"أيام ثيم ولَّت" [و‎‎٦‎٨] (٢٤٨/١٣٥)

69
CHAPTER 11
Across Afghanistan
! was overjoyed. Feeling that I had learnt as much as possible
headed b e ack OP t 0 o 9ra t P he y t Pe0Ple K° f Khorasan - 11 «as <lood to be
headed back to the frontier where there was real work to be
done. To avoid retracing my steps through Zahedan and Quetta
^ hlch 1 had ent ered Persia 18 months before, I
decided to travel North to Meshed and then East to Herat and if
possible through Afghan Turkestan via Mazar-i-sharif and the
Hindu Kush mountains to Kabul. Unfortunately it was not
possible. Our Embassy at Kabul were severely restricted by the
Afghans in the number of visits they were allowed to make to
A^han Turk,stan and they naturally did not wish to reduce their
tn n no hdrl H eS ° f getting there by asking permission for an outsider
l m \ However I was keen to see Herat, and accordingly drove uo
o Meshed in mid-December and took the road for Herat. It was an
extremely bad road and we gradually lost height as the country
became gradually more arid and desolate. ^
The frontier was marked only by a couple of mud huts (one Persian
Herat" 6 Thp r" h and cross1n 9 one climbed very gradually to
rh u 1 * The tr,b es-people were mostly semi-nomadic Baluchis and
Chahar Aimak, the latter a tribe of Turkish
Persian speaking.
origin, although
Herat was a disappointment,
population and civilization
recovered from the appalling
seven centuries before. The
madrasseh (all that remained
Although
it showed
destruction
8 splendid
once a great centre of
little sign of having
inflicted by the Mongols
towering minarets of the
of it - and since then
have distroyed two more) merely served" V e^Ue the^eanlss
the s i ng 1 e-storey shacks that comprised the rest of the town.
i.w° ln p con, - ras t with Persia, the droshkies of Meshed which
although usually dilapidated, were at least drawn by two horses
(ot a sort), were replaced by the hideously uncomfortable
one-pony tonga universal throughout India.
The comnlexities of international finance delayed us somewhat in
Herat. There was no bank there - or if there was it had no
business contact with any bank in Meshed - and the manager of the
Government Rest House in which I stayed would certainly have
Inrh d l kan F5 at a Cavelier's cheque. It was unwise to carry
desire C rf aS Mr ° ne 35 securit * the roads left much to be
desired (it was even unwise to have a visible gold tooth as the
rnrv en,e Th 0f th6 h '. 9 bway would unhesitatingly knock it out with a
M?HH ' There remained the Bill of Exchange, much in use in the
Middle East and known as a hundi in India, a barat in Persia and
•' n u Ar t bl J a ‘ Accordingly I bought one from a Jewish
in Meshed drawn on a correspondent
realise (being as a child in these
on seven days' sight. Not wanting
a h awa*l a
Merch an t
fai1ed to
was drawn
much
b arlt
one
in Herat,
things) was
to wait so
What I
that it
long in