The Way of the Pathans

Product Description

Drawing on a decade of experience and scholarly research, James Spain has produced a work on the Pathans which is entertaining, readable and valuable for reference.The principal tribes and their characteristics,their austere and beautiful land,their turbulent history and daily lives are presented concisely and systematically; as are the fiery sweetness of Pathan poetry, the murky violence of tribal feuds over zar, zan,and zamin (gold,women,and land),and the perennial intrigue among tribes.The author follows the annual trek of the powendah nomads from the Afghan highlands to the Pakistani plains; crosses the Indus River on a raft of inflated skins with a Yusufzai khan; recounts the reminiscences of a Mohmand chieftain and an outlawed Afridi and other ancient friends and enemies of old India hands;and evokes images of many famous places on the North-West Frontier.James Spain writes of the century-long war between Briton and Pathan with admiration and sympathy for both sides,but with the detachment of a third party.