Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi

Alhaj Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi son of Dur Mohammad Khan Baloch (direct descendant of Khan-e-Kalat Mir Nasir Khan Baloch) was born on 28th February 1920 in Malajat district of Kandahar province Afghanistan.

Education:
Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi started his primary schooling at age 6 and after his baccalaureate in 1936 he attended Teachers Training Collage finishing it successfully in 1938.
In 1942 he managed to get a diploma in Education and Literature followed by a degree in Journalism in 1962.
After graduation he started his teaching career as principle of Ahmad Shah Baba High School in Kandahar and later on as the teacher of literature at Habibya High School Kabul.
His first poem was published in 1934 (at the age of 14) in Tolo-e-Afghan newspaper.

Political:
Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi started his political career with the establishment of Weesh Zalmyan (Awakened Youth) movement in 1947 where he was amongst the founding members of the movement from Kandahar province.
Mr. Zarmalwal mentions him in one of his articles which states;
“The following people were amongst the founding members of the movement:
From Kandahar and Farah: – Pohand Abdul Hai Habibi, Ustad Abdul Rauf Benawa, Late. Faiz Mohammad Angar, Late. Mohammad Rasul Khan Pashtoon, Pohand Abdul Shakoor Reshad, Ustad Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi and Late. Abdul Razaq Farahi.
From Nangarhar: – Ustad Gul Pacha Ulfat, Ustad Qyam-ud-Dean Khadim, Pohand Siddique ullah Reshtein and Late. Ghulam Hassan Khan Safi.
From Ghazni: – Late. Noor Mahammad Taraki.
From Pakiya: – Neek Mohammad Pakityanai and Ghulam Mai-ud-Dean Zarmalwal who was known as Ghulam Mai-ud-Dean Roshan.”

In 1950 Weesh Zalmyan movement came under a crackdown of the government for its liberal and modernized demands and Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi who was then director of Education in Kandahar Province, become the first member of the movement to be arrested.
Ghulam Gelani Khan writes about this in a topic in Mohammad Alam Buserkai’s book called “Weesh Zalmyan” where he states;
“In 1950 the Afghanistan’s Weesh Zalmyan Movement was at its best in the Kandahar Province and was progressing well.
As one of our active member late. Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi the director of Education in Kandahar Province was arrested by the Kandahar’s governor Mohammad Younus Khan; he was the first member of our Movement to be arrested by the Government.”

Later in mid 60s he joined the Progressive Democratic Party of Afghanistan under the leadership of Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal.

Service:
After Khwakhuzhi was released he was forced to leave Kandahar province therefore, he settled in Kabul and started his public service career.
In 1956 he was assigned as a skilled member of Pashtu Academy
In 1957 as the Head of Broadcast Monitoring of Radio Afghanistan
In 1959 as the deputy director of Radio Afghanistan
In 1960 as the deputy director of Afghan Theater (Pohane Nandare) as well as teach of History in Naderya High School
In 1961 he was selected as a member of Afghan-China Friendship Association
In 1963 he was assigned as the Director General of Literature at the Ministry Publications
In 1966 as the Director General of the Book Publication in the Ministry of Culture
In 1967 as the President of Public Libraries of Afghanistan
In 1969 he was selected as a member of the Afghan National Committee of UNESCO
In 1971 as the Director General of Virtue of Pashtu Language at the Academy of Sciences
In 1973 he was invited by His Excellency King Shah Faisal to visit Saudi Arabia and during his visit he also did pilgrimage to Mecca aka Hajj.
In the same year after the regime change and Daud Khan’s coming to power, Khwakhuzhi was forcefully retired from public service.

Later life and Death:
After his retirement, Khwakhuzhi was involved in his personal literary works where he managed to write 9 books consisting of Poems, Stories and Ideas.
On 24th October 1992 due to the illnesses (High Cholesterol, Diabetes, Cardiovascular) he was long fighting against, he passed away in Kabul and is buried in Shuhada-e-Saliheen.
Overall Mohammad Ibraheem Khwakhuzhi was not only a sensitive poet, good writer and a journalist but also had an active role in training and enlightening the youth and the generations that followed.

