Afghanistan - A Military History from Alexander The Great to the War Against the Taliban

Favourite Quotes

“when the Afghans have acted in common cause, their country - though often ravaged - has never been held down by a foreign power; on the other hand, evidence indicates that Afghanistan is only capable of unity when its people respond to a foreign threat” - p. 4

A quote from the Oracle of Delphi found in a Greek-Bactrian site:

“In childhood, seemliness; in youth, self-control; in middle age, justice; in old age, wise council; in death, no pain” - p. 63

A quote from a tribal Afghan in the early 1800s. This explains why the tribes were independent and didn’t prefer centralized rule

“We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood, but we will never be content with a master” - p. 134

Detailed Summary

Chapter 1: Crossroad of Empires

NOTE: sub-headings below are my own, not the authors

Geography

• Afghanistan lies at the crossroad of major empires: Persian & Arab to the west, India to the east, and Central Asian & Turkic to the north
• due to it’s geographical location, it is a “strategically vital piece of real estate” - p. 2
• historian Arnold Toynbee suggested that countries are either ‘blind alleys’ or ‘highways’
  • Syria and Afghanistan are ‘highways’. This was a lot more true back in the day before flight, but still true today
  • Syria connects the civilizations of Europe, Africa, and Asia
  • Afghanistan connects the civilizations of India, East Asia, Central Asia, and Middle East
  • Arnold said (in the context of Ancient times) “plant yourself in Iraq and it’ll become evident that half the roads of the Old World lead to Aleppo and the other half to Bagram”
• There are two aspects to Afghanistan’s unique geography (both of which together make Afghanistan unique):
  • location: at the crossroads of empires (Similar to Poland or Iraq, who were also ran-through by other empires)
  • terrain: the country is either harsh desert or impassable mountains and valleys
• Traditionally Afghan/Pashtun lands:
  • Peshawar was just as important as Kabul to the Afghans. Often used as the winter capital
  • Quetta, Bolan Pass
  • Sind and
  • Kashmir
  • entire Northwest Frontier Province
• The lands of India were distinct from Afghanistan, even in King Darius’s time
  • he conquered India, then called the province of Hindush

Locations/Sites

• Bagram: a very strategic location.
  • it was the site of Cyrus the Great’s Kapish-Kanish (capital of the Persian satrapy of Gandara)
  • it was the site of Alexander’s “Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus”
  • it was the primary airfield of the Soviets in the 80s
  • it was the primary airfield of the US and allied powers post 2001
• a little bit about Balkh
  • the Arabs referred to it as “the mother of cities”
  • it was the birth place of Zoroaster
  • it was the site of Alexander’s marriage
  • it was one of Genghis Khan’s greatest atrocities

Sociology

• nature of the remote tribes:
  • the remote mountain regions are controlled by tribes that’ve rarely ever been conquered or controlled
  • these people are not hermits or pacifists: many times they’ve come out of the mountains to participate in collective defense or civil wars.
• nature of Afghans in relation to leadership/ruling
  • “when the Afghans have acted in common cause, their country - though often ravaged - has never been held down by a foreign power; on the other hand, evidence indicates that Afghanistan is only capable of unity when its people respond to a foreign threat. Left to their own devices, Afghans engage in internecine battles, or simply enjoy freedom… unbothered by government at all” - p. 4
• The word ‘Afghan’ p. 5
  • first appeared in 3rd century AD in Persian writings
  • it means ‘noisy’ in Old Persian, perhaps idiomatically ‘unruly’
• ‘Afghan’ was likely the term used to describe Pashtuns in ancient times. Or at the very least, it described the ancient Afghans who are the ancestors of modern Pashtuns. Today, Afghan describes anyone living in Afghanistan - p. 8
  • ‘Afghan’ is an ancient term dating almost 2000 years ago. Whereas Pashtun is a new term, only in use for the last 500 years or so
• in the 1800s, Afghans did not call their own land Afghanistan, but were aware others did
• The Pashtuns comprise 40% of the country, but they also have moral, and sometimes military, support from the Pashtuns in Pakistan, ensuring their dominance in Afghanistan - p. 6
  • when the Northern Alliance were winning, Pakistan was giving refuge to the Pashtun Taliban soldiers
• history of the Afghan people - p. 6 - 7
  • an oral tradition maintained that the original Afghans were one of the lost tribes of Israel
    • After Israel was created post-WW2, this tradition dwindled
  • based on linguistic and archeological evidence we know that in the 3rd millennium BC the ancient proto-Iranians settled in the Iranian plateau, coming from central Asia
  • these ancient Aryans pushed out the Dravidian people who moved into southern India
    • a Dravidian minority, the Brahui still live in the border of south Afghanistan and Baluchistan
  • the ancient Aryans who settled in Afghanistan are considered the human foundation of Afghanistan, or the aboriginals. Then, further waves of migrations and invasions sprinkled additional DNA in the Afghan genome

