sleeping bag, some warm clothes
and an MRE ration pack picked up in the Kabul bazaar in case he got stuck in the snow, and
that was it. He was, however, fluent in many of the local dialects and conversant with the
local customs, baggage essential to the success of his venture.
Still, still, most readers will be thinking, this was a very risky undertaking, further
complicated from a practical perspective by Stewart’s acquisition of a dog he named Babur,
an old mastiff the size of a small pony who had “never seen a motorized vehicle, electricity,
or a village of more than six houses” and for whom Stewart develops a lasting affection.
Later, Afghans were . . . to describe Babur as big, strong, ferocious, useless, tired or decrepit.
I called him beautiful, wise, and friendly.” Babur, the first Emperor of Mughal India, also
walked across Afghanistan, and Stewart’s route is roughly the same. He has along with him
Babur’s diary, from which he occasionally quotes. The description of its author’s narrative
technique is revealing: “What he did was very dangerous, but he never draws attention to
this. Instead, he focuses on the people he meets and uses portraits of individuals to suggest a
whole society. . . . Unlike most travel writers, he is honest.” The same is true of Stewart’s
straightforward prose and for his unwavering concentration on the countryside and its
inhabitants.
And a colorful lot they were. Stewart and Babur spent most nights with the village
headmen, many of whom had been leaders in the war against the Russians and who served on
various sides during the Taliban period. Stewart’s photographs offer graphic proof of the
humble nature of the accommodations. He found the nights difficult; other guests and
residents slept little, instead smoking and playing cards and there was always someone
coughing. Before long, Stewart was battling a case of diarrhea and some legs. But he and
Babur soldiered on, and there were rewards, as when Stewart stumbled upon the Tower of
Jam, perhaps a pre-Moslem victory tower built by a lost tribe “to mark the conversion of a
lonely and sacred pagan spot to Islam.” There had been no report on the tower for months,
and given that much of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage was destroyed or damaged, his was a
significant find.
But if finding the tower was a thrill, the value of his trip for Stewart and was his exposure
to life in the villages of a war-torn country, so much of which he passes along to his readers.
The descriptions of the Afghan people and the cultural mores of their remote villages suggest
the difficulty of helping Afghanistan build a future, and perhaps the impossibility because of
the complexity of shifting loyalties. For example, on his last afternoon in Herat Stewart
visited Ismail Khan, the “most powerful man in western Afghanistan.” Khan, who had
recently captured Herat from the Taliban, had fought with the Russians at the beginning of
that conflict. He had been fighting for twenty-two years and now the Americans had taken
him up. “He seemed,” says Stewart, “to impress those he met.” When Stewart asked him to
support his proposed journey, Khan replied “this journey is not possible in the winter. I know
this. I have fought in the region at this season.”
When the journey ends, and Stewart is back in Scotland, he thinks back to how
uncomfortable he was “in villages because of the filthy, crowded rooms, the illiterate men,
the limited conversation.” Yet he also recalls savoring “the hot rice, the firm floor, the shelter
from the wind, and the companionship. I had felt how proud the men were of what they could
provide and how lucky I was to share their space. They treated me as though I belonged and I
had felt that I did.” It’s a tribute to Stewart’s skills as an observer that he takes us along with
him through Afghanistan from the safety of our armchairs.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Rosemary Colt, 2006