Accolade:
First position award in Pashtu Literation (1946)
Second grade medal of Da Meenapal Nishan from His Excellency King Zahir Shah (1965)
First grade medal of Da Meenapal Nishan from His Excellency King Zahir Shah (1969)
Best Cultural Activist Award (Pohanpal) (1972)

Literary Work:
He left behind nine books consisting of poems, stories and philosophy.
1. Da Meenae Wazhma (Collection of poems)
2. Aikayat Na Dai Aqiqat Dai (It is not a story but the Truth)
3. Yawa Zharawonki Manzara (A tearful scene)
4. Marghalara Aow Noor Khan (The story of Marghalara & Noor Khan)
5. Sheen Khali Aow Ghulalai (The story of Sheen Khali & Ghulalai)
6. Dwa Zwane Marg Mayenan (Two young lovers)
7. Da Gustave Le Bon Landi Khabari (Sayings of Gustave Le Bon)
8. Da Meenae Wazhma 2 (Collection of poems Part 2)
9. Da Meenae Wazhma 3 (Collection of poems Part 3)

 

Abdul Ahad Momand

First and only Afghan in Space

Abdul Ahad Momand was born on January 1, 1959 in Sardah, Afghanistan. He graduated from the Polytechnic High School in Kabul and then the Air Force Academy. He served in the Afghan Air Force and later trained in the USSR as a Cosmonaut.
Momand was an exceptional pilot and was chosen amongst many to be trained for a flight to space station Mir. Trained as a professional Cosmonaut, Momand joined the International Group 6 in 1988 and was selected as part of a group to visit the space station Mir with Commander Lyakhov and Dr. Valery Polyakov.

Abdul Ahad Momand, Vladimir Lyakhov and Doctor Valery Polyakov

TM-6 Soyuz Campaign in USSR and Afghanistan

The Soyuz TM-6 three-man crew launched at 04:23 GMT August 29, 1988.
During his brief time on the Mir, Momand took photographs of Afghanistan, participated in astrophysical, medical and biological experiments and spoke to Afghan president Dr. Najeebullah.
The Soyuz capsule was designed for trips to and from space, not for long flights, life-support systems on the globe-shaped capsule were designed to last two days, meaning that had the cosmonauts not been able to descend, they would have been in jeopardy by third day.
The September 6 landing of Soyuz TM-6 was delayed because of mechanical complications on the Mir.
Momand who was basically taken to the space as a propaganda show, with his sharp eyes caught a potentially fatal flaw during the return, and thereby saved the lives of himself and fellow-cosmonaut.
Radio Moscow reassured listeners that Lyakhov and Momand were fine and in touch with Mission Control and a recording was played of them laughing.
The British media jumped on the story and incorporated words like “marooned” and “lost in space” into their headlines. They even suggested (erroneously) that the cosmonauts had run out of food. With each passing orbit, the danger for the crew became more and more serious. Fortunately, a day later the retro-fire was successful, and at 00:50 GMT Soyuz TM 5 landed near Dzhezkazgan. During touchdown there was no live radio coverage, only live television pictures of Mission Control.

Here is a short video biography honoring him as an Afghan In History.

 

Ghazi Amir Amanullah Khan

Ghazi Amir Amanullah Khan (June 1, 1892 – April 25, 1960) was the ruler of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929. He led Afghanistan to independence from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social changes.
Amanullah Khan was the son of the Amir Habibullah Khan. When Habibullah was assassinated on February 20, 1919, Amanullah was already the governor of Kabul and was in control of the army and the treasury. He quickly seized power, imprisoned any relatives with competing claims to the Throne, and gained the allegiance of most of the tribal leaders.

In the mean while Russia had recently undergone its Communist revolution, leading to strained relations between the country and the United Kingdom. Amanullah Khan recognized the opportunity to use the situation to gain Afghan independence. He led a surprise attack against the British on May 3, 1919, beginning the third Anglo-Afghan war which resulted in the Independence of Afghan Foreign Policy and Affairs.
After initial successes, the war quickly became a stalemate as the United Kingdom was still dealing with the costs of World War I. An armistice was reached in 1921, and Afghanistan formally became an independent nation.

Amanullah enjoyed popularity within Afghanistan and he used his influence to modernize the country with creating new cosmopolitan schools for both boys and girls around the country, overturned centuries-old traditions such a strict dress codes for women, created a new capital city and increased trade with Europe and Asia. He also worked for inscription of a modernist constitution that incorporated equal rights and individual freedoms. Unfortunately, this rapid modernization created a backlash and a reactionary uprising known as the Khost rebellion was suppressed in 1924.
At the time, Afghanistan’s foreign policy was primarily concerned with the rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. Each attempted to gain the favor of Afghanistan and foil attempts by the other power to gain influence in the region. This effect was inconsistent, but generally favorable for Afghanistan; Amanullah Khan took the opportunity and got several amount of funds and was even able to establish an air force consisting of donated Soviet planes.

