Links & Further Reading
Where did the idea for the novella The Afghan Coat come from?
Mostly from British author Charles Allen mentioning the Silk Letter Conspiracy:
In chapter 11 titled The Coming Together of his book God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad, Charles Allen describes the connections between India's influential Muslim organisations and religious schools with Afghanistan in the second decade of the 20th century, explicitly describing the Silk Letter Conspiracy on pages 266 to 268 (in the 2007 Abacus paperback edition).
According to the website of the Little Brown, UK, "Charles Allen is the author of a number of bestselling books about Indian and the colonial experience elsewhere. A traveller, historian and master storyteller he is one of the great chroniclers of India."
http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/Authors/A/13/Titles
The Epilogue set in 1970s London was inspired by stories and pictures of many beat and rock musicians, also hippie people wearing Afghan Coats, many of them travelling east for finding inspiration. The illustration below I found on a very entertaining blog about vintage fashion, the TinTrunk.
The Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society (direct link to the Society's website, or on wikipedia), Volume XXVI, Issue II from April 1940 mentions the incitents in Afghanistan and India connected to the Silk Letter Conspiracy in detail on pages 147 et seq. in a strategic outlook called Afghanistan: The Present Position, written by well-travelled Brigadier-General Sir Percy Sykes K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G. (link to wikipedia).
The Journal is accesible through informa, an online provider for scientific publications (direct link to the Journal, or try http://www.informaworld.com) and specialised libraries, like the library ot the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science of the Free University of Berlin (FU).
The grey lady who appears in a dream of Abdul Haq when he is on Malta was mentioned on page 74 in a very informative book about The Three Cities, Vittoriosa, Sengela and Cospicua, written by highly acclaimed Maltese writer, journalist and diplomat John Manduca and published 2005 in a series called 'Welcome Travel Guide'.
The book can be ordered through the Publishers Enterprise Group from Malta (direct link to the book, or try http://peg.hanut.com)
The Silk Letter Conspiracy on Wikipedia:
The Silk Letter Conspiracy (Tehrek-e-Reshmi Rumal) refers to a conspiracy by Deobandi leaders to attempt to begin a Pan-Islamic insurrection in British India during World War I by seeking support from Ottoman Turkey, Imperial Germany, Afghanistan. The plot was uncovered by Punjab CID with the capture of letters from Ubaid'Allah Sindhi, one of the Deobandi leaders then in Afghanistan, to Mahmud al Hasan another leaders then in Persia. The letters were written in Silk cloth, hence the name.
With the onset of the World War I, Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi and Mahmud al Hasan (principal of the Darul Uloom Deoband) had proceeded to Kabul in October 1915 with plans to initiate a Muslim insurrection in the tribal belt of India. For this purpose, ...read on here at wikipedia. (you might find some slight varitions of dates which prevail troughout the literature about the events).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Letter_Conspiracy
Books & texts from India and Pakistan:
The Prisoners Of Malta - The Heart Rending Tale of Muslim Freedom Fighters in British Period by Maulana Syed Mohammad Mian does give many details of the thinking of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Muslim Freedom Movement who were incarcerated on Malta after the failure of the Silk Letter Conspiracy, but does not give many details of the events in India before World War II.
It can be optained through Kitaabun Book Services Leicester UK (direct link to the book).The experts there also recommended Shaikh-Ul-Hind Maulana Mahmud Hasan and The Indian Freedom Movement, which gives information about the planned conspiracy an several pages (100 et seq., 121) quoting the report by the Rowlatt Commitee (link to the article on wikipedia) which concluded the British investigation of the Silk Letter Conspiracy on 150 pages. This book mentions the alleged 'treason' of the Emir of Afghanistan as a reason for his assasination in 1919.
Both books where published in India in the last years by the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind (direct link to the organisation's website, on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamiat_Ulema-e-Hind), which is one of the leading Islamic organizations in India that opposed the creation of Pakistan and has roots in the Indian fight against colonial rule on the side of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.
A good text titled Indian Fredom Fighters In Central Asia (1914-1939) published 2008 in the Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan is online at the website of the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. Its author Zahid Anwar claims on page 151 to have seen the letters: "They are neatly and clearly written on yellow silk." Please us the search engine on the site to look for the text (it is not possible to set up a stable link to the site) or write to me, I have it and can forward it.
