by Tamim Ansary
roam freely under Musahibban family
Nonalignment
Amin’s vision
generates resources from Cold War
as Musahibban family policy
Nehru’s third bloc notion
as strong Afghan position (1963)
Nongovernmental organizations. See NGOs
Noorzai, Kobra
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). See NATO
Northbrook, Lord (Francis Baring)
Northern Alliance
created by Massoud
in interim government posts
loses ground to Taliban
not fully accepted by US
post-9/11, takes over government
represented at Bonn Conference
Nott, General
Nowrouz, Akbar
Nuclear weapons and Mutually Assured Destruction
Nuristan
Obama, Barack
Af-Pak policies
drone use increases
replaces McChrystal with Petraeus
suspected Taliban arrests increase
US/NATO crimes and blunders
Oil and natural gas development
built by Soviets
joint venture with China
and neutral view of Taliban atrocities
workers’ security
Oil pipeline proposal from Turkmenistan to Pakistan
Bridas and Unocal compete
politics of
Old Afghanistan
defeats the City through Taliban
increasingly disconnected from urban life
pressured by modern Kabul
shifts to cleric leadership due to war
Olympic Games
Omar, Mullah
acclaimed Mohammed’s deputy on earth
flees Kandahar
issues oppressive restrictions
organizes early Taliban
as spiritual commander of Taliban
supported by bin Laden
Opium
as currency
hierarchical structure of market
as viable crop for devastated farms
Osmani, Mullah Akhtar
Ottoman Empire
Pakistan
destination for Afghan Islamists
drones attack, are deployed
links CENTO, SEATO, to contain Communism
and oil pipeline politics
opposes autonomous Afghan government
receives, distributes, aid from West
refugee camps
supports bin Laden, Talibanist networks
loses control of Taliban
post-9/11, cuts support of Taliban
Pamir Airlines
Panjsher Valley
Parcham political party
created by Marxist-Leninist urban elite
installed by invading Soviets
overpowered by Khalq
shoots anti-Soviet demonstrators
Paris Peace Conference (1919)
Parliament
created from advisory jirga of Sher Ali
under Musahibban family
National Council created by Nadir
PDPA students disrupt proceedings (1965)
reformed (1963)
designed by Bonn project
Pasha, Shireen
Pastoral nomads. See Nomads
PDPA. See People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan
Peace Corps volunteers
People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
conducts 1978 coup
created by Marxist-Leninists
farm land redistribution proves disastrous
renamed Fatherland Party
requests Soviet weapons to fight insurgents
Pepsi
Persian Empire
Persian language
Persian poetry
Peshawar
held by Ranjit Singh
issue reopens upon creation of Pakistan
Mujahideen assemble against Soviets
as negotiating point for Dost–GB
as Pushtoon power center
Petraeus, David
Plassey battle, India
Police. See Afghan National Police
Pollock, General
Polygamy versus monogamy
Popal, Mustafa
The Position and Role of Afghan Women in Afghan Society (Esmatey-Wardak)
Postal system
Private enterprises
foreign contractors, subcontractors
sabotaged by Talibanists
started by returning exiles
See also Entrepreneurships
Propaganda war of Talibanists
Publications
freedom of press (2005–2006)
of liberal intellectuals
Purdah
liberalized under Amanullah
oppressive restrictions by Taliban
prohibitions restored under Saqao
Pushto language
Pushtoon people
advocate for Peshawar, Pushtoonistan
culture and history
select Ahmad Shah as king
of Taliban’s origins
Pushtoonistan
Pushtoonwali code
Qadir, Hajji
Qazis (village judges)
Quetta Shura directs Talibanists
Qur’an burned by US troops
Qurbanni, Burhan
Rabbani, Burhanuddin
agrees to not bid for government office
claims to instigate Herat uprising
forms Jamiat-i-Islam
as president in Islamist interim government
as president of Northern Alliance
as radical Islamist activist
killed by Talibanist insurgents
Radical Islamism
emerges, coalescing around leaders
