Misadventures in the Middle East
by Henry Hemming
I cannot help by write about this book.
One of the most wonderful travelogues I have read in recent times after Alice Albinia's Empires of the Indus.
Soulful, and that's all I can say about this illustrious journey of these two artists in a truck called Yasmine, throughout middle east.
What makes their journey more significant is the timing-post 9/11 and with the Iraq invasion led by U.S lurking at the background.
Through this book, the image of "middle-east" in "totality looked upon as the Islamic heartland" is challenged. In fact it hints at the impossibility of Islam being one strong monolithic rock. Hence in post Ataturk Turkey, the all-mighty army officer is sure to observe fast during Ramadan (though he need not at all), however ready to fight if duty calls. In the army officer's conviction that Turkey is not a Muslim country, lies the pride of turkey being modern and not a God fearing, Islamic republic like Iran. However saying so, at the first lulls of music strains played through the saz, by another army guy, be silently breathes out saying Hamdulillah (meaning parise be to God), making sure no one hears him. And through listing such sequences, the book scores. Such contradictions, juxtaposed against one another suddenly challenge your stereotypical notions.
(How many times, i swear by God, though i am almost a self-acclaimed non-believer..).
The interesting elements of the book comes from may be Henry's resolution not to be Dalrymple (the other travel writer/historian, i love reading so much). And by choosing to select a different route than Dalrymple, he does the smartest thing, eliminating the possibility of comparison and amputing the urge in the reader to connect to any "modern day cultural facet" to its historical artifice. Undoubtedly, Dalrymple has mastered this art and is evident from his In Zanadu to City of Djinns. But again its so Dalrymple, and with two young 22 year old artist guys, travelling through middle east in the wake of 9/11, you expect much more.And Henry hemming does not disappoint you.
Through him you suddenly understand that identities are no longer associated with your nationality or geography. Rather identities are interpreted through symbols, the latter believed to be stronger than your passports or official nationality documents. Hence at the Czech-Slovak border, Henry and Al were refused entry to Turkey. Henry's beard, one leaflet reading "what is Islam?", a penguin translation of Quran, all become symbols for the border security to stamp them as Islamic extremists and refuse them entry.---and so they cannot cross borders because "how they look like"
They dress down their Yasmine and manage to get into Istanbul. Istanbul chapters literally manage to give you a virtual experience of the Sufi trance at the tekke. And its is at Istanbul, through a young Turkish journalist, Henry hears about some art renaissance happening at Iraq, Baghdad (only to discover the truth at the end of his journey, at the war-ravaged Baghdad).
Iran (and this was also the chapter, i was looking most keenly to, due to my recent association with Iran through the movies and books..so many of them really) was a different and their most cherished experience. Once again i found the "Persepolis" re-lived through the secret garden parties and discs. However the most interesting part in Iran was the protest by the students of the Esfahan Art university. And both Henry and I get to know about the style of the silent protest (each protester coloring then with one single color, come white, some red, some blue etc.) has a legacy in Iran's age old Taziyeh, a drama which enacts the incidents leading up to the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. There each actor, represents each character bthrough a single color, like Imam Hussain green, the butcher red and Taziyeh is also one Iranian way to silently portray the theme of repression,injustice, hope and tragic martyrdom. In fact reverting to color seems to be one way of Iran's silent snub against the repressive regime.(Hence, Henry hints at girls wearing headscarves , with smart puffs of hair visible and colored with tinges of red, copper or brown.
His way to Kurdistan and small anecdotes on the peshmeghras, the Kurdish fighters and their courage will make you understand Ghobadi's movies better. In fact that is what it did to me.I can now understand better the incessant attempts of Ghobadi to portray his Kurdish people as men of undaunted courage and spirit to fight the years of injustice and wrath of genocide attempted on them.
From Iran they move to Dubai and to Saudi, where they are forced to conceal their British identity and dress themselves in salwars and even an abaya tailored for Yasmine.
At Amman, the second Gulf war is underway and Henry's take on Alqaeeda is remarkable. How this media channel built with the left-over remnants of the withdrawing BBC, in middle east becomes almost like a "brother" to every man and a fore-teller of truth. Al-Jazeera manages to do which no other news channel could have done in the middle east, through their belief in unifying the Muslims through its propaganda by "portraying culturally united "Islamic world" that was under attack because of its Islamicness"..(page189) and "making every Muslim feel some of the cumulative grief from conflicts as geographically disparate as Indonesia's remote Molucca Islands, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine,Kashmir, Kosovo or even Sudan." (page 189).
The tours and contours of their travel amidst their desperate attempts of making art and earning money through exhibitions are extremely enjoyable.
The in-between intersperses where Yasmine almost escapes being destroyed, for being marked with Islamic "mashallah" and parked in front of American burger king, the exclamation "hals/yani" by receptioniste, finding Saddam's defeat in the hand of U.S, throwing away all their hopes of crushing U.S imperialism, Kinan, the young Arab Christain at Damascus, (who dislikes Muslims being allowed in Britain, and considers Muslims being backward and at the same hand having Muslim friends.), reveals he feigned his disgust at Muslims being backward, to prove that being an Arab, he is not a Muslim (something that he is often mistaken to be) and the only Muslim he dislikes are the religious ones since "everytime you start to tell a story, they go off to pray", Saba the young girl who calls her headscarf as "him"... and many more such interstitial anecdotes move you thoroughly.
And finally when Henry arrives in Baghdad, too keen to discover the truth behind the Renaissance starting from 1990 (as given a cue once at Turkey)is where the travelogue enters its most interesting interlude. Baghdad with the be-headed, unarmed Saddam statues, the ransacked palaces and with Esam Pasha and Jafar, become the leitmotif of a saga, too intense to be captured.
The book is moving.
So are the images which you can catch in the below mentioned url:-
http://www.henryhemming.co.uk/pages/images.htm
But do read the book (not for understanding Islam, or to unfold journey in the islamic heartlands, rather to get moved by the tales of humanity, across different nations and geographies)...
Amen
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