Book Review: Ataturk by Patrick Kinross

Ataturk has been written by a British writer, Patrick Kinross, and is a voluminous tome detailing each and every aspect of life of the great Turkish Leader, Mustafa Kemal. 

Kinross has put much effort into researching details about the personal life and interactions with people of Kemal, which is evident from the numerous footnotes and references cited in the book. This makes for great reading, and since the time of Kemal was an important time, of great political and economic upheaval, therefore the footnotes are a real delight for the curious reader thirsty for history and politics. 

Kinross has kept his tone very professional, portraying Kemal as is, venturing deep into his praise as well as critique, and the book gives a broad view of how the modern day Turkey was conceived. 

As the cover details, the Turkey we know was the creation of one man, literally one man, since the last vestiges of Ottoman Empire were rampant with corruption and political ineptness of the royalty people knew as Caliph, and so was the case with all governmental offices and officers. 

Stepping into the WW1, the biggest event in that time, the majority of the Turkish nation didn’t even realize the horrific mental caliber of their leadership, and it was only through the efforts of a small cadre of Nationalists and Reformists (my own terms for the Young Turks ; who were a collection of highly educated youth with mostly foreign exposure, who realized that the Caliphate and Caliph were incapable of caring for the sprawling Empire, and therefore the internal upheavals began from late 19^th century. It was a continuum of these upheavals and political turmoil in which Kemal grew up and moulded by these events, started his personal struggle for the emancipation of the Turk Nation.

What the common people know now, what the layman Muslim knows is mostly that Kemal abolished most of the Islamic obligations and customs that we hold dear and without which Islam looks deformed. 

But what we don’t know, and can’t know unless we read a few history books, is that Kemal, his character and actions in later Turkey notwithstanding, did more for the Turkish Muslims than all the rest of the religious and moderate leadership and nation combined.

For the Ottoman Empire in WW1 was like a cow carcass (Turkey) with a flock of carrion (Europe, Balkan nations, Russia and Arabs) looking for the opportune moment to carve off their share from the sprawling sick man (Ottoman Empire). It was through single minded determination and obstinate forceful leadership and efforts of Kemal, complimented by the good-natured efforts of a handful of his best colleagues, that saved the Turkish Muslims from falling prey to the European nations and Russia. 

If not for Kemal, the situation would have been very pitiable for the Muslims in Turkey region and Balkans (still is, there).

I invite all my history interested fellows to read the history of the last years of the Ottoman Republic, for it is the precursor to understanding the current Muslim political situation in the ME as well as the Muslim religious leadership. I would go even so far as to say that not reading history independent of the routine curriculum in educational institutions is criminal, and history has not been nice to such people who forget their history. For our part, we don’t even know our history, so what talk of our future?

A Trip to Khewra Salt Mine

So this Sunday the management had planned a day trip to Khewra Salt Mine for their guests, namely us and the Egyptian Engineers (collectively referred to hereon after as “us”). Naturally we were excited as this was our first trip since coming to this scenic site of D.G. Khan Cement at Khairpur Village, Dist. Chakwal but popularly referred to as Kallar Kahar, (as those islooites who don’t really live in isl but on the border between Pindi and Isloo like to give their address as Islamabad).

So after breakfast we packed in the HI-Ace along with our lunch (no, it was not alive) and off we went to Kallar Kahar. From the plant site, there are two ways of going to Khewra Salt Mine. One goes through the local road passing through Katas, giving the view and opportunity of the famous Katas Raj Temples. But since it had rained two days ago and knowing only too well the condition of local roads, our guide (manager Mr Khalid) decided to take the high road through Motorway M2. For our Egyptian guests this was the first time they were touring the country in Pakistan so they were anyway excited on the M-2 when we passed through the beautiful curves (and fifty shades of rock) of the Salt Range. At Lilla Interchange we exited the M-2, and a short distance down a fork in the road came, we took the left one and went parallel to the M-2 back in the direction from whence we came. Our driver, apparently seeing the familiar bumpy road and remembering the good ol’ days when he was a public transport driver (kidding, I am KIDDING!), decided that any speed below 70 km/h was not worth his, and the Hi-Ace’s salt. So I had to sit straight in a military posture to properly absorb the shocks, bumps and dives (amplified as I was sitting in the back seat) which the van traced along the crests and troughs of the road.

