CuChullaine O´Reilly a.k.a Asadullah Khan

My first guest writer is a very opinionated, passionate, charismatic and knowledgeable friend, the chief of the Long Riders Guild, CuChullaine O´Reilly.  He is an equestrian explorer, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers’ Club, one of the Founders of The Long Riders’ Guild, Director of the LRG-AF, publisher of the LRG Press and author of Khyber Knights. He explored Afghanistan and Pakistan on horseback, took part in the jihad against the Soviet Union, and converted to Islam more than thirty years ago. He has since renounced all acts of warfare, especially those inspired by religiously misguided zealots.

New Year – New Hope

by

CuChullaine O’Reilly a.k.a. Asadullah Khan

As if we needed any reminders of what a murderous year 2009 has been, a few days ago another deluded fool attempted to destroy an airplane in flight. This time the destroyer was from Nigeria, not England, and he hid the explosives in his underpants, not his shoes. Nevertheless, both would-be assassins not only attempted to massacre their fellow man, they added to their sins by daring to cloak their crimes in the name of Islam.

Ironically, in a world full of instant news, one which rings out every few minutes with the words “Taliban” and “al-Qaeda,” it would serve mankind well to remember that there is a vast portion of the Muslim world which has gone largely unnoticed. Unlike the chilling Puritanism of some movements, which helped inspire and finance the forces of political poison currently disguised as religion which are at work today, the Indo-Islamic civilization created the most tolerant and pluralistic example of Islam ever known.

The most important example of this alternative vision of the oft-misunderstood religion was the great Mughal emperor, Akbar (1542-1605). The hallmark of his reign was the emphasis he placed upon Hindu-Muslim unity and the concept of individual religious tolerance. Because he was convinced that spiritual truth was not the monopoly of any particular religion, Akbar organized the first global congress of faiths, fostered the spirit of enquiry and allowed every man and community to develop in its own spiritual manner.

Faith has no caste, nor national origin, taught this powerful ruler who placed the love of God above the rituals of religion. When a theocracy of Sunni extremists condemned Akbar’s spirit of Sufi generosity, he transported the belligerent mullahs to Kandahar, and exchanged them for colts.

“You should not allow religious prejudice to influence your mind. The propagation of Islam will be better carried on with the faith of love and obligation than with the sword of oppression,” Akbar warned his fellow Muslims.

This flowering of Mughal religious tolerance reached its crescendo on April, 4^th, 1934, when the city of Lahore witnessed the creation of the greatest literary treasure ever seen in the Indo-Islamic civilisation. That was the day upon which the scholar Abdullah Yusuf Ali released the first instalment of his English language translation of the Qur’an. For the princely sum of only one rupee, the first fifty pages of the revered work could be purchased. The resultant six-hundred plus pages were published as they were completed, in twenty-nine more sections over the next three years, thanks to a remarkable gathering of enthusiastic university students, calligraphers, printers and publishers, all of whom urged, and assisted, the Allama (most learned) Yusuf Ali to commit to paper the English language translation he had spent the majority of his life creating.

Born in India in 1872, Yusuf Ali was an extraordinary scholar, confident horseman and traveller par excellence. Thanks to his intellectual gifts, he was the first Indian to serve on Great Britain’s Indian Civil Service. A noted jurist, a devotee of Shakespeare, an expert on Alexander the Great, and a prolific author, Yusuf Ali was also an Islamic scholar of tremendous wisdom. Thanks to Yusuf Ali’s travels between England and India, he believed there was a vital need to translate the enduring message of the Qur’an into the English language, so as to offset the same forces of religious extremism which Akbar faced and which still threaten us today.

Yusuf Ali - "Though the English language translation of the Qur'an created by the famous Indian scholar, Allama Yusuf Ali, was rightly considered to be the most beautifully written version ever seen, it was altered by unknown parties in the late 1980s so as to fall in line with the more politically rigid version of Islam as practised by the Wahhabis."

“Although I am earnestly and sincerely devoted to my own religion, I have always advocated the desirability of a better understanding between Christians and Muslims in all spheres of life. Such an understanding is likely to become a great guarantee of world peace and international understanding,” the humble scholar wrote.

Like the great Mughal, Akbar, whose religious tolerance had inspired him, Yusuf Ali believed in what he termed a “progressive Islam.” By the mid-twentieth century Muslim institutions and patterns of thinking had become moribund and obsolete. Not only should Muslims cope with the challenges of the day, he warned, they should use their faith to rise above the prejudices of race. Islam, he said, should be a way to transcend narrow political interests.

Yusuf Ali admonished the Muslims of his day, reminding them that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had abolished any hereditary and privileged priesthood, while instituting the right of private judgment, personal responsibility, equality in brotherhood, removal of racial or caste barriers and the selection of rulers by democratic choice. It was these principles, Yusuf Ali said, which were the true basis of Islam.