Geopolitics

• Afghanistan’s importance in the world stage declined during the medieval period due to 2 reasons:
  • Genghis Khan’s invasions
  • Christopher Columbus’s ‘discovery’ of the new world + sea trading routes (no need for land travel via Afghanistan)
• Even with the reduced importance, Afghanistan was the site of the “Great Game”, a cold-war-like battle between the Russian and British Empires in the 19th century
  • they had a shared goal: don’t let Afghanistan become powerful
  • Afghanistan was the buffer between two spheres of influence
• Structure of Afghanistan political geography - the 4 strategically crucial cities:
  • in the west is Herat
  • in the south is Kandahar
    • an easy road connects Herat to Kandahar
  • in the east is Kabul
    • as long as it’s not winter, the road to Kandahar to Kabul is passable
  • in the north is Mazar-i-Sharif
    • an easy road connects Herat to Mazar
    • the road from Kabul to Mazar is along high passes across the Hindu Kush mountains
    • right beside Mazar is the ancient city of Balkh
• importance of Kabul
  • it lies in a quadrangle of its own:
    • 45 miles north is Bagram, the entrance to the strategic valleys
    • to the west is Bamyan, the center of the Hindu Kush, wherein you can take further passes to the north or Herat
    • 80 miles south is Ghazni, once the center of a great Afghan empire
    • 80 miles east is Jalalabad, the entrance of the Khyber Pass, the dangerous route to Peshawar
  • although controlling Kabul does NOT mean controlling the country, you cannot hope to rule the country without controlling Kabul
• history of Afghanistan’s borders
  • European powers drew up the borders, namely Russia and Britain. Their goal was to create the best possible buffer state between British India and Russian-influenced Central Asia
  • there’s never been dispute about the border in the south with Pakistan’s Baluchistan because it is a desert wasteland, no one wants it!
  • Sir Mortimer Durand led a British commission and drew the border line right between the Pashtun group. The goal was to split Pashtun power to limit Afghanistan’s political resources
• the border creation by the Europeans is what has largely caused a lot of the infighting between ethnic groups within Afghanistan. A ‘Pashtunistan’ would’ve been a better idea
  • Pashtunistan: the border would’ve included all the historic Pashtun dominated areas, i.e. the south, east, and some of the central parts
  • this was not in the best interests of the British and Russians in the 19th century which is why they didn’t do this

Specific Peoples

• Pashtuns and Scythians
  • in 100BC, the Scythians were kicked out of the Steppe and went south of the Hindu Kush, around south Afghanistan, Sistan in Iran, and Peshawar, which are the exact areas inhabited by Pashtuns today
    • also discussed in The Scythians:

    • Saka Migrations Southward

      • this in-turn destabilized the central Asian nomads, like the Saka. The Saka moved south and settled in two major areas:
        • southern Afghanistan/western Pakistan, eventually expanding into southern Iran and creating an area known as Sakastan (now Sistan)
        • India. By 80BC that setup kingdoms in the region

      Link to original

  • shortly after we saw the emergence of the Pashtu, an ethno-linguistic group
  • just like the Scythians, the Pashtuns have a deep and fierce warrior culture
  • a dominant strain in the Pashtun ethnicity is of the Scythians
  • if this is the case, we could say that Persia’s Cyrus the Great was killed by the people whose descendants we now call Afghans/Pashtuns
• Description of various peoples according to the ‘father of history’ Herodotus
  • The Bactrians wore felt caps, similar to the Medes and Persians. Armed with native can bows and short spears
  • Scythians wore caps stiffened to an upright point (Phrygian cap). Armed with bows, battleaxes, and daggers
  • Areians were equipped like the Bactrians, except their bows were of the Median style/design
  • Gandharans were equipped like the Bactrians
  • Paktuans wore cloaks of skin and carried the bow of their country and the dagger
  • The Bactrians, Scythians, and Paktuans contributed Cavalry to the Persian army
  • The Sagartians contributed the largest amount of cavalry. They were a nomadic Persian people who spoke Persian, but dressed in a style half Persian and Half Paktuyke/Paktuan -p. 12
    • According to one hypothesis, the Sagartians may have been the ancestors of the dominant western Pashtun tribe, the Abdali (later known as Durrani)

