St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies 39 Panel One. Historiography and Sources on Afghanistan... Уезжая, афганцы отпускали верблюдов на волю. Прижившись в централь- ной Австралии, и, не имея естественных врагов, они сильно размножились. Сейчас численность одичавших австралийских верблюдов оценивается в 135–750 тысяч голов. Власти и овцеводы, считая, что верблюды, уничто- жая пастбища, опустошая водопои, ломая изгороди и артезианские колодцы, наносят ущерб окружающей среде и хозяйству, ведут их организованный отстрел. Верблюжье мясо и скаковых верблюдов вывозят в арабские страны Персидского залива — ОАЭ, Кувейт, Саудовскую Аравию. В известных нам афганских источниках (« Сирадж ат–Таварих », « Кул- лият-и Рийази » и других) сведений об этой странице жизни афганцев нет. Shah Mahmoud Hanifi (James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA) Wood and Water as Environmental Pathways for Globalizing and Re-Localizing Afghanistan Studies Environmental history represents a conspicuous historiographical gap inAfghanistan Studies and an opportune bridge to connect themodern geographic space ofAfghanistan to wider regional and global histories. This paper examines wood and water to illuminate Afghanistan’s regional and global connections. It will also examine those two fundamental environmental considerations in the context of domestic spaces, urban morphology, and in the national political economy, thus critically re-localizing Afghanistan Studies around natural resource-based problems of global scope. Focusing on the post-1880 period, the largest conceptual relationships explored in this paper are the local environmental impacts of capitalism and industrial warfare that are inextricably linked globally and in Afghanistan. The primary materials consulted will be Faiz Muhammad Katib Hazara’s Seraj al-Tawarikh , the Kabul Magazine Annual Sal Nama series, oral histories of Kabul and the Afghan state bureaucracy in the first half of the twentieth century, and British andAmerican published and archival textual and visual sources (photographs and maps). Wood is examined first as fuel for the mashin khana or state industrial workshops in Kabul. The rapid development of the mashin khana resulted from British colonial subsidization of the Afghan state accompanied by substantial technocratic support and facilitation that brought dozens European (mainly British, German and French), Middle Eastern (Persian/Iranian and Ottoman/Turkish, primarily) and SouthAsian (Hindus and Muslims, primarily) to Kabul.Wood as fuel for the mashin khana formed a key element in a larger series of commoditymonopolies resulting in theAfghan state heavily investing and being deeply penetrated by sciences such as forestry and new technologies related to woodworking such as lathes. The pattern of commodity science dependency was replicated across the historically expanding range of theAfghan statemonopoly portfolio.