After Amanullah traveled to Europe in late 1927, opposition to his rule increased. An uprising in Jalalabad culminated in a march to the capital and much of the army deserted rather than resist. The air force asked the King to give orders so that they could bombard the rebellions and stop the ongoing uprisings, but the honest King ignored it and said;

“These planes are for resistance against foreign incursions and may never be used to kill our own people and destroy our own country; I don’t want to be known as the king who sacrificed the country for his rule and government.”

Therefore, in early 1929, Amanullah abdicated and went into temporary exile to India from there he traveled to Europe and settled in Italy, and later to Switzerland.
Amanullah Khan died in Zurich, Switzerland in 1960 (May he RIP).
It’s also notable that very few of his many reforms were continued by his successors.

 

Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan

 

Sayed Jamaluddin was born in 1838 at Asadabad near the Afghan-Persian border. He was called a Sayed because his family claimed descent from the family of the Prophet (PBUH) through Imam Hussain. The title of “Afghan” refers to his Afghan heritage. As a youth, Sayed Jamaluddin studied the Qur’an, Fiqh, Arabic grammar, philosophy, tasawwuf, logic, mathematics, and medicine, disciplines that were the backbone of an Islamic curriculum at that time. In 1856, at the age of eighteen, he spent a year in Delhi and felt the rising political pulse of the subcontinent, which was soon to erupt in the Sepoy Uprising of 1857.
From India, Sayed Jamaluddin visited Arabia where he performed his Hajj. Returning to Afghanistan in 1858, he was employed by Amir Dost Muhammed. His talents propelled him to the forefront of the Afghan hierarchy. When Dost Muhammed died and his brother Mohammed Azam became the emir, Jamaluddin was appointed the prime minister.
In 1869, Sayed Jamaluddin fell out of favor with the Emir and left Kabul for India. In Delhi, he received the red carpet treatment from British officials, who were at the same time careful not to let him meet the principal Indian Muslim leaders. That same year he visited Cairo on his way to Istanbul where his fame had preceded him and he was elected to the Turkish Academy. However, his “rational” interpretation of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) was deeply suspect in the eyes of the Turkish ulema and he was expelled from Istanbul in 1871.
Back in Cairo, Jamaluddin had a major role in the events that led to the overthrow of Khedive Ismail Pasha who had brought Egypt to its knees through his extravagance. European influence increased, and Jamaluddin was at the head of the Young Egyptian Movement and the nationalist uprising under Torabi Pasha (1881) that sought to expel the Europeans from Egypt. The British, suspicious of his motives, sent him back to India just before their occupation of Cairo in 1882.
From India, Sayed Jamaluddin embarked on a journey through Europe and resided for various lengths of time in London, Paris and St. Petersburg. In Paris he met and influenced the Egyptian modernist Muhammed Abduh. Together, the two started a political organization Urwah al Wuthqa (The Unbreakable Bond) whose avowed purpose was to “modernize” Islam and protect the Islamic world from the greed of foreigners. Its strident anti-European tone annoyed the British who engineered to have the organization and its mouthpiece, the Minaret, shut down.
In 1889 Sultan Nasiruddin Shah of Persia visited St. Petersburg and invited Jamaluddin to return to Tehran, promising him the post of prime minister. A reluctant Jamaluddin saw an opportunity to influence events in the Islamic heartland and returned, soon to find himself out of favor with the monarch. Fearing the wrath of the Shah, Jamaluddin took refuge in the Shrine of Shah Abdul Azeem and from the sanctuary, denounced the Shah as a tyrant and advocated his overthrow. It was while he stayed in the sanctuary that Jamaluddin met and influenced the principal figures who had a major impact on the subsequent turbulent events in Persia, including the assassination of Nasiruddin Shah.
The Shah, furious at Sayed Jamaluddin’s tirades, banished him from Persia in 1891. The Sayed arrived in Istanbul and was warmly received by Sultan Abdul Hamid II who nonetheless kept a close watch on his activities. Jamaluddin Afghan spent the rest of his life in Istanbul and died of cancer in1896.
Two principal themes run through the life and work of Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan. First, his proclaimed goal was to unite the Islamic world under a single caliph resident in Istanbul. Towards this end, he sought a rapprochement between the Ottoman Empire and Persia, working to have the Shah recognize the Ottoman Sultan as the Caliph of all Muslims, while the Caliph recognized the Shah as the sovereign of all Shi’as. He wrote to the leading theologians of Karbala, Tabriz and Tehran, passionately arguing his case and was partially successful in bringing them to his point of view. However, the rapprochement did not take place due to the political turbulence in Persia. Second, he sought to “modernize” Islam to make it responsive, as he saw it, to the needs of the age. The movement that he started, which was championed by his disciple, Muhammed Abduh of Egypt, was called the salafi movement. It derives from the word “as salaf as salehin” (the pious ancestors) and refers to the legal opinions advanced by the first three generations after the Prophet (PBUH). It was essentially a rationalist and apologist movement, which sought to bring about a nahda (renaissance) of Islamic thought.
Muhammed Abduh sought to replace the four schools of Sunnah Fiqh (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii and Hanbali) with a single Fiqh. He taught that the laws of the Qur’an could be “rationalized” and if necessary, reinterpreted. The Salafi movement had a major impact on Arab intellectual circles around the turn of the 20th century. It influenced the Aligarh movement of Sir Sayed in India as well as the Muhammadiya movement in Indonesia. The salafi movement, however, had no roots either in Islamic traditions or Islamic history. The nahda was suspected of attempting to secularize Islam, just as the renaissance of the 16th century had secularized the Latin West. As a mass movement, the Salafi movement was a failure and was rejected by the Islamic world.

