Labour of Love

Ahmad Shah Sultani is an unlikely patron of the arts. Uncertain of his exact age, although he believes he is in his fifties, he is still unable to read and write. But the former goldsmith’s apprentice has amassed a fortune that has allowed him to pursue his true vocation: finding and restoring to Afghanistan the treasures lost over decades of war and turmoil.

Sultani’s father died when he was an infant and his mother remarried. Rejected by her new family, he was shuffled from relative to relative until finally ending up apprenticed to a goldsmith at the age of seven.

Far from bitter about his difficult early life, he believes the accident of fate which got him into the gold trade gave him the eye for beauty that shaped his future path.

Sultani, who made his money as an antiques dealer, has assembled a collection of ancient Afghan artefacts which he is now displaying in Kabul’s National Gallery.

The collection, known as the Sultani Museum, is still being catalogued and includes approximately 3,000 items that he has rescued from as far away as France, England and Germany, as well as Iran, Pakistan, and Dubai.

Sultani rents the space by giving the gallery 10 per cent of the admission price he charges: 20 afghani, or 40 US cents, for Afghans, with public servants paying half and children a quarter that sum, while foreigners pay 200 afghani, about four dollars.

His museum attracts close to 40 visitors every day, and has been operating for about a year.

In addition to the pieces on display at the gallery, Sultani says he has also returned items that once belonged to the separate National Museum, which was extensively looted and damaged during the mujahedin wars and by the Taleban.

"Among all the antiques… there were just two Bactrian silver coins and one silver pot which belonged to the National Museum,” he said. “I delivered all three of them back there."

The bulk of Sultani’s collection is still in London, where he lived for many years, He continues to search the world for Afghan treasures, and wants to establish museums elsewhere in Afghanistan, particularly in his home province of Ghazni, where he lived until he was 17.

"I will 100 per cent open a museum in Ghazni. And if the government and the people will help me, I will be able to build, stock and open 20 museum all over the country," he said.

The antiques now in his museum in Kabul date from 100 to 8,000 years ago, he said, and include gold coins, ceramics, sculptures, carved wooden pillars, manuscripts, clay pots and books.

Sultani speaks with obvious pride about his collection and his achievements.

"Even if I am illiterate, I think I am the most expert in the world in knowing the difference between fake and genuine antiques. I don't need anyone's help in doing this," he said.

Raouf Zakir, deputy head of the archaeology department of the Ministry of Information and Culture, said that he had examined Sultani’s collection, and confirmed its authenticity.

“Sultani’s museum is a part of our national heritage,” he told IWPR. “There are pieces in this museum which belong to the pre-Islamic period as well as more recent items. Sultani has done a wonderful job, and now Afghans can get a sense of the culture of their forefathers.”

Sultani made his fortune in gold and antiques. After coming to Kabul from Ghazni, he set up an antique store in Kabul’s Chicken Street, expanding in time to other locations in the capital.

When the Soviets invaded in the Eighties, Sultani decided to get out. He moved to London, where he opened an antique shop. He has become a citizen of the United Kingdom but still has only a rudimentary knowledge of English.

For the past 18 years, he has been living in London, using the money he made selling antiques to buy up Afghan treasures.

“I would keep most of them and just sell a few – enough to make money to live on and to buy more antiques," he said.

Sultani, whose passport gives his age as 54, would not say how much he had spent on the antiques he had collected, just that they had cost "millions of dollars”.

He says it is not the possession of precious things that inspires him. Rather, he wants to return the antiques to his home country so that "Afghans will know the culture of their forefathers". Ultimately, he plans to donate his museum to the nation.

"I've loved antiques since I was a child and I was always hoping to be able to do something which all the people would like," Sultani told IWPR.

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.