History / Historical Events

• Where does our knowledge of ancient Afghanistan come from?
  • the rise of the Persian empire in 550BC is considered the beginning of recorded history. They carved writings in stone
  • followed by the Persians, the Greeks came and it was them who primarily recorded the history of various peoples. They were intrigued by the Persian empire so a lot of our Persian history comes from the Greeks and the Romans after them
• The Persians were preceded by the Medes and the Assyrians, but it’s highly unlikely they conquered or ruled Afghanistan - p. 9
  • The Medes probably went as far as Herat and Balkh, but that’s it
  • so it was the Persian Empire that really put Afghanistan on the map
• Cyrus the Great fought against Scythian tribes and established his northern border at the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River, in modern day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
• Cyrus died around 500BC, defeated by the Massagetai near the Syr Darya
• King Darius listed the territories under his command on a mountain in Behistun, Kermanshah - p. 10
  • it includes Bactria (Balkh), Areia (Herat), Arachosia (Kandahar), Gandhara (Kabul to Peshawar)
  • this is the oldest written description of Afghanistan
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behistun_Inscription#Content_of_the_inscription
• The Bactrian satrap was always the most high-ranking prince in the Achaemenid empire, often next in line to the throne - p. 11
• in the 5th century BC, the Persians and Greek city-states went to war with each other
  • it was very back and forth. Eventually the Persians were defeated and retreated
  • the Greek city-states could never achieve internal unity so a counter-attack never happened
• in the 4th century BC, a new power in the Balkans was rising, Macedon, under King Philip
  • this was the first nation state, as opposed to the Greek city-states
• King Philip defeated all the Greek city-states and united them. His next target: Persia. He died right before the war began, but his son Alexander the Great took over

