WASHINGTON -- I was lovingly perusing my treasure of books the other day when I came across one I had totally forgotten that I possessed.
It is an old book, with a crackled cover, a broken spine and beautifully drafted pages. It was filed correctly between "Russia" and "Central Asia," which the book is about. Its title is (take a breath!) "Oriental and Western Siberia: A Narrative of Seven Years' Explorations and Adventures in Siberia, Mongolia, the Kirghis Steppes, Chinese Tartary, and Part of Central Asia."
Relax, for that is the longest phrase I shall ask you to absorb! As I rustled through this book, which covers much of the same area that I covered in a six-week trip in 1992, I was captivated by the author's descriptions and sketches of places we both had seen.
The author, Thomas Witlam Atkinson, one of those Brits who yearn for desolate places, had traveled to that no-man's land for Westerners with an introductory letter from no less a lodestar than Czar Alexander II. His trip took seven years; his book was published in 1858. The czar was happy to see him back!
Reading the book captured memories of those two bitterly cold months of 1992, just after the Soviet Union collapsed, when I took my "insane" trip up the very same mountains and rivers that Atkinson had challenged. And I could appreciate his joy --and fear -- when he wrote, as he approached "Ancient Mongolia":
"Perhaps before my visit these scenes were never looked upon by European eye, nor ever sketched by pencil. He who follows on my track will find that his rifle will be required for more purposes than obtaining a dinner. His courage and determination will be tested by men who seldom show fear, and are ever on the alert."
Just holding the crumbling book in my hands, it seemed that I could experience both trips. I was back in Bishkek and Bokhara and Baikal. I possessed the book; yet the book possessed me. It was quite a "trip."
As it happened, just at this time Herman Pirchner Jr., a good friend and the founder and president of the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), introduced me to an Internet resource that could not possibly be more different from my schmoozing with the 1858 book. At first, I quite disdained it. I'm an old-fashioned book person. What could anything on the Internet have to compare to Atkinson's book?
Pirchner's project is called the "World Almanac of Islamism." His point is that if you're a scholar, or a student or journalist, or just someone who wants to learn more about Islam -- the center of most problems and answers in the world today -- Pirchner and his colleagues have devised the best way in the world to get the information you need.
To my surprise, accessing the almanac was very simple -- and if it's simple for me ... well, you get the idea. Go to almanac.afpc.org, and you're on the first page of the almanac. From there, you can click on the world map to show changes as they are happening with Islam in every country. All are clearly color-coded.
The almanac covers 60 countries and nine transnational groups, all in as much detail or simplicity as you may wish. If you click on Russia, for instance, and then click on "Islamist Activity," you'll get a detailed discussion.
President Pirchner and his colleagues wisely did not name the writer of each country's discussion as part of the text. The writers are from all over the world, and it was they feared that a man or woman from one region might be unfairly critical of any one writer from their area. However, if you want to know the writers, you need only click for "contributors" and you will be provided the entire list.
President Pirchner says of the project: "Wherever substantial Islamist movements exist, there is friction with others. It may be Buddhists in Thailand, Baha'i in Iran, Christians in Nigeria, or minority Muslim sects in Pakistan. When any movement believes it has a monopoly on truth and virtue, peaceful co-existence is difficult. Until this is more fully understood, America's interaction with Islamist movements will be misguided.
"The Almanac was written as a reference work with the hope that a common body of knowledge of the worldwide scope of Islamism was the first step in developing a sustainable bipartisan policy toward Islamist-related problems -- problems that will likely confront us for generations to come."
The media are filled these days with discussions, often contentious ones, on the comparable value of the written word in book, newspaper or magazine form versus that same written word on the Internet. After my little drama here, I wonder why there should be any conflict. That 1858 book can tell me things that no site on the Web can -- but the Almanac of Islamism can help me with my work today in ways the old book never can.