Here is a short video biography honoring him as an Afghan In History.

 

Abu Ali Al Hussain Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina

Abu Ali Al Hussain Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina
(Avicenna)
(980 – 1037 C.E.)

Ibn Sina, known in the West by the name of Avicenna, was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time. His major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, known as the ‘Canon’ in the West. No deliberation on the science of medicine can be complete without a reference to Ibn Sina. Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina was born in 980C.E. at Afshana near Bukhara (Central Asia). By the age of ten he had become well versed in the study of the Qur’an and basic sciences. He studied logic from Abu Abdallah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time and his study of philosophy included various Greek and Muslim books. In his youth he showed remarkable expertise in medicine and was well known in the region. At the age of seventeen, he was successful in curing Nooh Ibn Mansoor, the King of Bukhara, of an illness in which all the well-known physicians had given up hope. On his recovery, King Mansoor wished to reward him, but the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked library.
Ibn Sina traveled to Jurjan after his father’s death where he met his famous contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he moved to Rayy and then to Hamadan, where he wrote his famous book Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. Here, he treated Shams al-Daulah, the King of Hamadan, for severe colic. From Hamadan he moved to Isphahan (present Iran), where he completed many of his monumental writings. Nevertheless, he continued travelling and the excessive mental exertion as well as political turmoil spoilt his health. Finally, he returned to Hamadan where he died in 1037 C.E.

His major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the “Canon” in the West. The Qanun fi al-Tibb (the Canons of Medicine) is an immense encyclopedia of medicine extending over a million words. It reviewed the medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, the Qanun superceded Razi’s (Rhazes’) Hawi, Ali ibn Abbas’s Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries. Ibn Sina not only synthesized the available knowledge, but he also made many original contributions. The Qanun (pronounced Qanoon) deals with general medicines, drugs (seven hundred sixty), diseases affecting all parts of the body from head to foot, specially pathology and pharmacopoia. It was recognized as the most authentic materia medica.

Among his original contributions are such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of phthisis and tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. He was the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health. Also, he was the first physician who suggested the treatment for lachrymal fistula and introduced medical probe for the channel.

Ibn Sina’s Qanun contains many of his anatomical findings which are accepted even today. Ibn Sina was the first scientist to describe the minute and graphic description of different parts of the eye, such as conjuctive sclera, cornea, choroid, iris, retina, layer lens, aqueous humour, optic nerve and optic chiasma.

Ibn Sina condemned conjectures and presumptions in anatomy and called upon physicians and surgeons to base their knowledge on a close study of human body. He observed that Aorta at its origin contains three valves which open when the blood rushes into it from the heart during contraction and closes during relaxation of the heart so that the blood may not be poured back into the heart. He asserts that muscular movements are possible because of the nerves supplied to them, and the perception of pain in the muscles is also due to the nerves. Further, he observes that liver spleen and kidney do not contain any nerves but the nerves are embedded in the covering of these organs.