After years of work, when Yusuf Ali’s English language Qur’an was released, it was acclaimed a masterpiece worldwide. This revered book, he said, was not the legacy of one nation, it was the heritage of mankind. “Each verse represents something immediately applicable,” he wrote, “and something eternal and independent of time and space.”

No sectarian views were propagated throughout the extensive commentary. On the contrary, Yusuf Ali’s emphasis was on the spiritual dimension of Islam and its message of a common humanity. This search for God within liberated the seeker from the restrictions of a narrowly orthodox version of Islam, encouraging the devotee instead to look beyond the letter of the law to its mystical essence.

Sadly, power is a jealous mistress who tolerates no rival. This is especially true of those who wield the sanctity of religious authority.

Though many other authors have attempted to emulate his efforts, Yusuf Ali’s English language translation of the Qur’an became the most widely respected, and trusted, version ever known. “In translating the Text I have aired no views of my own,” he wrote, then went on to hope that thanks to this version, “a new renaissance of Islam will sweep away cobwebs and let in the light of reason.”

Alas, the message of tolerance, as practised by Emperor Akbar and Allama Yusuf Ali, has been one of the unmarked victims of today’s climate of political hatred. In 1987 unnamed “editors” bowdlerized Yusuf Ali’s magnum opus, removing various appendices, revising the commentary, diluting its message of compassion and ignoring its apolitical tolerance.

“Nothing can be more damaging than the admission of rough and tumble politics into the serene atmosphere of religious peace and freedom,” Yusuf Ali wrote before his death in 1952. The result, he warned, would be the rise of leaders who promote dangerously simplistic creeds designed to promote a spirit of political vengeance and narrow self interest.

Sadly, as the bleak religious war between East and West goes on, Yusuf Ali’s prophecy has come true, with political hirelings in clergymen’s gowns from both sides mistaking the shell for the substance.

“A foundation of hatred or hostility can never support any edifice of national life and will be subject to sudden earthquakes when the forces of disorder are let loose,” Yusuf Ali predicted. Recent events demonstrate that he was right, as the venom of one side continues to provide the lifeblood of the other.

As the year 2009 and this decade come to a close, what a cruel mockery it is then to dispute, on the religious plane, national ambitions, tribal allegiances and the need for personal glory. The fruits of this tree are intolerance, rancour and uncompromising hostility, nestled among the leaves of barren and bigoted sectarianism.

A Sufi once remarked, “Everyone lives on the same Earth. One reads the Vedas, the second the Qur’an. One is called a pandit, the other a mullah. They style themselves separately, though they are pots of the same earth. Neither have found God and both live in futile disputes.”

Yusuf Ali, who spent his life attempting to reconcile East and West, counselled that counting beads or wearing a hermit’s gown is no sure sign of faith. Service to our brethren is the only worship that counts. Likewise it is folly to believe that war can end war.

Before his death, this remarkable man of two worlds wrote, “Many new streams of wisdom were poured through the crucibles of noble minds and thinking men of action.”

I like to think that Yusuf Ali, the scholar and traveller, would have supported Mikael Strandberg’s idealistic goal of travelling on camelback, from one distant ocean to another, so as to draw attention to what we all share in common.

I know I do.

CuChullaine O’Reilly, a.k.a. Asadullah Khan, along with his wife, the Swiss equestrian explorer, Sayeeda Ayesha Khan, will be re-publishing Yusuf Ali’s 1934 Qur’an, complete with its original translation and unedited commentary, in early 2010. The royalties will be donated to victims of suicide bombings in Pakistan.

Shopping during ramadan in the old city of Sana`a, the ladies souk....

”What is it that you specifically like with Yemen?” the young American journalist asked me, when making an interview at The Coffee Traders yesterday, “What are the positive aspects?”

Like most other foreigners in Yemen right now, like Westerners, Arabs, Asians, I was warned profoundly not to come here. By old friends, Middle East experts, governments, Arab friends in other Arab countries and global media. Basically they all said:

“You will either be kidnapped, hold to ransom or killed. Yemen is the most dangerous country in the world right now! Al Qaeda is running wild in the country! Worse than Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan!”

The tinmarket.....

Let me just tell you readers, not once have I been scared or felt threatened, and on top of that, please do know this important fact, that most of my time I walk the streets of Old Sana’a in darkness, finding my way through the black, winding and narrow alleys, stepping into a world on the brink of fantasy, meeting armed locals, the odd one with Kalashnikovs, most with the big jambiyya strapped on the belt in front of them. Not once have a felt uncomfortable! With a extremely few exceptions, which I will tell you about at the end of this dispatch, I have come across some of the best people I have ever met. Trust me, I have been to 113 countries, during 25 years of exploring, the Yemenis are amongst the friendliest, most generous and hospitable people I have ever met. On pair with the native Siberians, whom I love as a people more than any. I am probably one of few who’d voluntarily would like to get deported to Siberia! Luckily Yemen is still open to foreigners!

