Afghanistan has two World Heritage Sites recognised for their Outstanding Universal Value to humankind, the Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam in Ghor province and the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) works alongside the Government and its partners to safeguard these sites, as well as others in Herat, Ghazni and Kabul.

Michael Alexander Barry is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Near Eastern Studies Department on the medieval and modern Islamic cultures of Iran, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan – where he has worked for more than four decades on work ranging from anthropological research to defence of human rights and coordination of humanitarian aid.

UNAMA spoke to Dr Barry about the importance of preserving Afghan’s cultural history, and what the next generation can learn from its Islamic roots.

UNAMA: How did you got interested in Afghanistan?

Michael Barry: Afghanistan is not only the centre of some of the world’s most terrible ideological battles for the last thirty years and a place of terrible strategic conflicts over the last two hundreds of years, it is also the foundation of some of the most glorious manifestations of Islamic civilization and indeed of all human civilization. It is a way of looking at the people of this country with the respect that everyone cannot understand. That not only do we, as foreigners, have something to bring to this country, but we, as foreigners, have something to learn. It comes from the fact that from this land of Afghanistan have come some of the most important manifestations of the entire human spirits. This brings dignity and self worth, and must be stressed.

UNAMA: What is the significance of Herat to Afghan culture?

Michael Barry: I have found in my various researches that it is impossible to write seriously about Islamic art, especially in terms of calligraphy and painting, without a deep study of the masters of Herat. It is as impossible to write about Islamic art without taking into account the school of Herat as it would be to write about the history of European art with out taking into account what was done in Florence. So Herat is the equivalent of Florence. It is a fountain. So all what I have written on various aspect of Islamic art, have ended up coming back to Herat.

This current trip was an invitation from the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies here to discuss with Afghan audiences through lectures, some of the wonderful things that I have been able to discover in depth regarding the extraordinarily important role that Herat for some one 150 years, and even Kabul for a generation, were able to produce that changed the course of Islamic civilization, all together from Turkey all the way to India.

One of the greatest challenges for cultural studies today is to show that there is no wall between the Buddhist world and the Mediterranean-centred Greek or Judeo Christian Islamic world. Buddhist culture has in fact it flourished so much on Afghan soil that it permeated the civilization of western Asia and the Mediterranean. This synthesis of many currents in a turn created what we call Islamic Civilization, which should never be seen as a distinct part of humanity but rather as combination of many human trends.

We have enough periods in which we have to take Afghanistan into account for reasons of war, strategy or political crisis. But there are other moments that we have to take into account what happens in certain Afghan cities in terms of its significance through humanity and culture. In the golden Herat of the 15th century just as in golden Ghazni in the 11th century we have a moment when the history of Afghanistan coincides with the history of humanity.

Even Herat I find it in the age of Sultan Hussein Reza Baiqara surrounded by poets and spiritual leaders of the rank of Jami, Amir Ali-Shir Nava'I. Theses people were at the fountainhead of a culture called Mughal civilization which drives from the civilization of Timurid.

In addition, around this time, Herat produces a school of paintings which we can now recognize as equal in symbolism, in spiritual depth and sophistication with the greatest philosophy and poetry within Herat. We can not look at that school of painting simply as pretty decoration it is something far deep.

One of the painters, [Kamāl ud-Dīn] Behzād who lived in this age acquired fame, respect, even veneration from Istanbul to Delhi. It was not just because he drew pretty pictures but because he was recognized as painter with as much spiritual depth as the people who were his patterns such as Jami and Nava'I. The the time is coming now to look at the art of Behzād with the same universal respect that we have for the work say for Rembrandt.
Behzād, Nava'i, Jami, Biruni are figures that must be emphasized both as the pride of Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s own culture, and for the fact that theses are people without whom the history of the world would be simply different. They are part of world culture, and this has to be brought forward.

UNAMA: During a lecture in Paris in early 2001 you were somewhat pessimistic about the future of Afghan art and handicraft. What are your feelings now?

Michael Barry: Actually I think we have grounds for hope. We have to take into account that the modern condition in Afghanistan, that is from 1978 to very recent times, has been the reason for destruction of some of the arts, and at the same time we have seen opportunities. Thanks to the modern methods of reproduction, it is possible to bring to the attention of Afghans and to the world the marvellous, just as the archaeologists are bringing out from under the ground, new things that in a sense are replacing what has been destroyed. Haddah has been destroyed, Bamyian has been destroyed, and yet Mess Aynak has been uncovered almost like compensation.

Right now I am involved in a recovering from libraries and museum and private collections all around the world the complete record of everything that was painted in beautiful calligraphy, particularly in the areas of Herat and Kabul, in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Through excellent reproduction it will be possible to restore these things in a way that only the original masters could see it. Nobody can ever hurt this art because all you are doing is trying to smash an image in a mirror.

UNAMA: You had mentioned rediscovering the colour blue while in Afghanistan.

Michael Barry: I once liked red but realized that it is the colour of blood. Unfortunately, in the Russian language the red is associated with beauty. When I discovered here the domes of Mazar-i-Sharif hanging like bubbles over the city and with all theses variations of blue I came to appreciate the colour blue.
The origin of so much of that shade of blue was a stone that was found in Badakhshan in a village called “Lajward”. Even in the ancient Egypt they have found this stone in tombs of ancient Pharaohs. That means that even in 1600 BC there was trade that brought this stone all the way to Egypt as the most precious thing to be offered to a Pharaoh.

The word blue - azure in French, azul in Spanish, azuro in Italian, came from the name of an Afghan village Lajward.

This happened because Arabs called the stone hajar lajward. This was translated in Spain into Spanish as “Lapis Lazuli”. It is an adaptation in Latin from the stone of Lajward and Lazuli in Spanish became the origin of Spanish – azul. So much of the world is actually using the name of an Afghan village to describe the most beautiful colour of blue. It is also the stone of Salomon.

UNAMA: Given your anthropological background, how do you see the situation in Afghanistan today?

Michael Barry: When we look at the current problems of Afghanistan we are first to look back to the last time that Afghanistan was truly prosperous and a site of the world’s importance. We first to go all the way back to the middle of the 16th century where we see Herat and Kabul as the centres of world trade. World trade flows from theses cities, as does learning, poetry, art, philosophy and science. After the middle of 16thcentury you see that the Afghan area is economically bankrupt. World trade has left the country, the region, since that time we see what can be describe as a culture of war and poverty with all its consequences.

The country’s isolation cannot even be broken when the Afghan kingdom is founded and for a while can enjoy the revenues of plunder in a disintegrating Indian World. In the 19th century this isolation is further increased under the presser of empires - the British and Russian. No one is thereby interested seriously anymore in going to Herat or Balkh or Kabul or Kandahar or Ghazni for the purposes of world wide commerce. It was not where you would go.
It seemed that the isolation would be broken in 1960’s with the building of modern roads, but immediately the war reinforced the isolation.

As long as you have hostile confrontations on all sides of Afghanistan, this country will remain in a suffocated state of siege in which the best you could hope for is to maintain the frame of civilization.

To read the entire interview, click here.

Michael Alexander Barry spoke to UNAMA at the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies (AIAS).

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the United Nations.