Brief History of Afghanistan

321 Pages·2007·6.13 MB·English

A B H
RIEF ISTORY
A
OF FGHANISTAN

A B H
RIEF ISTORY
A
OF FGHANISTAN
S W
HAISTA AHAB
University of Nebraska at Omaha,
Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection
B Y
AND ARRY OUNGERMAN
A Brief History of Afghanistan
Copyright © 2007 by Infobase Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the pub-
lisher. For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
ISBN-10: 0-8160-5761-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-5761-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wahab, Shaista.
A brief history of Afghanistan / Shaista Wahab and Barry Youngerman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-8160-5761-3 (alk. paper)
1. Afghanistan—History. I. Youngerman, Barry. II. Title.
DS356.W34 2006
958.1—dc22 2006043979
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quanti-
ties for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our
Special Sales Department in New York at [phone] or [phone].
You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com
Text design by Joan M. McEvoy
Cover design by Semadar Megged/Anastasia Plé
Illustrations by Sholto Ainslie
Printed in the United States of America
MP Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
List of Maps vii
List of Charts vii
Introduction: The Challenge of Afghanistan viii
1 Land and People 1
2 Early History (Prehistory–651) 31
3 From the Rise of Islam to the Afghan State (651–1747) 51
4 The Birth of Modern Afghanistan (1747–1901) 71
5 Twentieth-Century Monarchy (1901–1973) 98
6 A Coup and a Revolution (1973–1978) 129
7 Soviet Afghanistan (1979–1989) 149
8 Afghanistan in Rebellion (1978–1992) 171
9 Mujahideen Rule (1992–1996) 195
10 The Taliban Era (1996–2001) 212
11 The Legacy of the Civil War 227
12 Overcoming the Legacy 238
Appendixes
1 Basic Facts 257
2 Chronology 262
3 Bibliography 268
4 Suggested Reading 272
Index 291
List of Illustrations
Hindu Kush mountains, Khyber Pass 4
Shibar Pass 6
Farmland in Bamiyan Province 7
Donkey used for transportation 10
Bactrian wapiti deer 11
Afghan hound (tazi) 12
Pashtun man, with traditional turban 14
Tajik boy 15
Hazara boy 16
Buzkashi, or “goat grabbing” 21
Tukhum jangi, or “egg fighting” 23
Nawruz celebration, holy shrine of Sakhi in Kabul 24
Hazara family 25
Downtown Kabul 27
Kabul Museum 28
“Vase of Pharos,” first century C.E. 42
Bamiyan Buddha 47
Kabul Bala Hissar 49
Friday Mosque (Masjid Jami), Herat 60
Timurid 15th-century minarets, Herat 64
The Musallah, Herat 65
Bagh-e Babur, Kabul 66
Muhammad Akbar, son of Dost Muhammad 85
Abdur Rahman’s mausoleum in Zarnegar Park, Kabul 97
Habibullah Khan 99
Amanullah Khan and his cabinet 104
Muhammad Zahir 113
Muhammad Daoud and King Muhammad Zahir 131
Nur Muhammad Taraki 137
Sign posted by the Taliban, Pul-e Charkhi Polygon 144
Darul Aman palace 151
Mujahideen, with Soviet machine guns 159
Sophisticated weaponry of the mujahideen 167
Sayyid Ahmad Gailani 176
vi
Destroyed Russian T-54 tank 181
Land mines 185
Soviet aircraft destroyed 186
Muhammad Najibullah 192
Tajbeg Palace, 1997 196
Chilsitoon Palace, 1997 203
Refugee family returns to Bamiyan 219
Refugees in tents 229
Women wearing the chadri 235
Hamid Karzai 240
International Security Assistance Force in Kabul 243
Farmer plowing his land 248
Women delegates to the constitutional loya jirga 253
City of Kabul today 255
List of Maps
Modern Afghanistan x
Topographical Map of Afghanistan 3
Economic Activity and Land Use 8
Ethnolinguistic Groups Locations 19
Archaeological Sites in Afghanistan 32
List of charts
Genealogy of the Sadozai Family 75
Genealogy of the Barakzai Family 77
Genealogy of the Musahiban Family 111
vii
Introduction: The
Challenge of
Afghanistan
B
y the late 20th century, the world agreed on a simple standard to
judge whether a territorial unit was a country: full membership in
the United Nations. Afghanistan easily passes that bar; it is almost a
charter member, having joined in 1946, a scant year after the world
body was formed. By that standard, it has remained independent ever
since, despite periods of foreign control.
A more difficult question is whether the lands enclosed by