The Qanun (Canon) was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century. It became the text book for medical education in the schools of Europe. The demand for it may be appreciated from the fact that in the last thirty years of the fifteenth century it was issued sixteen times – fifteen editions being in Latin and one in Hebrew, and that it was reissued more than twenty times during the sixteenth century. In 1930 Cameron Gruner partly translated this book into English entitled “A Treatise on the Canons of Medicine of Avicenna.” From the twelfth to seventeenth centuries the Qanun served as the chief guide to medical science in the West. Dr. William Osler, author of the Evolution of Modern Science, writes: “The Qanun has remained a medical bible for a longer period than any other work.”

Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Shifa (Book of Healing) was a philosophical encyclopedia, covering a vast area of knowledge from philosophy to science. His philosophy synthesizes Aristotelian tradition, Neoplatonic influences and Muslim theology. Kitab al-Shifa was known as ‘Sanatio’ in its Latin translation. Besides Shifa his well-known treatises in philosophy are al-Najat and Isharat. He classified the entire field into two major categories: the theoretical knowledge and the practical knowledge. The former included physics, mathematics and metaphysics, and the latter ethics, economics and politics.

Ibn Sina also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other fields. He made several astronomical observations, and devised a device similar to the vernier, to increase the precision of instrumental readings. In Physics, he contributed to the study of different forms of energy, heat, light and mechanical, and such concepts as force, vacuum and infinity. He made the important observation that if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by the luminous source, the speed of light must be finite. He propounded on an interconnection between time and motion, and also made investigations on specific gravity and used an air thermometer.

In the field of Chemistry, he did not believe in the possibility of chemical transmutation in metals. These views were radically opposed to those prevailing at his time. His treatise on minerals was one of the main sources of geology of Christian encyclopedist of the thirteenth century.

In the field of Music, his contribution was an improvement over Farabi’s (al-Pharabius) work and was far ahead of knowledge prevailing elsewhere on the subject. Doubling with the fourth and fifth was a ‘great’ step toward the harmonic system. Ibn Sina observed that in the series of consonances represented by (n+1)/n, the ear is unable to distinguish them when n = 45.
Ibn Sina’s portrait adorns the great hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris.

Here is a short video biography honoring him as an Afghan In History.

 

neo Great Game

As most of readers know that last month Afghan government expelled two high level diplomats, one a British UN political affairs expert, the other, an Irishman and the acting head of the European Union mission, for having secret links with Taliban and the recently published article by BBC, just makes me think that, THE WEST IS NOT UNITED ON THEIR DECISIONS AND ACTIONS.

And there is a cold and secret race going on for the control of Afghanistan and the region between Europeans (Britain playing the leading part) and the USA.
One (USA) is wasting lots and lots of money and human resources fighting against Taliban, while the other (EU or to be more specific UK) is pretending itself as an ally of USA in the war against Taliban.
The end result is going to be the same as of 19th century Afghanistan where it was placed between the Bear and Loin.
EU and UK support for Taliban is not a new topic; I have read about these phenomena since last 5 years that Taliban are being helped by Iran with the financial support of EU (not all members but the key members like UK, France, Holland, Italy).

For an analyst it would sound not strange seeing the suppression of European powers by USA and their will to be a key player in the world politics.
While Iran also has to defend its borders from an American backed government, it does make a good alliance between Iran and European powers.
If in these situations USA is kept alone in a battle field which has always been a harsh one throughout history, I am sure the might of USA will have to suffer the same way as the Soviets did in 20th century.
If you read below article of BBC you may get to know that how is it possible that a deputy does not know what is boss is up to (if the work is official then what is the reason that the deputy does not know what is going on.)

Francesc Vendrell is the EU’s Special Representative in Kabul and when he was asked that what Michael Semple was doing?
The answer was: “Quite honestly I am not sure. I had authorized Michael to go to Helmand; I knew he was vaguely going to do some work on reconciliation with the Taliban, but beyond that I had absolutely no idea what he was going to do.”

Let’s take the security problems of Helmand province, while this tour of these officials was not authorized by the Afghan government, what if they were kidnapped by Taliban and in return for them what if Taliban asked the release of their fellows?
Or what if they were harmed by Taliban or even killed by them?
Then who was to be blamed, I am sure that the entire world would have raised their fingers on Afghan government.
Now seeing all these actions take place, can we say that once again a Great Game has started where the battle field is again, poor Afghanistan and his nationals the sufferers?

