The daily exercise of Miangul Abdul Wadud, the founder of the princely state of Swat, was to climb a thousand-foot peak in afternoon

 

The daily exercise of Miangul Abdul Wadud, the founder of the princely state of Swat (now part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), was to climb a thousand-foot peak in afternoon. 

Margaret Bourke-White who took this photo in December 1947, writes : "I was photographing this potentate one afternoon, in his air-conditioned palace, when the time came for his exercise. Since his daily stint is to climb a thousand foot-peak, I hoped to photograph him in the first few feet of the peak. To my dismay I found the lower part of the mountain in shadow ; the sun was swiftly sinking behind the jagged peaks. 

Far ahead of me the Wali leaped up the crags like a mountain goat, followed closely by his guards. "

 ("Halfway to freedom" by Margaret Bourke-White)