To Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, Greetings from the grave. You can see mine, the greatest of downtown Kabul monuments, from your offices. You too, like all God’s creatures, will die one day. The question is not whether one goes to his grave, but how. I was the last Afghan leader to die both in power and in peace.

That was in the Christian calendar year 1901. Fourteen heads of state have subsequently tried to follow my example: maintain control until God’s mercy affords a peaceful demise. Note that none of us has ever abandoned hard-won power voluntarily. “God is most wise,” as we say, certainly wiser than humans. “Democratic” notions of fixed terms and term limits may appeal to your modern, Western backers, but we Afghans struggle and let God decide.

How have my various successors fared? Five, including my son and heir, were assassinated. Four were exiled. Two were executed. Two were shunted unwillingly aside. Your immediate predecessor, Mullah Omar, is still missing. All was the will of God, of course, before Whom human purpose is as dust in the wind. Even so, my memoirs recall a saying from Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him): “Place your confidence in God, but watch your camel.”

Here is why I, the last successful ruler of our country, write this letter to you, the 15th of my successors. You are Afghanistan’s best hope in a quarter century. I want you to succeed. Let me tell you what I learned of watching one’s camel.

My lessons were edited into memoir form by a scribe named Sultan Mohammed Khan. The two volume book is called “The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan.” You can find it on sale in what is left of Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel. Would-be readers outside Afghanistanshould chant this mystical formula: ISBN 0 19 577258 X.

Direct quotations from my memoirs are written here in italics. For instance, a description of our country when I assumed the throne in 1880: Not only were all the causes of the country’s ruin present in the highest possible degree, but all the sources of progress were at their lowest ebb; and not only at their lowest ebb, but there was no evidence that they existed.

Seem familiar, Hamid? My assessment then is true of your situation now: When a kingdom falls into such a state of ruin, and gets divided among small petty chiefs, it takes a long time to put into the shape of a strong consolidated kingdom. Your current warlords have more fire power than did my “small, petty chiefs,” but the basic problem is similar. Therefore: The first and most important advice that I can give to my successors and people to make Afghanistan into a great kingdom is to impress on their minds the value of unity; unity, and unity alone, can make it a great power.

At first my task, like yours, was extremely difficult. People may have thought that from the day I succeeded to the Kabul throne, the ear of my happiness and enjoyment began, but it was not so; on the contrary, from that very moment, the time of my liberty and freedom ceased, and times of difficulty, disappointments, anxieties, and grief increased. Even so, I placed my foot in the stirrup of progress and administration.

Placing one’s foot in such a stirrup requires certain qualities of character and temperament. Specific techniques can be learned from books – and mine has many to offer – but all the studies in the world will not make a ripe and clever statesman. Techniques, which we shall treat in future letters, cannot succeed without natural merit. And so today we deal with the personal characteristics of a ruler. What qualities does it take to rule Afghanistan? How should a man like yourself begin?

The first thing that he ought to do is to prove to the nation that he has a strong character, and is a self-reliant, hard-working, patriotic sovereign. … I do not mean that he must be so self-reliant as to never consult with any of his well-wishers, but I emphasize that no adviser or counselor must make him into a mere mouthpiece: he must listen to all but never follow any.

Now then, Hamid, your time may be more complicated than mine. The world has shrunk, and outside forces are even greater that when I described our country as a goat between two lions [the British and Russian empires], or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill. Even so, make your own decisions, and make sure your people know that you speak for yourself, for them, and for no one else. Despite your dependence on the Americans, reminiscent of mine on the British, you must not be their mouthpiece. I congratulate you on criticizing the bomb damage due to their faulty intelligence and on questioning the treatment of Afghans in Guantanamo Bay. I wish you had stood firmer against U.S. pressure during June’s Loya Jirga. Remember that America needs you as much, perhaps more, than you need it.

Afghans admire the pride that accompanies independence. Two incidents from my early years in Russian exile – analogous to your time in Pakistan and the West – illustrate this quality. The King of Bokhara, himself soon to become a Czarist puppet, required that I become one of his courtiers. I replied that I had never been a servant, and did not know how to behave as one, upon which the man assured that if I accepted the service I should be given an estate. I replied, “I pray for the King’s long life, and do not require money or estates. Neither is a camel’s load on my back, or am I on a camel’s back.” Later, at the Eid festival (celebrated again last week at the end of Ramadan 2002), the King “carried a jeweled dagger in his belt and was swaggering a good deal. All the people bowed almost to the ground at every third step, but I stood motionless.” Be motionless before tyrants, Hamid. Bow as little as possible.

You must be, as indeed you are, hard-working and not given to pleasure before duty. From my childhood up to the present day my life is quite a contrast to the habits of living indulged in by nearly all the other Asiatic monarchs and chiefs. I myself believe that there is no greater sin than allowing our minds and bodies to be…unoccupied in a useful way; it is being ungrateful for the gifts of Providence. My way of living and dressing has always been plain and simple and soldier-like. In the early days of my reign, I used to pay visits to my harem about twice a week, but as I grew more and more preoccupied with affairs of business and state, these visits were cut down to one or two a month…. The rest of the year I occupy the same rooms in which I work, both day and night. God has created me for His service, to care for the nation he has entrusted to my care, and not to spend my time in personal enjoyments and self-indulgence. In another words, Hamid, accept Saudi economic assistance while shunning their hypocritical decadence.

These are but a start to the list of qualities needed to rule our country. Still to come: bravery, patience, sophistication, balance (with respect to Islam), and firmness (toward friends and foes alike). Not for nothing am I still remembered as the Iron Amir. Stay tuned for derring-do, impulses checked, end-of-day readings, chastened mullahs, towers of skulls, and the eternal, bottom-line issue of reputation – all in the Bangor Daily News.

As for now, young man, remember to trust in God but watch your camel. The blessings of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate, be upon you, your efforts, and our country.

Dr. Whitney Azoy, a cultural anthropologist and former U.S. diplomat in Kabul, has worked for 30 years with Afghanistan and the Muslim world. He was last in Afghanistan in May on a U.S. government contract.