Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present

Description

Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia, and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern Afghanistan is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, but one divided by conflict, political instability, and by mass displacements of its people. In this magisterial illustrated history, Jonathan L. Lee tells the story of how a small tribal confederacy in a politically and culturally significant but volatile region became a modern nation state. Drawing on more than forty years of study, Lee places the current conflict in Afghanistan in its historical context and challenges many of the West’s preconceived ideas about the country. Focusing particularly on the powerful Durrani monarchy, which united the country in 1747 and ruled for nearly two and a half centuries, Lee chronicles the origins of the dynasty as clients of Safavid Persia and Mughal India: the reign of each ruler and their efforts to balance tribal, ethnic, regional, and religious factions; the struggle for social and constitutional reform; and the rise of Islamic and Communist factions. Along the way he offers new cultural and political insights from Persian histories, the memoirs of Afghan government officials, British government and India Office archives, and recently released CIA reports and Wikileaks documents. He also sheds new light on the country’s foreign relations, its internal power struggles, and the impact of foreign military interventions such as the “War on Terror. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Imprint Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 List of Charts......Page 8 List of Tables......Page 9 List of Maps......Page 10 Transliterations......Page 11 Introduction......Page 14 1: Afghan Sultanates, 1260–1732......Page 52 2: Nadir Shah and the Afghans, 1732–47......Page 89 3: Ahmad Shah and the Durrani Empire, 1747–72......Page 117 4: Fragmentation: Timur Shah and his Successors, 1772–1824......Page 144 5: Afghanistan and the Indus Frontier, 1824–39......Page 188 6: The Death of the ‘Great Experiment’, 1839–43......Page 245 7: The Pursuit of ‘Scientific Frontiers’, 1843–79......Page 308 8: ‘Reducing the Disorderly People’, 1879–1901......Page 365 9: Reform and Repression, 1901–19......Page 413 10: Dreams Melted into Air, 1919–29......Page 451 11: Backs to the Future, 1929–33......Page 503 12: A House Divided, 1933–73......Page 531 13: Republicanism, Revolution and Resistance, 1973–94......Page 582 14: ‘Between the Dragon and his Wrath’, 1994–2017......Page 630 Conclusion......Page 685 Genealogical Charts......Page 699 Glossary......Page 704 A Note on Sources......Page 713 References......Page 715 Select Bibliography......Page 747 Acknowledgements......Page 754 Photo Acknowledgements......Page 755 Index......Page 756