World's Largest Collection of Recent Afghan History

Nov. 16, 2006 — -- When American Nancy Hatch Dupree found out she had been dubbed "Afghanistan's grandmother," she "went into orbit," she said.

The Afghans she worked with didn't understand her fury. She remembers one who said, "We all know we can come to you for advice."

"That's when the penny dropped," she said. "You don't advertise somebody's age in my culture, but for an Afghan, this was a great honor."

After 60 years in Afghanistan, Dupree, now 78, knows a thing or two about Afghan culture.

Half a century ago, she wrote five guidebooks on the country's rich antiquities, traveling to study ancient relics like the Buddhas of Bamyian -- which he Taliban later destroyed -- and the towering Minaret of Jam. Her guides are still widely used today.

Dupree came to Kabul as the young wife of an American diplomat. But when that marriage quickly fell apart, she fell in love with Louis Dupree, then the world's pre-eminent Afghan scholar.

"It was a grand scandal," she said with a shrug, adding, "I was a young chicken then."

To clear her head, she'd ride her stallion across empty rolling plains -- now teeming Kabul neighborhoods -- to visit a crumbling palace she was helping to restore.

She and Louis later married at the palace grounds. "There was deep, deep snow, which was considered good luck," she said. "And it was because we had a very good marriage."

Her husband traveled around the country researching Afghan history, she said, "and I tagged along with my notebook."

When civil war erupted, the couple fled to the Pakistani frontier town of Peshawar, along with millions of Afghan refugees. They launched education programs for refugee children and held court with the various mujahedeen factions fighting the Soviet-backed regime.

Over time, Dupree met just about everybody who came through the Afghan theater. Diplomats, jihadist leaders, journalists, researchers: Everyone came to seek her advice. Even a young Osama bin Laden once turned up at her door.