And You Thought Afghanistan Was Confusing...

Book Review, NationalJournal.com

In the fall of 2000, Israeli journalist Yo'av Karny published "Highlanders: A Journey To The Caucasus In Quest Of Memory" -- a rich and detailed account of his travels and research in the mountainous region that stands between southeastern Russia and the Middle East. And while the book's focus is much broader than Chechnya, that northern Caucasus republic's uprising against Russia made "Highlanders" an unexpectedly timely resource for those trying to understand that conflict and the confusing corner of the world in which it was taking place.

Then in the fall of 2001, a paperback edition was published, and once again the book was surprisingly timely. Although Karny mentions Afghanistan itself only in passing, "Highlanders" offers a wealth of relevant insights -- on religion, Russia's role in Asia, the tangled legacy of Western imperialism and the central importance that ethnic and tribal identities still hold.

If you are looking for a quick primer, however, keep searching. "Highlanders" is a mix of memoir, history book, travelogue and cultural anthropology -- but hardly a facts-on-file resource. Karny creates a complex tapestry full of insights and thought-provoking anecdotes, but only to those who are willing to commit themselves to his meandering tale. Fortunately, the book is as compelling as it is useful; "Highlanders" reads like a novel and not a study in ethnography.

Karny, for example, introduces his readers to Khynalug, a tiny "nation-village" in northern Azerbaijan that consists of perhaps 2,000 people, yet has "a distinct language so elaborate that it requires fifty-nine consonants and eighteen vowels to be written properly." He explains how Chechens, "ejected from their land by Russia in the late nineteenth century," settled in the Golan Heights -- and notes that the mountains so contested by Israel and Syria might have well have belonged to neither if these Caucasian refugees had not been "ejected again." And he quotes (and disputes) a Russian security official as saying in 1998 that "the greatest threat comes from Islamic fundamentalism... a special form of political extremism similar to terrorism."

So does "Highlanders" shed light on the war against terrorism? Not directly, although this week's announcement that U.S. troops are now in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to help counter "Islamic extremists" from Chechnya could change that. And Karny's exploration of the peoples of the Caucasuses -- their histories, current plights and longstanding grievances -- offers cultural context that is now more valuable than ever.

Highlanders
By Yo'av Karny
ISBN 0-374-22602-4
Farrar Straus & Giroux
448 pp.