The souk at midnight.....

I like Yemen, or I should really say Sana’a, since I haven’t seen too much of the rest of the country, because people here always give you a smile, greet you, ask you how you are, care for your well being and often invite you to their homes for either a kat chew or food. They are very courteous, exiting, funny, full of character and extremely helpful. And we are talking Sana’a, the biggest city of Yemen. Imagine than what it will be like outside the cities, in the countryside, where people always are nicer and better. (Yes, I am born, bred and brought up and have lived most of my 47 years in the countryside….).

And I love the Old City of Sana’a, Sana’a Kadiima, which must be the most interesting place on earth right now. It has to be seen and experienced before things develop and it becomes a living museum, which will sooner or later happen, since Yemen will develop like the rest of the Gulf. It is after all a very rich country with great natural resources and an amazing, so far untapped, potential for tourism and development, it is just stuck in a well known limbo at the moment of mismanagement. Hence the continuing war against the north, the troubles with the south and more. War planes continue to leave and return to Sana’a in big numbers, some of them heavier airplanes filled with bodies of the many dead soldiers. Still, life goes on, as it always have in this mesmerizing country!

These two boys, of which one is the son of a sheikh, came into the souk in a new car, and wanted to sell a jambiyya to Abdullah for 200 000 rials.....about 1000 dollars

The souks of the Old City are teeming with people from nine in the evening to three in the morning. It is Ramadan time and people are shopping more than ever and many shop owners say that, even though it is a global economic recession right now and a war in the north, people still seem to shop in great amounts. And a lot of them are women which speed in numbers through the narrow, dark and winding alleys, looking at you with smiling eyes and lots of curiosity, heading for a sale somewhere in the darkness. It is a great time to be here. Since electricity is erratic, half of a 5 hour visit, which is a minimum to get some feel of the life in the souk, is in darkness, which makes it much easier to appreciate the sense of being in a movie, which is set in the Middle Ages. Old Sana’a has to be seen! Yemen has to be visited! The other day I saw a movie at a friends place, a film was called The Bucket List and the storyline was about two old men (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) who had cancer and made a list of things they wanted to do before they died. I would put a visit to Old Sana’a and Yemen first on that list!

Never a boring moment in the souk!

I also love Sana’a and Yemen because there isn’t one boring moment here. It is so full of characters, impressions, noises, smells, movement, and chaos that I, after 5 hours in the souk, am more tired than ever, after having experienced the most amazing impressions, that I only thought belonged to a far bygone era. The best of all, nevertheless, is the Yemenis themselves, educated or non-educated, city or countryside people. Such friendliness! The positive aspects of this great country easily outweigh the negative ones, which are so well-known to the world.

Ladies cruising the souk

Nonetheless, I know, I am a trained rational European, so I will have to ask myself, have I, on top of the well-known problems which are always highlighted in the international press, come across any nasty things or people? I have had people who read my blog asking me if all Yemenis are good….since people are my main drive in life, I will tell you this:

Visiting friends in the souk.....

At times I have met locals who have stared at me with blankness in their eyes, always people with either a reddish beard, a sign of them being hajjis (men who have done the pilgrimage to Mecca) or bearded men with a turban indicating them being imams or religious on the brink of fanatism. No matter if I have been dressed as Ahmed Al-Hamdani or my normal self. They just don’t like or trust foreigners. Or anyone being different to them. Maybe some of them have belonged to this loosely knitted network called Al Qaeda, these fanatics which it is said there are plenty off in Yemen and Sana’a, who interpret the Quran wrongly to justify there own regretful means. But these uneducated and indoctrinated lunatics I can count on the fingers on both my hands, no more. It should be said, however, that the overwhelming number of hajjis and imams I have met in the capital greet me like all other Yemenis and Sanaanis (people from Sana’a), with a smile, a Salaam Aleikum (Peace be Upon You) followed by Kheif Halikum? (How are things with you?), and lots of curiosity. However, going back to these people who are destroying the image of Muslims and Islam not only in the West, but also in the rest of the non-Muslim world, they get far too much attention in the global media, when they’re in reality are very few in number and the worst of representatives for the Moslem world. They and their kindred the Afghani Taliban’s are mostly a bunch of spiteful, bitter, misled, uneducated men who can’t read and write, some might be able to recite a few verses from the Quran, that’s all, but still not understanding what they’re reciting, who want to keep the Moslems on the globe in the Dark Ages, isolated, scared, ignorant and spiteful of the rest of the world. I have met very few in Yemen who have anything good to say about this sad lot of people.

