Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics)

404 Pages·2010·1.49 MB·English

by  Thomas Barfield

Afghanistan
Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics
Dale F. Eickelman and Augustus Richard Norton, Editors
Diane Singerman, Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban
Quarters of Cairo
Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central
Bosnian Village
Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics
Bruce B. Lawrence, Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond Violence
Ziba Mir- Hosseini, Islam and Gender: Th e Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran
Robert W. Hefner, Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Th e ‘Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change
Michael G. Peletz, Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia
Oskar Verkaaik, Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan
Laetitia Bucaille, Growing Up Palestinian: Israeli Occupation and the Intifada Generation
Robert W. Hefner, ed., Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization
Lara Deeb, An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi‘i Lebanon
Roxanne L. Euben, Journeys to the Other Shore: Muslim and Western Travelers in Search
of Knowledge
Robert W. Hefner and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds., Schooling Islam: Th e Culture and
Politics of Modern Muslim Education
Loren D. Lybarger, Identity and Religion in Palestine: Th e Struggle between Islamism and
Secularism in the Occupied Territories
Bruce K. Rutherford, Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the
Arab World
Emile Nakhleh, A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the
Muslim World
Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds., Princeton Readings in Islamist
Th ought: Texts and Contexts from al- Banna to bin Laden
Irfan Ahmad, Islamism and Democracy in India: Th e Transformation of J amaat- e- Islami
Kristen Ghodsee, Muslim Lives in Eastern Europe: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Transfor-
mation of Islam in Postsocialist Bulgaria
John R. Bowen, Can Islam Be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a Secularist State
Th omas Barfi eld, Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History
Afghanistan
a cultural and political history
Th omas Barfi eld
princeton university press
princeton & oxford
Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton,
New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barfi eld, Th omas J. (Th omas Jeff erson), 1950–
Afghanistan : a cultural and political history / Th omas Barfi eld.
p. cm. — (Princeton studies in Muslim politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14568-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Afghanistan—Politics and government. 2. Afghanistan—History.
3. Afghanistan—Social conditions. 4. Islam and politics—Afghanistan—
History. I. Title.
DS357.5.B37 2010
958.1—dc22 2010002082
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Th is book has been composed in Adobe Garamond
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
Chapter One
People and Places 17
Chapter Two
Conquering and Ruling Premodern Afghanistan 66
Chapter Three
Anglo- Afghan Wars and State Building in Afghanistan 110
Chapter Four
Afghanistan in the Twentieth Century: State and Society
in Confl ict 164
Chapter Five
Afghanistan Enters the Twenty- fi rst Century 272
Chapter Six
Some Conclusions 337
Notes 351
References 359
Index 367
This page intentionally left blank
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1. A high- prestige qala 37
2. A farm village qala 38
Maps
1. Afghanistan xiv
2. Distribution of ethnic groups 19
3. Nomadic migration routes 39
4. Afghanistan’s regions 43
5. Land use in Afghanistan 71
6. Afghan state with modern boundary highlighting the
Durand line with Pakistan 156
7. Contemporary Afghanistan 271
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE
I fi rst entered Afghanistan traveling overland as a young student almost
forty years ago. Like many travelers, I was awed by the country’s scenery
and fascinated by its people. Unlike most others I returned to learn more.
Th at journey never ended but has often been detoured. It fi rst encom-
passed years of ethnographic fi eldwork among nomads in northern Af-
ghanistan in the mid-1970s. I had a unique opportunity to experience life
as it is actually lived in rural Afghanistan—something that seemed so easy
to come by then and is so diffi cult now. It was a time of peace and security,
when foreigners could travel the breadth of the country alone, armed only
with a bit of common sense to ensure their safety. Political changes in
Kabul rarely had any serious impact outside the capital. I was in Kabul the
day that Zahir Shah (r. 1933–73) was overthrown in 1973. Th e biggest
change was how quickly his pictures disappeared and how soon they were
replaced by those of his cousin Daud.
Th is calm was deceptive, however, because others seeking power in
Kabul, Communists and Islamists, sought to transform the country in
radically diff erent directions. Th e leftists had the fi rst go in 1978 and pro-
voked an insurgency, which the Soviet invasion in late 1979 was designed
to quell. During the t en-y ear Soviet occupation I observed the country
from the outside, informed by occasional trips to Pakistan to work with
Afghan refugees. Th e Russian withdrawal in 1989 proved to be a false
dawn of optimism. None of the great powers was willing to provide the
necessary political and economic investment to forge an agreement be-
tween the Pakistan- based mujahideen (holy warriors) parties in Peshawar
and the Soviet-b acked regime in Kabul. Th e Russians wanted nothing
more to do with the country, and the Americans lost all interest in it when
the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Th is opened a t en-y ear civil war in
which the Islamist leaders became dominate, and proved they could be
every bit as ruthless and power hungry as the Communists they replaced.
Th e nadir of this period produced the Taliban in the late 1990s.