2RHPZ
06-29-2004, 04:25 PM
'King' is rollicking Afghanistan adventure
WASHINGTON, June 29 (Online): Josiah Harlan had enough adventures to fill the lives of any 10 ordinary soldiers of fortune, not the least of which was being the first American to enter Afghanistan and serving as the inspiration for Kipling's classic story "The Man Who Would Be King."
According to Ben Macintyre, who discovered Harlan's unpublished journals, rebuffed love provided the impetus for all the high adventure. At 22, the Pennsylvania-born Quaker was working on a merchant ship when a letter found him in Calcutta with news that his fianc had married another.
Harlan quit the ship and joined the East India Company as a doctor and marched off to the First Burmese War, where he promptly fell ill. The sum of Harlan's medical training amounted to reading a few medical books. During his convalescence, he met the man responsible for his greatest adventures: Shah Shujah, the exiled king of Afghanistan, says a report of FLINT JOURNAL.
In the 18oos, the reigns of most Afghan kings lasted shorter than a roller coaster ride. Harlan proposed to restore Shujah to his throne, for which the king would make him a vizier, or day-to-day ruler of the kingdom.
To that end, Harlan raised his own army of 100 men and, with incredible optimism, invaded Afghanistan in 1838. Once in Kabul, he planned to foment a rebellion against Dost Mohammed, the current king.
When most of his army deserted, he clothed himself as a holy man and continued on to Kabul. He neither could speak the language nor was he an expert on Islam. If pressed on questions of faith, he pretended to be "too absorbed in religious contemplation to answer."
The author, a columnist for the London Times, wraps Harlan's story within the geopolitical context of the times when Afghanistan was a great prize that both Russia and England hungered to control. The book also conveys the area's often cruel landscape, harsh religious customs and stern social strictures.
When a couple was caught fornicating in public, for instance, the man's punishment entailed having his beard singed off while the woman was placed in a bag and received 40 lashes. When Harlan inquired as to the purpose of the bag, the answer was, "To avoid the indecency of exposure."
Harlan survived his harebrained scheme to unseat Mohammed and, within a few years, returned to Kabul as Dost Mohammed's trusted adviser. He trained the Afghan army and ran the country's mint. Harlan personally led a 4,000-man army through the Hindu Kush to punish a tribal chief, and during the campaign, the Hazara tribe made Harlan their king. He never returned to rule.
The English finally invaded Afghanistan in 1841. Harlan was forced out of the country, and he returned to the United States. During the Civil War, he recruited a cavalry regiment, only to have every regimental officer revolt against his authority. He ended his life as an unlicensed doctor in San Francisco.
Macintyre's immensely entertaining book captures a true American original. This is a great adventure tale whose long-ago events still resonate as a haunting echo in today's headlines.
WASHINGTON, June 29 (Online): Josiah Harlan had enough adventures to fill the lives of any 10 ordinary soldiers of fortune, not the least of which was being the first American to enter Afghanistan and serving as the inspiration for Kipling's classic story "The Man Who Would Be King."
According to Ben Macintyre, who discovered Harlan's unpublished journals, rebuffed love provided the impetus for all the high adventure. At 22, the Pennsylvania-born Quaker was working on a merchant ship when a letter found him in Calcutta with news that his fianc had married another.
Harlan quit the ship and joined the East India Company as a doctor and marched off to the First Burmese War, where he promptly fell ill. The sum of Harlan's medical training amounted to reading a few medical books. During his convalescence, he met the man responsible for his greatest adventures: Shah Shujah, the exiled king of Afghanistan, says a report of FLINT JOURNAL.
In the 18oos, the reigns of most Afghan kings lasted shorter than a roller coaster ride. Harlan proposed to restore Shujah to his throne, for which the king would make him a vizier, or day-to-day ruler of the kingdom.
To that end, Harlan raised his own army of 100 men and, with incredible optimism, invaded Afghanistan in 1838. Once in Kabul, he planned to foment a rebellion against Dost Mohammed, the current king.
When most of his army deserted, he clothed himself as a holy man and continued on to Kabul. He neither could speak the language nor was he an expert on Islam. If pressed on questions of faith, he pretended to be "too absorbed in religious contemplation to answer."
The author, a columnist for the London Times, wraps Harlan's story within the geopolitical context of the times when Afghanistan was a great prize that both Russia and England hungered to control. The book also conveys the area's often cruel landscape, harsh religious customs and stern social strictures.
When a couple was caught fornicating in public, for instance, the man's punishment entailed having his beard singed off while the woman was placed in a bag and received 40 lashes. When Harlan inquired as to the purpose of the bag, the answer was, "To avoid the indecency of exposure."
Harlan survived his harebrained scheme to unseat Mohammed and, within a few years, returned to Kabul as Dost Mohammed's trusted adviser. He trained the Afghan army and ran the country's mint. Harlan personally led a 4,000-man army through the Hindu Kush to punish a tribal chief, and during the campaign, the Hazara tribe made Harlan their king. He never returned to rule.
The English finally invaded Afghanistan in 1841. Harlan was forced out of the country, and he returned to the United States. During the Civil War, he recruited a cavalry regiment, only to have every regimental officer revolt against his authority. He ended his life as an unlicensed doctor in San Francisco.
Macintyre's immensely entertaining book captures a true American original. This is a great adventure tale whose long-ago events still resonate as a haunting echo in today's headlines.