A Carpet Ride to Khiva,By Christopher Aslan Alexander, Icon Books, £14.99
One of the main things you should be aware of before going to Khiva is what you could end up doing. This is one of the good-natured warnings Christopher Aslan Alexander receives before he sets off for the Uzbek town, with the job of writing an English guidebook for the area. He quickly becomes enmeshed in the culture and community of this ancient trading town, and despite having no experience he quickly ends up establishing a carpet workshop, using natural dyes, all-but-forgotten 15th-century designs, and manufacturing methods as old as the town’s ancient fortified walls.
Alexander’s account weaves between the daily rigmarole of founding the workshop, bureaucratic struggles, dramatic trips across the border to Afghanistan to track down raw materials, and forays into the history of the country, the town and the methods used to create shimmering carpets.
This portrait is far from what one might expect: the remnants of Soviet Marxism still struggle with Muhammad for the nation’s affections, and veils are common, but so are pork and vodka, and donkeys are more useful than you might imagine.
The stifling of everyday freedoms stalks the pages, as do the numerous human-rights abuses by the dictatorial regime of Islam Karimov, and Alexander doesn’t shy away from these darker parts of Uzbek life, such as the massacre of civilians in Andijan in May 2005. Indeed, Alexander falls foul of the regime, and he is thrown out of the country he has worked so hard to find his place in.
This account is succinct and heartfelt. At times there is some repetition, but this is an honest guide to one of the more mysterious pockets of Asia, with plenty of the spice and flavour that make a trip along the ancient Silk Road so enticing.