The Holy Bible, New International Version
The Holy Bible, New King James Version
Mystery, by Jonathan Kellerman
The Baburnama
Runaway, by Alice Munro
LinkedIn for Dummies, by Joel Elad
Gone Tomorrow, by Lee Child
The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood
Night Soldiers, by Alan Furst
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crossers, by Philip Caputo
One of these days I will write a review essay about The Baburnama. At this point, let me just say that this is a unique memoir of a Muslim ruler, written in a form of Turkish, rather than in Persian, the literary language of the day. Among Babur's other accomplishments, before he conquered India and founded the Moghul Empire, he ruled Afghanistan. Ruling Afghanistan was just as much fun then as it is now. Babur's favored approach, one he picked up from family traditions, was to pile a pyramid of skulls outside a village after he suppressed revolt. I'm not sure that really worked, but it certainly showed the locals that he was serious.
Glenn A Knight
In my study
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2 comments:
So a kinder, gentler 'visiting' army was never likely to impress them.
There are people, Agim, in fact, there are entire societies in which concepts such as compassion, mercy, even simple honesty, are regarded as signs of weakness. Show them weakness, and they'll go for your throat. The Pashtun, the Tadjiks, the Kyrgyz, the Hazaras, and the others who inhabit Afghanistan, are all pretty much in that mold. (It's also notable that you have a country whose people have languages that are mutually unintelligible. Tadjik is related to Persian, while Kyrgyz and Hazara are Turkic.)
Here's a quick example of Babur's attitude (this was in the Muslim year 912 - our year 1506-7):
"Fourteen or fifteen of the Turcoman Hazara renegades and bandit chiefs had been captured, and it was my plan, when we had camped, to execute them with various tortures to serve as examples to all bandits and renegades. Along the way, however, they encountered Qasim Beg, who, with misplaced clemency, freed them."
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