inhospitable for Communists in region
represented by Hekmatyar
rises in Pakistan
university students
See also Talibanist insurgents
Radio Kabul
Radio Shari’a
Rahmani, Idrees Ahmad
Railroads
Ramparts magazine
Ranjit Singh
Rare earth minerals
Reagan, Ronald
Reconstruction of Afghanistan
funds, projects, required
road projects
US spending
corruption rises
as failed effort
Refugee camps during Soviet depopulation
Refugees
boys recruited from madrassas for Taliban
flee Kabul as IDPs
population swells to 6 million
return to destroyed countryside, landmines
vote in presidential election (2004)
Relief workers killed
Religious freedom
Republican Party of the United States
Resource wars
Reuter, Christoph
Reza Shah Pahlevi (Shah of Iran)
Rice, Condoleezza
Ritchie, James
Roads and highways
Roberts, Frederick
Rolling Stone magazine
Rumsfeld, Donald
Rural life. See Village republics of Afghanistan
Russia
aids Northern Alliance to block fundamentalism
conflicts with GB to dominate central Asia
czar seeks India through Afghan territory
discusses trade deals with Amanullah
threatens Afghan borders
Sabet, Abdul Jaber
Saddam Hussein
Sadozais clan
Salang Tunnel
Sale, Florentia, Lady
Saqao, Bachey (Water Carrier’s Son)
Saudi Arabia
aids anti-Soviet resistance
funds madrassas to promote Wahhabi
matches US funding for Mujahideen
Saddam Hussein threatens invasion
Saudi Arabia US compound bombing
Sayyaf, Abdul Rasool
SEATO. See Southeast Asian Treaty Organization
The Secrets of This House television program
Security and intelligence services
provided by villages, tribes
secret police force in Khalq regime
spy network of Abdu’Rahman
spy network of Musahibban family
See also InterServices Intelligence
Sehum-i-Aqrab (the third of Aqrab)
September 11, 2001
Seraj-ul-Akhbar newspaper
Serena Hotel in Kabul
Setara
Shah Mahmoud
Shah of Iran. See Reza Shah Pahlevi
Shah Shuja
British install as Afghan monarch
switches to oppose British
assassinated
Shah Zeman
Shahada film
Shams, Dr.
Shansab, Horace
Shari’a
clerics fail to find veiling practices
enforcement as Taliban mission
fatwas
as God-given law
Hanafi version
for jurisprudence beyond village level
Sharif, Nawaz
Sher Agha Mujaddedi
Sher Ali
as Dost Mohammed’s successor
fails to handle Russian threat, GB invasion
modernization program
Shi’a Islam
Hazaras
Iranian
Mazar-i-Sharif shrine
Shuja Shah. See Shah Shuja
Sikhs and Sikh religion
Simla Manifesto
Slave boys
Slavery
Slowly, Slowly, Mud and Lotus documentary
Smuggling
of gold, gems, raw currency
tied to Taliban
by tribal chiefs
Smuggling mafias
Soap factory
Soraya
Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO)
Soviet Union
bombs Herat
Cold War competition with US
Daoud’s Folly
Dubs kidnapping
invades Afghanistan (1979)
KGB
Khalq regime
depopulates rural Afghanistan
collapses, withdraws from Afghanistan (1989–1990)
Soviet Union occupation compared to US involvement
Stalin, Joseph
Stinger missiles
Strikes of students and workers
Stryker Brigade kill team
Student activism
Subghatullah, Mujaddedi
early activism
role in Islamist interim government
Sudan
Sufi poetry
Suicide bombings
Sultan Ahmad
Sultana, Fatima
Sultans of Delhi
Sunni Islam
Tajik ethnic group
Bachey Saqao
culture
Hammad Anwar
Islamist Massoud
Tajikstan
Taliban
conquers Kandahar, Ghazni, Herat, Kabul
criminalizes women, non-Islamic behavior
establishes opium as currency, controls production
inadvertently brings technology to villages
kills potential voters in presidential election
massacres Shi’a Hazaras
Mullah Omar as original organizer
recognized as Afghan government (1997)
supported by Pakistan
trusted, supported, by US
Talibanist insurgents
attack, terrorize, individuals
burn schools, kill children, teachers
coalesce into networks
operations directed by Quetta Shura
with power to make Afghanistan ungovernable
seem to strengthen after bin Laden’s death
Taraki, Nur Mohammed
as Khalq regime president
leftist activist