Read BBC’s article for further info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7171205.stm

For a detailed discussion on the topic click link below:
http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=23100&PID=429111#429111

 

History of Afghanistan (2nd Part)

Reigns of Nadir Shah and Zahir Shah (1929-1973)   

Prince Mohammed Nadir Khan, a cousin of Amanullah’s, in turn defeated Bacha-i-Saqao in October of the same year and, with considerable Pashtun tribal support, was declared King Nadir Shah. He began consolidating power and regenerating the country. He reversed the reforms of Amanullah Khan in favour of a more gradual approach to modernisation. In 1933, however, he was assassinated in a revenge killing by a Kabul student.

Mohammad Zahir Shah, Nadir Khan’s 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. Until 1946 Zahir Shah ruled with the assistance of his uncle Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, who held the post of Prime Minister and continued the policies of Nadir Shah. In 1946 another of Zahir Shah’s uncles, Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan, became Prime Minister. He began an experiment allowing greater political freedom, but reversed the policy when it went further than he expected. In 1953 he was replaced as Prime Minister by Mohammed Daoud Khan, the king’s cousin and brother-in-law. Daoud sought a closer relationship with the Soviet Union and a more hostile one towards Pakistan. However dispute with Pakistan led to an economic crisis and he was asked to resign in 1963. From 1963 until 1973 Zahir Shah took a more active role.

In 1964, King Zahir Shah promulgated a liberal constitution providing for a bicameral legislature to which the king appointed one-third of the deputies. The people elected another third, and the remainder were selected indirectly by provincial assemblies. Although Zahir’s "experiment in democracy" produced few lasting reforms, it permitted the growth of unofficial extremist parties on both the left and the right. These included the communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), which had close ideological ties to the Soviet Union. In 1967, the PDPA split into two major rival factions: the Khalq (Masses) faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and supported by elements within the military, and the Parcham (Banner) faction led by Babrak Karmal. The split reflected ethnic, class, and ideological divisions within Afghan society.               

Daoud’s Republic of Afghanistan (1973-1978)

Amid charges of corruption and malfeasance against the royal family and poor economic conditions created by the severe 1971-72 drought, former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan seized power in a military coup on July 17, 1973. Zahir Shah fled the country eventually finding refuge in Italy. Daoud abolished the monarchy, abrogated the 1964 constitution, and declared Afghanistan a republic with himself as its first President and Prime Minister. His attempts to carry out badly needed economic and social reforms met with little success, and the new constitution promulgated in February 1977 failed to quell chronic political instability.

As disillusionment set in, on April 27, 1978, the PDPA initiated a bloody coup, which resulted in the overthrow and murder of Daoud and most of his family. Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly supported by the USSR.

Soviet intervention in Afghanistan (1978-1992)

The PDPA, as a pro-communist socialist party, implemented a socialist agenda which included decrees abolishing usury, banning forced marriages, state recognition of women’s rights to vote, replacing religious and traditional laws with secular and Marxist ones, banning tribal courts, and land reform. Men were obliged to cut their beards, women couldn’t wear a burqa, and mosque visiting was forbidden. The PDPA invited the Soviet Union to assist in modernising its economic infrastructure (predominantly its exploration and mining of rare minerals and natural gas). The USSR also sent contractors to build roads, hospitals, schools and mine for water wells; they also trained and equipped the Afghan army.

These reforms and the PDPA’s monopoly on power were met with a large backlash, partly led by members of the traditional establishment. Many groups were formed in an attempt to reverse the dependence on the Soviet Union, some resorting to violent means and sabotage of the country’s industry and infrastructure. The government responded with a heavy handed military intervention and arrested, exiled and executed many mujahedin "holy Muslim warriors".

In 1979 the Afghan army was overwhelmed with the number of incidents, and the Soviet Union sent troops to crush the uprising, install a pro-Moscow government, and support the new government. On December 25, 1979 the Soviet army entered Kabul. This was the starting point of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which ended only in 1989 with a full withdrawal of Soviet troops under the Geneva accords reached in 1988 between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For over nine years the Soviet Army conducted miliary operations against the Afghan mujahedin rebels. The American CIA, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia assisted in the financing of the resistance because of their anti-communist stance, and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, because of their Islamist inclinations.

Osama bin Laden was a prominent mujahideen organizer and financier; his Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Order) funnelled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the American, Pakistani, and Saudi governments. In 1988, bin Laden broke away from the MAK with some of its more militant members to form Al-Qaida, in order to expand the anti-Soviet resistance effort into a worldwide Islamic fundamentalist movement.

