Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908–42) was a writer, journalist, and photographer who worked periodically as an archaeologist. She is the author of the poem Aus Tétouan, Der Krater der Tiere, Das Wunder des Baumes. Isabel Fargo Cole is a US-born, Berlin-based writer and translator.

“Above all, [Schwarzenbach’s] discovery of the Orient was a personal one. But the author never loses sight of the historical and social context. . . . She shows no trace of colonialist arrogance. In fact, the pieces also reflect the experience of crisis, the loss of confidence which, in that decade, seized the long-arrogant culture of the West.”

• Introduction A Note on the Text and Translation Part One: Mount AraratBalkan Borders Therapia Trebizond: Farewell to the Sea Mount Ararat Part Two: The SteppeThe Steppe The Prisoners No Man's Land: Between Persia and Afghanistan Part Three: The Women of KabulHerat, 1 August 1939... The Hind Kush Three Times In the Garden of the Beautiful Girls of Qaisar The Women of Kabul Part Four: The Bank of the OxusThe Neighbouring Village The Bank of the Oxus The Potters of Istalif The Grip to Ghazni Part Five: Two Women Alone in AfghanistanTwo Women Alone in Afghanistan Chehel Sotun Part Six: Onward to Peshawar...Onward to Peshawar... Aden, a Morning Vision The Trip Down the Suez Canal Text Sources Afterword: 'My existence in the exile of distant adventure' Roger Perret

Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908–42) was a writer, journalist, and photographer who worked periodically as an archaeologist. She is the author of the poem Aus Tétouan, Der Krater der Tiere, Das Wunder des Baumes. Isabel Fargo Cole is a US-born, Berlin-based writer and translator.

“Above all, [Schwarzenbach’s] discovery of the Orient was a personal one. But the author never loses sight of the historical and social context. . . . She shows no trace of colonialist arrogance. In fact, the pieces also reflect the experience of crisis, the loss of confidence which, in that decade, seized the long-arrogant culture of the West.”

• Introduction A Note on the Text and Translation Part One: Mount AraratBalkan Borders Therapia Trebizond: Farewell to the Sea Mount Ararat Part Two: The SteppeThe Steppe The Prisoners No Man's Land: Between Persia and Afghanistan Part Three: The Women of KabulHerat, 1 August 1939... The Hind Kush Three Times In the Garden of the Beautiful Girls of Qaisar The Women of Kabul Part Four: The Bank of the OxusThe Neighbouring Village The Bank of the Oxus The Potters of Istalif The Grip to Ghazni Part Five: Two Women Alone in AfghanistanTwo Women Alone in Afghanistan Chehel Sotun Part Six: Onward to Peshawar...Onward to Peshawar... Aden, a Morning Vision The Trip Down the Suez Canal Text Sources Afterword: 'My existence in the exile of distant adventure' Roger Perret