Kabul: a History 1773-1948
Title | Kabul: a History 1773-1948 PDF eBook |
Author | May Schinasi |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 256 |
Release | 2016-10-05 |
Genre | Architecture |
ISBN | 9004325328 |
Through years of neglect, deliberate modernization, and the effect of decades of war, Kabul’s architectural history has virtually disappeared. By meticulous use of all available records including written works, photographs, films, and oral reminiscences, Kabul: A History 1773-1948 provides a remarkably complete and unsurpassed account of the city’s history as seen through its built environment, from the pleasure gardens of the 16th and 17th century Mughals to the efforts of the Saduza’i and Muhammadza’i rulers of the 18th-20th centuries to turn this one-time resort town into a thriving capital city at the center of a country of enormous diversity. Thoroughly documented and well-illustrated, the book reveals the rich cultural legacy of a city of global importance.
Afghanistan
Title | Afghanistan PDF eBook |
Author | Jonathan L. Lee |
Publisher | Reaktion Books |
Pages | 797 |
Release | 2022-03-08 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1789140196 |
A colossal history of Afghanistan from its earliest organization into a coherent state up to its turbulent present. 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.”
An Afghan Prince in Victorian England
Title | An Afghan Prince in Victorian England PDF eBook |
Author | R.D. McChesney |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 441 |
Release | 2024-07-25 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0755645855 |
In 1894 Great Britain invited 'Abd al-Rahman Khan, the amir of Afghanistan, to England for a state visit. Then at the height of its imperial might, Britain sought to strengthen ties with the strategically important Afghanistan, which shared a long frontier, not yet a border, with British India. The amir's aim for the visit was to secure permission for an Afghan legation (embassy) in London while the British, unaware of this goal, hoped to overawe the amir with displays of military and industrial might as well as performances to show the strength and unity of British civil society. The amir, citing illness, ultimately declined the invitation but, in a calculated snub, sent his second son, Prince Nasr Allah Khan, in his place. This book narrates the events of the prince's mission in a number of revealing ways. Using both British and Afghan sources, including the journal of a senior member of the Afghan contingent, McChesney places the visit in its international and historical context and analyzes the internal dynamics of the prince's delegation, the seventy members of whom represented Afghanistan but included two Englishmen and two Englishwomen. A further twenty members, representing the Government of (British) India, were as multi-ethnic and multilingual as the members of the Afghan delegation. This bilateral and complex mission left India in April 1895 and remained together for the next six months. From the beginning it was riven by incidents of misogyny, racism, and class conflict that affected its ability to perform its diplomatic functions. The reader gains insights into the goals and tactics of two asymmetrical yet competing powers as well as a rare look at the human element in this cross-cultural diplomatic encounter.
Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium
Title | Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium PDF eBook |
Author | Tim Bonyhady |
Publisher | Text Publishing |
Pages | 345 |
Release | 2021-08-03 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 192245916X |
An exciting social history of Afghanistan told through art
Four Central Asian Shrines
Title | Four Central Asian Shrines PDF eBook |
Author | R.D. McChesney |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 474 |
Release | 2021-05-25 |
Genre | Architecture |
ISBN | 9004459596 |
Four Central Asian Shrines documents the social history of four long-standing Muslim shrines—at Samarqand, Balkh, Mazar-i Sharif, and Qandahar—and the evolution of their architecture as depicted in the written record and through a century and a quarter of photographs.
Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Afghan Genealogy and Memoir of the Revolution
Title | Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Afghan Genealogy and Memoir of the Revolution PDF eBook |
Author | Robert McChesney |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 587 |
Release | 2020-04-28 |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN | 9004392440 |
This book comprises English translations of Nizhādnāmah-i Afghān (Afghan Genealogy) and Taẕakkur al-Inqilāb (Memoir of the Revolution), the culminating works of Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s monumental history of Afghanistan, Sirāj al-tawārīkh (The History of Afghanistan).
Sufi Civilities
Title | Sufi Civilities PDF eBook |
Author | Annika Schmeding |
Publisher | Stanford University Press |
Pages | 255 |
Release | 2023-11-28 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1503637549 |
Despite its pervasive reputation as a place of religious extremes and war, Afghanistan has a complex and varied religious landscape where elements from a broad spectrum of religious belief vie for a place in society. It is also one of the birthplaces of a widely practiced variant of Islam: Sufism. Contemporary analysts suggest that Sufism is on the decline due to war and the ideological hardening that results from societies in conflict. However, in Sufi Civilities, Annika Schmeding argues that this is far from a truthful depiction. Members of Sufi communities have worked as resistance fighters, aid workers, business people, actors, professors, and daily workers in creative and ingenious ways to keep and renew their networks of community support. Based on long-term ethnographic field research among multiple Sufi communities in different urban areas of Afghanistan, the book examines navigational strategies employed by Sufi leaders over the past four decades to weather periods of instability and persecution, showing how they adapted to changing conditions in novel ways that crafted Sufism as a force in the civil sphere. This book offers a rare on-the-ground view into how Sufi leaders react to moments of transition within a highly insecure environment, and how humanity shines through the darkness during times of turmoil.