The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush

📖 The Scoop

This is the authoritative work and really the only work about Kafiristan now known as Nuristan before the invasion of 1892 when all the inhabitants were forcibly converted to Islam.

This book was published in 1896 and is based primarily on visits by the Author to Chitral and Kafiristan in 1888-1892. The author was fortunate to have accomplished these visits, because most of those who had tried this had been killed.

In this visit, Robertson covered a vast area. He came up to Gilgit, then crossed Shandur Top into Chitral, then passed Mastuj and then reached Chitral where he was welcomed by Mehtar Aman-ul-Mulk. He then went down to Drosh and then to Urtsun where he crossed the high mountain pass into Nuristan reaching Kamdesh. Later he went North reaching Bargematal and then crossed more high Mandal Pass reaching the Mirjan Valley in Badakhshan.

No European man had ever done this before and probably none of them have ever done it since either. This book is the basis for the movie "The Man Who Would Be King" starring Sean Connery.

Genre: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies (fancy, right?)