The Soviet Union withdrew its troops in February 1989, but continued to aid the government, led by Mohammed Najibullah. Massive amounts of aid from the CIA and Saudi Arabia to the mujahadin also continued. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Najibullah government was overthrown on April 18, 1992 when Abdul Rashid Dostum mutinied, and allied himself with Ahmed Shah Massoud, to take control of Kabul and declare the Islamic State of Afghanistan.

History of Afghanistan (1992 to present)

When the victorious mujahidin entered Kabul to assume control over the city and the central government, internecine fighting began between the various militias, which had coexisted only uneasily during the Soviet occupation. With the demise of their common enemy, the militias’ ethnic, clan, religious, and personality differences surfaced, and the civil war continued.

An interim Islamic Jihad Council was put in place, first led by Sibghatullah Mojadeddi for two months, then by Burhanuddin Rabbani. Fighting among rival factions intensified.

In reaction to the anarchy and warlordism prevalent in the country, and the lack of Pashtun representation in the Kabul government, a movement of religious scholars, many of them former mujahideen, arose. The Taliban took control of 90% of the country by 1998, limiting the opposition mostly to a small, largely Tajik corner in the northeast and the Panjshir valley. The opposition formed the Afghan Northern Alliance, which continued to receive diplomatic recognition in the United Nations as the government of Afghanistan.

In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States and its coalition allies launched a successful invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban government. Sponsored by the UN, Afghan factions met in Bonn and chose a 30 member interim authority led by Hamid Karzai. After governing for 6 months, former King Zahir Shah convened a Loya Jirga, which elected Karzai president, and gave him authority to govern for two more years. Then, on 9 October 2004, Karzai was elected president in Afghanistan’s first ever direct presidential election.

 

History of Afghanistan

History of Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s history, internal political development, foreign relations, and very existence as an independent state have largely been determined by its geographic location at the crossroads of Central, West, and South Asia. Over the centuries, waves of migrating peoples passed through the region–described by historian Arnold Toynbee as a “roundabout of the ancient world”–leaving behind a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups. In modern times, as well as in antiquity, vast armies of the world passed through this region of Asia, temporarily establishing local control and often dominating ancient Afghanistan.

Although it was the scene of great empires and flourishing trade for over two millennia, the area’s heterogeneous groups were not bound into a single political entity until the reign of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who in 1747 founded the monarchy that ruled the country until 1973. In the nineteenth century, Afghanistan lay between the expanding might of the Russian and British empires. In 1900, Abdur Rahman Khan (the “Iron Amir”), looking back on his twenty years of rule and the events of the past century, wondered how his country, which stood “like a goat between these lions [Britain and Tsarist Russia] or a grain of wheat between two strong millstones of the grinding mill, [could] stand in the midway of the stones without being ground to dust?”

Islam played perhaps the key role in the formation of Afghanistan’s society. Despite the Mongol invasion of what is today Afghanistan in the early thirteenth century which has been described as resembling “more some brute cataclysm of the blind forces of nature than a phenomenon of human history,” even a warrior as formidable as Genghis Khan did not uproot Islamic civilization, and within two generations his heirs had become Muslims. An often unacknowledged event that nevertheless played an important role in Afghanistan’s history (and in the politics of Afghanistan’s neighbors and the entire region up to the present) was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty–the Ghaznavids. Their power prevented the eastward spread of Shiism from Iran, thereby insuring that the majority of the Muslims in Afghanistan and South Asia would be Sunnis. Later native Afghan empire builders such as the Ghorids would continue to make Afghanistan a major medieval power as well as a center of learning that produced Ferdowsi, Al-Biruni, and Khushal Khan Khattak among countless other academics and literary iconic figures.

Pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan (before 651)

Afghanistan’s known pre-Islamic past began with Aryan invasions around 2000 BCE and continued with Persian, Median, Greek, Mauryan, Bactrian, and other phases in its history.

Following the defeat of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, in 328 BC, Alexander the Great entered the territory of present-day Afghanistan to capture Bactria (present-day Balkh). Invasions by the Scythians, White Huns, and Gokturks followed in succeeding centuries.

During the Kushana rule, Afghanistan and Gandhara became major centers of culture and learning. The Sassanians and other Iranian powers ruled most of Afghanistan before the coming of Muslim invaders, while the Shahis ruled eastern Afghanistan from the mid-7th century until Turkic invasions in the 10th century CE.