dies after attempting to kill Amin
Tarnak Farms
Tarzi, Habib
Tarzi, Mahmoud
as Amanullah’s mentor
driven from Afghanistan by Saqao
Tarzi, Zemaryalai
Taxation
under Abdu’Rahman
abolished by Saqao
improving private enterprise
under kings, governors
by Taliban
Technocracy class
Telephone and telegraph services
Television (Afghan)
Terrorism
al Qaeda proposes airplanes as suicide bombs
bin Laden’s early methods
bombings of 1998
events of 9/11
killers dressed in Afghan uniforms
training camps
US jurisdiction in question
See also Suicide bombings
3-G telecom services
Titanic movie/video
Tokyo Conference (2002)
TOLO (Sunrise) TV station
Tora Bora cave complex
Translators for reconstruction work
Treaty of Gundamak (1879)
Treaty of Rawalpindi (1921)
Tribal rebellions
Truman, Harry S.
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Ulya Janab
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
United Nations
and Afghan refugees
Afghanistan becomes member
approves US invasion of Iraq
asylum for Najibullah violated by Taliban
economic sanctions on Taliban
Soviet–Afghanistan peace talks
United States Embassy bombing in Kenya
United States Embassy bombing in Tanzania
United States Embassy in Kabul
United States Embassy in Tehran hostage crisis
United States intervention
effects of Abu Ghraib
kills civilians by mistake
new Talibanist insurgencies take shape
regarded as purely military by Bush
violence in Afghanistan increases
weakens Afghan central authority
United States Marines desecration of corpses
United States Special Forces
United States State Department
Universities
demonstrations
overseas programs
women allowed to attend
Unocal oil company
Urban elite
Veiling practices
Verne, Jules, novels
Village republics of Afghanistan
Abdu’Rahman tries to consolidate
culture, social structure
destroyed by Soviet depopulation, bombing
impacted by HVA dams, irrigation
Mujahideen replace secular elders with clerics
vs. new Afghanistan
as old Afghanistan
Vitkevich, Ivan Victorovich
Wag the Dog movie
Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia
Wardak
Water Carrier’s Son. See Saqao, Bachey
Water management of rural Afghanistan
Weddings as economic stimuli
Whitewater investigation
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Wilson, Charlie
Women
accepted into police, army, ranks
attend university, enter professions
girls schools
in nomadic culture
and offensive behavior by British men
oppressed by Taliban
PDPA improves status
progress under Daoud’s reforms
roles in rural areas
st
alked, acid thrown in faces
World War I
World War II
Wrongful death compensation
Yaqub Khan
Young Turks
Younus, Borhan
Zabuli, Abdul Majid
Zaheda (author’s cousin)
Zahir, Ahmad
Zahir Shah
and Bonn project
as figurehead king for Musahibban family
disempowers himself with new constitution
deposed by Daoud, exiled to Italy
Ziaie, Shafiqa
Zoleikha’s Secret film
TAMIM ANSARY is the author of Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes and West of Kabul, East of New York, among other books. For ten years he wrote a monthly column for Encarta.com, and has published essays and commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, TomPaine.com, Edutopia, Parade, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the United States in 1964. He lives in San Francisco, where he is director of the San Francisco Writers Workshop.
PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.
I. F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.
BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post. It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.
ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.
For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.
Peter Osnos, Founder and Editor-at-Large
a
Not an ancestor of mine—different branch of Ansarys.
b
Amanullah failed to mention his first wife, whom he had not divorced: an arranged marriage.