The exiting souk....

Another group of war planes just passed over my flat in Old Sana’a, it is almost midnight and kids are playing football on the street below my window. I can hear illegal fire crackers followed by screaming kids and there’s a row between two men regarding which one of them should reverse their car and let the other one pass in a narrow alley. I am sitting in my mafraj, reading Tahar Ben Jelloun, a French-Moroccan Muslim intellectual who wants to modernize Islam, referring to sura 13:11 in the Quran which states that Allah will not change the possibilities of humans, until they change themselves. I can hear Hussein shouting for a taxi and maybe I should go down to the souk al jambiyya, (the knife market) one of the 40 souks in the old city, and sit down at Abdullah’s store, the jambiyya maker and have a cup of tea and chat a bit about nothing really. Yeah, why not?

By the way, lately I have been thinking about my life, always breaking up, always travelling, good or bad? I just read this passage from a guy called Muhammed Asad, very much a traveller himslef, upon meeting a Beduin who said:

“If water stands motionless in pools, it becomes stale, muddy and foul, only when it moves and flows does it remain clear.”

by the way, have you seen my old blog at http://preparingforthenextexpedition.blogspot.com/

Working the belts.....

The opinions of the goodness of Ramadan is views of contradictions. Amongst the ex-pat (foreign Western workers) community in Sanaa, not a very big one, Ramadan is a time of complications when the country stands still and nothing happens. Even though it is officially said that people do work between 10-15, it is also said that nothing seems to happen. But, personally, I really look forward to the Ramadan, even though I am not a Muslim. It is no doubt a time of festivity and joy. But not all Muslims are happy regarding all the tough restrictions on normal life, which the rules of Ramadan sets.
“These people are savages!” whispered an Iraqi to me yesterday, when he like me, was fighting my way to reach the overwhelmingly packed cheese and lebne counter at the slightly upper-class Hodda Super Market yesterday an hour before iftar, the break of the fast, “These people are almost talibans in their religious strictness. I got smacked in the face this morning when I tried to smoke. I miss Iraq under Saddam Hussein so much. You could do anything under him as long as you didn´t interfere with his life. This country would need a strong man like Saddam Hussein! He would sort out these religious bastards.”

Sellling belts......

For you readers who might not know, Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, where you, if you are a good and devout Muslim, fast from the sunset to the sunrise. At that means strictly no smoking, no drinking of water or other liquids, no love making, no food and no kat chewing. It is a fast who is supposed to make the believer understand and appreciate the harshness of life. Like being a Bedouin in the desert. Which is the origin of the Arab itself. So, Ramadan applied on modern life, it has its consequences. For me personally, what I have seen so far ( I am not fasting, that would be very dangerous with my blood sugar….anyway, I am totally against the concept of fasting anyway, it just does damage to the body unnecessarily) it has meant that the Internet here is irregular and almost impossible to use, which makes me extremely upset and I see that as a sign of a shitty government. Sorry lost my temper there a bit……on top of that, the day has moved forward 6 hours, so late breakfast and late dinner, which suits me perfectly. However, the gym is closed until 20.00 hours, and that is complicating things a bit. And, of course, I don´t drink or eat in public. It all takes a bit more planning, that´s all. And then, just enjoy this great month of Ramadan! Yesterday, I just walked the jambiyya souk (knife market) just after midnight in pouring rain and it was one of the highlights of my visit! It was like walking through a pre-medieval setting, 1000 of years back in time, everyone was getting ready for the big influx of buyers and electricity went on and off, and I tell you one thing, if I would walk all of the 40 or so souks which makes up the Old Souk of Sanaa, through all the winding and narrow alleys, it would take me years. I stopped and talked to one of the best known jambiyya and belt sales people, Abdullah Karim, and I sat with him an hour, listening to his stories and differences in quality regarding knives and belts of Sanaa.

Souk without electricty.....medieval!

“I do 90% of my sales in a year during Ramadan” , he told me with gusto, “This is one the rich people come and buy, but really, this is when everyone buys belts and knives.”
He showed me the cheap belts and knives, and than he opened a hidden door behind himself, whilst chewing an enormous load of kat, where he had his exclusives, knives for thousands of dollars and belts made with gold thread of the highest quality.
“I travel to China, Russia and India every year, when there´s no work. Which is the case 6 months of the year, when we basically only chew kat and wait for the prosperous times like the Ramadan.”
Ramadan Karim!

More stories from this great month to come!

See the pilot from the upcoming Expedition!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GI-YeZP5E]