Afghanistan’s borders now constitute, or can soon develop into, a
viable, unified state. In some ways, the country just does not make
sense.
Afghanistan is not unified in any ethnic or linguistic sense, like Italy
or Japan is. Many of its dozens of ethnic groups have long histories of
conflict and enmity with one another. Many, in fact, had more in com-
mon up to the recent past with their fellow ethnics across international
borders than with their fellow Afghans across the country—or across
the street in the major cities.
Nor does Afghanistan have natural geographical borders, like
Australia or Greece does, nor any obvious unifying feature like Egypt’s
Nile. Relatively brief stretches of border are defined by rivers—the Amu
Darya (Oxus) in the north, the Hari Rud in the northwest, and the
highly variable Helmand in the southwest—but no seas or mountain
ranges create natural frontiers. In fact, the towering Hindu Kush moun-
tains, an extension of the Himalayas, which provide natural northern
borders for Pakistan and India, split Afghanistan in two; the lowlands
on either side are contiguous to similar topographic zones across the
northern, western, and southern borders and have from time immemo-
rial welcomed invasion and migration in either direction.
Perhaps what most unites the Afghans are the things they are not.
Although most of the people speak languages that are related to
Farsi, the official language of their western neighbor Iran, they differ
viii
INTRODUCTION: THE CHALLENGE OF AFGHANISTAN
from most Iranians in their continued adherence (apart from the Hazara
minority) to the Sunni stream of Islam, which Iran abandoned in the
16th century in favor of the Shia sect or tendency.
While northern Afghanistan shows linguistic, cultural, and geo-
graphic continuity with the Central Asian republics across the Amu
Darya, its people were spared the destructive if transformative experi-
ence of two generations of czarist Christian suzerainty followed by 75
years of Soviet communism. In fact, many Uzbeks and Turkmen first
arrived in Afghanistan as refugees from the Russian or Soviet empires.
Once in the country, they have shared the Afghan experience of a more
organic, gradual transition from premodern ways, where traditions and
institutions may evolve but without the shock or humiliation of hea-
then rule.
The eastern border with Pakistan may be the least natural in that it
bisects the huge Pashtun ethnic group, which maintains the same way of
life on either side to the present day. The line simply reflects the limits of
British imperial power in the 19th century. But just beyond the Pashtun
zone lies the Indus Valley, whose ancient cultural, economic, and lin-
guistic heritage never spread very far or deeply into the Afghan world;
besides, Pakistan underwent its own transformation as part of the British
Empire, which the fierce Afghans kept at bay for more than a century.
Until 1747, when Ahmad Shah founded the Durrani Empire,
Afghanistan had never been ruled as one country, except as part of
larger foreign empires. In fact, it had been exposed to thousands of
years of invasion and migration from every direction. But ever since
that historic date, the peoples of present-day Afghanistan have lived
under unified native rule, albeit with a large degree of local autonomy.
For more than 250 years, their rulers managed to stave off Persian,
Russian, and British control, often at great cost. This defiant isolation
may itself have provided the foundation for a distinct Afghan national
identity that could transcend ethnic or tribal loyalty.
If Afghanistan were located in a peaceful region, surrounded by sta-
ble countries, the question of national unity and identity might not
loom so large. But three decades of war, revolution, terrorism, and for-
eign intervention by Russia, Pakistan, the Arab world, and the United
States have made that question vitally important, both within and out-
side the country’s borders. History can help elucidate the problem; it
can also contribute to a positive answer, by reinforcing a sense of the
antiquity and special nature of Afghanistan.
***
ix