Islamic conquest of Afghanistan (642-1747)

In 642 CE, Arabs invaded the entire region and introduced Islam. Afghanistan, like all others conquered by the Arabs had local rulers including the empire of Tang China, which had extended its influence all the way to Kabul. The Khorasani Persian-Arabs controlled the area until they were conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire in 998. Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030) consolidated the conquests of his predecessors and turned Ghazna (Ghazni) into a great cultural center as well as a base for frequent forays into India. The Ghaznavid dynasty was defeated in 1146 by the Ghurids (Ghor), the Ghaznavid Khans continued to live in Ghazni as the ‘Nasher’ until the early 20th century but they never regained their once vast power. Various princes and Seljuk rulers attempted to rule parts of the country until the shah Muhammad II of the Khwarezmid Empire conquered all of Persia in 1205. By 1219 the empire had fallen to the Mongols.

Led by Genghis Khan, the invasion resulted in massive slaughter of the population, destruction of many cities, including Herat, Ghazni, and Balkh, and the despoliation of fertile agricultural areas. Following Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, a succession of petty chiefs and princes struggled for supremacy until late in the 14th century, when one of his descendants, Timur Lenk, incorporated what is today Afghanistan into his own vast Asian empire. Babur, a descendant of Timur and the founder of India’s Moghul Empire at the beginning of the 16th century, made Kabul the capital of an Afghan principality.

Afghanistan was divided in three parts in the 16th, 17th and early 18th century. North were the Uzbeks, west was Persia and East was the Mughal empire. The Afghans, or more specific Ghilzai Pashtuns under Khan Nasher rose against Persian rule in the early 18th century. The Persian army was defeated and the Afghans conquered the whole of Persia afterwards. The Ghilzai Pashtuns were defeated and the Durrani Pashtuns became the principal Afghan rulers.

The Durrani Empire (1747-1826)

Ahmad Shah Durrani

In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of what is known today as Afghanistan, established his rule. A Pashtun, Durrani was elected king in the first Loya Jirga after the assassination of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah at Khabushan in the same year. Throughout his reign, Durrani consolidated chieftainships, petty principalities, and fragmented provinces into one country. His rule extended from Mashad in the west to Kashmir and Delhi in the east, and from the Amu Darya (Oxus) River in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. With the exception of a 9-month period in 1929, all of Afghanistan’s rulers until the 1978 Marxist coup were from Durrani’s Pashtun tribal confederation, and all were members of that tribe’s Mohammadzai clan after 1818.

European influence in Afghanistan (1826-1919)

Amir Abdur Rahman Khan

Dost Mohammed Khan gained control in Kabul. Collision between the expanding British and Russian Empires significantly influenced Afghanistan during the 19th century in what was termed “The Great Game.” British concern over Russian advances in Central Asia and growing influence in Persia culminated in two Anglo-Afghan wars. The first (1839-1842) resulted in the destruction of a British army; it’s remembered as an example of the ferocity of Afghan resistance to foreign rule. The second Anglo-Afghan war (1878-1880) was sparked by Amir Shir Ali’s refusal to accept a British mission in Kabul. This conflict brought Amir Abdur Rahman to the Afghan throne. During his reign (1880-1901), the British and Russians officially established the boundaries of what would become modern Afghanistan. The British retained effective control over Kabul’s foreign affairs.Afghanistan remained neutral during World War I, despite German encouragement of anti-British feelings and Afghan rebellion along the borders of British India. The Afghan king’s policy of neutrality was not universally popular within the country, however.

Habibullah, Abdur Rahman’s son and successor, was assassinated in 1919, possibly by family members opposed to British influence. His third son, Amanullah, regained control of Afghanistan’s foreign policy after launching the Third Anglo-Afghan war with an attack on India in the same year. During the ensuing conflict, the war-weary British relinquished their control over Afghan foreign affairs by signing the Treaty of Rawalpindi in August 1919. In commemoration of this event, Afghans celebrate August 19 as their Independence Day.

Reforms of Ghazi Emir Amanullah Khan and civil war (1919-1929)

King Amanullah Khan

King Amanullah (1919-1929) moved to end his country’s traditional isolation in the years following the Third Anglo-Afghan war. He established diplomatic relations with most major countries and, following a 1927 tour of Europe and Turkey–during which he noted the modernization and secularization advanced by Ataturk–introduced several reforms intended to modernize Afghanistan. Some of these, such as the abolition of the traditional Muslim veil for women and the opening of a number of co-educational schools, quickly alienated many tribal and religious leaders. Faced with overwhelming armed opposition, Amanullah was forced to abdicate in January 1929 after Kabul fell to forces led by Bacha-i-Saqao, a Tajik brigand.