Restoring Kabul lost beauty

Posted On: Oct 29, 2006

In the 17th century, the poet Saib-e-Tabrizi wrote about the beauty of Kabul with words still recited in the Afghan capital today. My song exalts her dazzling tulips
And at the beauty of her trees I blush
How sparkling the water flows from Pul-i-Bastaan!
May Allah protect such beauty from the evil eye of man! Few poets write about the city’s dazzling tulips these days. Many of its “bricks more precious than the treasure of Shayagan” lie in piles of rubble.

The Kabul River is now a feeble and unpleasant stream, and most of the trees have been cut down for firewood.

‘Historic’

War, tyranny and Soviet-inspired urban planning have all left their mark on the Afghan capital. The worst period was during the 1990s when the historic heart of the city, which Saib-e-Tabrizi wrote his love song for, became a battleground for competing factions of Mujahideen. The mud-brick walls of mansions, courtyards and mosques were no match for the bombs. After five years of relative peace in the city, the crowds have returned to the bazaars of Old Kabul. The city is enjoying something of a revival and what cannot be bought in the packed street markets is being crafted in the noisy workshops. But the buildings have not recovered so easily. Those still standing are close to collapse. Many of the original streets are buried under metres of debris and rubbish. Two organisations are now helping restore Old Kabul.

The Aga Khan Development Network has rebuilt a residential quarter, while the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, headed by the Prince of Wales and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has started work in Murud Khane, the oldest area on the north bank of the river. It is now at risk from “very aggressive and unscrupulous property developers”, says author and former diplomat, Rory Stewart, who runs the foundation. The return of millions of refugees has pushed up property prices in the city, and dozens of large, square blocks, with blue or green mirrored windows, have been built with remarkable speed. Most are far from the centre, but that could change. “They want to put up shoddily-built, cheap, multi-storey buildings which don’t retain anything of what is so wonderful about Old Kabul,” Mr Stewart says. The foundation plans to restore a series of historically-important buildings to house, among other things, a school of Afghan arts. It also wants to build new homes using traditional skills and designs.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Islamic Republic of Afghanistan