The Carpet Wars: From Kabul to Baghdad A Ten-Year Journey Along Ancient Trade Routes

Travel

Christopher Kremmer

Travel Writing

HarperCollins Publishing

The Carpet Wars - A Journey Across the Islamic Heartlands

Asia

Harpercollins

A personal odyssey through war, friendship and craftsmanship along the old Silk Route, this is a travel book that illuminates the contemporary story of south west Asia. In 1990, Christopher Kremmer arrived in Afghanistan to interview the doomed communist president, Dr Najibullah as rampaging factions of mujahideen massed on the outskirts of Kabul. He found himself intrigued by the politics and culture of the land, and his book provides revealing, often first-hand portraits of warlords such as Ahmad Shah Masood, "the Lion of Panjsher", of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and of Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf. The real stories of the lands of the ancient Silk Route, however, are accessed through Kremmer's obsession with the carpets of the region. Initiated into the wonders of the craft through the stunning classic design and pomegranate dyes of the filpai or Elephant's Foot in Dr Najibullah's office, Kremmer is hooked, and thus tells the tales of his lasting friendships with nomads on portable handlooms to managers of mechanised production units to the merchants in the souks and bazaars.

The Carpet Wars

Flamingo

The Carpet Wars ; A Journey Across The Islamic Heartlands

HarperCollins Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.

PerfectBound

<p>"Perfectbound e-book extra: An Interview with Christopher KremmerApart from oil, rugs are the Muslim world's best-known commodity. While rugs are found in most Western homes, the story of religious, political, and tribal strife behind their creation is virtually unknown. In The Carpet Wars, award-winning journalist Christopher Kremmer chronicles his fascinating ten-year journey along the ancient carpet trade routes that run through the world's most misunderstood and volatile regions -- Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, India, Pakistan, and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.Christopher Kremmer's odyssey through the crescent of Islamic nations began in the early 1990s, when he arrived in Afghanistan to meet the communist-backed president, Mohammed Najibullah. On the outskirts of Kabul, mujahideen rebels were massing while the carpet dealers of the old city continued to ply their timeless trade. Kremmer was in Kabul when the mujahideen turned their guns on one another after ridding the country of the hated communists. He was there when the Taliban came and the army of religious students - aided by the wealthy Arab radical Osama bin Laden -- emerged from the scorched earth to implement their vision of "a pure Islamic state."Traveling through these territories, Kremmer chronicles Islamic societies as they were convulsed by dictatorship and greed and as refugees sought asylum in the West. He cemented lifelong friendships and met an unforgettable cast of characters,</p>

History

This is the story of foreign correspondent Christopher Kremmer's travels, traversing a crescent of Islamic societies in crisis. From Kashmir to Iraq, Pakistan to Tajikistan, millions of ordinary Muslims were having their lives torn apart by the volatile cocktail of Kalashnikov and Koran. No warlord, no victim could adequately explain why Islamic societies had become so iconoclastic and fracticidal. Kremmer's journey became a quest to understand why, and to reconcile a beautiful and destructive culture with his own.

The Carpet Wars: A Journey Across the Islamic Heartlands

This tells of foreign correspondent Christopher Kremmer's, fascinating and timely account of over a decade spent living, travelling, and reporting from Asia, and the Middle East. During this time he formed an obsession with carpets and the 'perfect rug' - an obsession that saw him trace the threads of carpet making throughout the East.

HarperCollins Publishers (Aust

A sprawling portrait of India at the crossroads, this tile is an intensely personal story about coming to terms with a dazzlingly different culture, as the author's fate is entwined with a cosmopolitan Hindu family of Old Delhi, and a guru who might just change his life.

Inhaling the Mahatma

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

HARPER/COLLINS

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Books by Christopher Kremmer