The road looked like the road going to the house of Courage the cowardly Dog, passing through the middle of nowhere with empty barren land on both sides, interrupted now and again by a house here, a farmhouse there, a tire shop here, a mosque there. But the dwellings were few and far between, and with the Salt Range on our front and right, the road must have a real spooky effect at night. Although for a Sunday, the traffic was pretty decent with one or two tourists vans also seen by the scribe. In one of the farms, my colleague pointed out four ostriches, black and white, standing still. This was my first time seeing an ostrich (or shatarmurgh as it is called in Urdu) so I was pretty excited, which waned quickly as the van sped along.

Nearing our destination we began to see the off-shoots of the salt mine industry, with small setups of Plaster of Paris manufacturing, white lime etc. Far away to our right we could see the Dandot Cement Factory spreading dust 10 times its area into the atmosphere, reminding me to thank Allah that we were working at an award winning for cleanliness factory at D.G. Khan Cement Factory. A little further on from Dandot Cement were visible the chimneys of the ICI Soda Ash Plant.

As it turned out the road turned into a T- and we took the left towards ICI Factory, and ultimately Khewra Mine. This road was a well-developed two-way road complete with side yellow paint and reflectors. Upon reaching the mine we saw that there were pretty decent attendance as families and kids alike had come for a Sunday outing.

Having brought our train tickets and getting briefed by the guide on the history of Salt discovery in these hills (yeah horses came for battle and started licking the rocks back in Alexandar era 326 B.C. ) The train was a rickety open carriage sort and creaked and clanged (I was surprised it was even running) its way 2 kms inside the mine to the entrance lobby.

The inside of the mine had a gloomy look, as the authorities had apparently determined that light should be as dim as possible to allow for bad photos (photography haram bro :p). But we had other thoughts.

Snapping as much photos as we could, we followed the guide who started off by showing us the asthma treatment quarters, small chaar-dewari in which the patient is kept for a week or two and by breathing in the mineral rich air apparently gets cured. Important point to note, all mines maintain their temperature. This mine also kept at a cool 18 degrees Celsius, and the air was as good as mountain air to breathe in. Progressing further our guide showed us the color of the rock salts, by shining light on it, similarly there were pools of water glowing strangely by installed lights in the mined out sections. They mine 50% of the area and leave the rest for structural integrity (yeah dude, we are under a MOUNTAIN!!).

 

We moved on to see stalactites and stalgmites hanging from the wall, I don’t know what they were, never could differentiate one from the other) and moving further on we were greeted by a mosque built entirely out of salt rock. The salt rock here has three distinct colors, white red and pink (multiple shades of red of course but I let the guide speak). The mosque stones were lit by lights from inside and looked really beautiful.

Further inside the mine we came upon glorious white mounds formed by collecting stalactites. (Yeah I just googled. No, not gonna change the previous terms :p ). Some were even fenced around which people were taking photos. Moving on we came to a so called fawara chowk (“fountain roundabout” in English, though where’s the fun in that?) where a salt and Pakistani souvenir shop was created. People were thronging through the chowk in three different directions. One road led to a lower level where a mined out portion resembled a creepy lake (microscopic version of Voldi’s lake where he hid the horcrux), on the wall of which cracks had formed the word “Muhammad” in Urdu of course. Our nation’s obsession to finding religious inscriptions in nature does not seem to abate, EVER. Likewise the guide treated us to a discourse on this occurrence.

This lake culminated in the mine visit and we came back to the surface, breathing the polluted mountain air thanks to the three Punjab University buses and two buses from Quaid-e-Azam university. It was an amazing visit though if you are planning to bring your car and travel a couple of hours to here I’d highly recommend putting on the Katas Raj Temples and Kallar Kahar Lake also on your list so that the two-hour mine visit does not seem so boring.