Chapter 2: Alexander the Great

• Alexander was told since childhood that he was a descendant of Heracles through his father and Achilles through his mother - p. 18
  • as he got older, his mother revealed to him he is the direct offspring of Zeus
• he began his Asian invasions in 334BC
• The Bactrian cavalry were part of the Persian army in the first battle between Alexander and the Persians. The battle took place in northwest Turkey - p. 18
• The Bactrian Cavalry had a reputation in the ancient world for being elite warriors - p. 18
• The Persian army consisted of Bactrians, Sogdians, Greek, Indians, Persians, and others
• The second battle took place near the border of modern Syria and Turkey. King Darius was in this battle.
  • The Persians lost. Darius fled
• After winning the second battle, Alexander proceeded down into Tyre and Gaza and laid sieges. Then he went to Egypt where he was proclaimed a liberator and pharaoh - p. 22
  • in Egypt he founded the city of Alexandria
  • he took a trip to the Egyptian desert to see the oracle of Ammon, a figure who the Greeks equate with Zeus. The oracle encouraged him which only further convinced Alexander that he is a descendent of the gods
• In the first 2 battles, the Persian army mainly consisted of Greeks, Persians, and Arabs/Semitic people, but in the 3rd battle it was different…
• This third battle took place in Iraq near modern Erbil - p. 24
  • Alexander spent 2 years in Egypt and Palestine. This allowed Darius to recoup his army via resources and men from his eastern empire. His army was now primarily horse warriors from Afghanistan: Bactrians, Scythians, Parthians, Arachosians, Areians, and Indians
  • It was a Macedonian victory
  • All of the western side of the Persian empire (Babylon and everything to the left) was now Alexander’s
• After this third battle, Darius fled with Bessus (satrap of Bactria) to Bactria with the remnants of his army
• Alexander proceeded into Iran and Persepolis, the capital of the Persian empire - p. 29
  • he faced some local resistance but defeated them all
• the winter came, Alexander and his army were forced to stay in Persepolis for 4 depressing months - p. 30-31
  • Persepolis was an imperial ghost town. There was lots of great architecture and imperial monuments, but no one lived there, there was no lively markets, nothing like that. So Alexander had a tough time there
  • upon leaving, Alexander burned the place down
• after winter he continued on. He came across Darius’s camp and saw Darius has been murdered by his own people - p. 31
  • Alexander felt insulted by this. He wanted to inherit the Persian Empire the right way, i.e. killing the current king on his own. So he decided to go after Darius’s killers
  • Darius was killed by the satraps of Bactria, Arachosia, and Areia - p. 32
  • Bessus, satrap of Bactria proclaimed himself king
• his army was exhausted and were away from their families for years. Alexander allowed them to take local wives. Within a year many babies were born - p. 32
• Alexander convinced his army via a great speech to continue east… what he didn’t know was the nature of the place he was taking them. It was uncharted land for them. It was Afghanistan - p. 32
• Before the march to Afghanistan, his army spend some time southeast of the Caspian Sea - p. 33
  • here he was approached by the queen of the Amazons, a female warrior people, to make a baby with her
  • these female warriors likely did exist. They were likely part of the Sarmatians (cousins of the Scythians)
• His first stop was the province of Areia / Herat. The Satrap didn’t put up a fight - he swore fealty to Alexander and was allowed to continue ruling Areia - p. 33
• he proceeded to Bactria, but Areia revolted so he went back and subdued them - p. 34
  • the satrap of Areia escaped to Bactria
  • here he founded a garrison city, Alexandria-in-Areia, likely modern day Herat city
• Alexander at this point changed his plans and decided to go down to Arachosia after hearing the unrest there - p. 35
  • on his way he rested at Phrada (modern Farah province), the capital of Drangiana. He renamed this place Prophysia, which means “anticipation” because it was here where he discovered a conspiracy against his life
• Conspiracy against Alexander
  • one of Alexander’s right-hand-man, Philotas, knew about it but kept quiet cause he didn’t think it was serious. This led to him being blamed and tortured and executed
  • likely Philotas was blamed because Alexander was noticing a rift in his army, the traditional soldiers who were part of king Philip’s army, and the new soldiers loyal to Alexander.
    • the old soldiers didn’t like how the Macedonians were ‘becoming Persian’ (they were adopting Persian style, culture, etc)
  • Philotas was the last surviving son of Parmenio, the second-in-command to both Philip and Alexander. The old soldiers were loyal to Parmenio
  • In order to unify his army, he had Parmenio and Philotas killed
• Alexander went into Arachosia and founded a new city, Alexandria-in-Arachosia, near modern Kandahar - p. 37
  • in these times the entire south Afghanistan was very fertile and well populated
• Alexander makes his way to Kabul, a journey that was very taxing on his army - p. 39
  • Kabul is populated by an isolated tribe/people known as Parapamisidae
  • it’s likely that these Parapamisidae were neither Iranian nor Indian
• In Kabul, Alexander thought the Hindu Kush were the Caucasus mountains. This just proves that they were trekking uncharted territory for them. They were basically lost - p. 39
• In the Kabul area he also established another city, Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus, likely on the site of Kapish-Kanish near Bagram - p. 40
• Bactria was a fertile land with many trees, fruits, and crops - p. 41
• Next Alexander makes his way up north to Bactria. He arrives but Bessus retreated to north of the Oxus river, modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan - p. 42 - 43
  • the rulers there (Sogdians, including warlord Spitamenes) arrested Bessus and hands him over to the Macedonians
  • Bessus is stripped naked, flogged, his nose and ears cut off, and finally executed
• Alexander is not content, he wants all the lands between the Oxus and the Jaxartes under his control as those are the lands of the former Persian Empire - p. 43
  • it took him 2 years to capture all that area, and he faced his most formidable opponent yet, Spitamenes the Sogdian
  • the Sogdian capital was Maracanda (Samarkand)
• Beyond the Jaxartes lay Scythian territory. Alexander didn’t care about those lands, but he did fight and defeat the Scythians - p. 44 - 45
• The battles between Alexander and Spitamenes were many
  • they went back and forth constantly for 2 years
  • Spitamenes allied with the Massagetai
• it was during this time, when Alexander and his men were camping out in Maracanda (Samarkand), that Alexander was contemplating on how when he conquered Egypt and Babylon, the people cheered for him, but here in Persian/Afghan lands the people keep fighting against him - p. 48
• Eventually, the Massagetai beheaded Spitamenes and offered it to Alexander as a peace offering. Alexander then worked on solidifying control over the region - p. 48
• A Bactrian noble, Oxyartes, took a stand against Alexander but eventually surrendered. He had a daughter, Roxane, who Alexander took a liking to and married her - p. 49
  • reasons: she was very beautiful, he was unmarried and had no heirs, he needed to form political alliances in the Persian region, she was very intelligent
  • Alexander also married a second, the daughter of King Darius and his wife Stateira
• Now that control over Persia was solidified, Alexander turned his attention towards India. During this time a new plot on his life was uncovered, with Callisthenes, nephew of Aristotle, leading it - p. 49
  • Callisthenes was killed. Reason for the plot was many people including Callisthenes disliked how Alexander was becoming Persianized
• Alexander got as far as the Beas River (North India) defeating all people before that (in modern Pakistan). At this point his army simply refused to continue - p. 50
  • he was shocked to hear that the world didn’t end at India but that there was much more land beyond. He wanted to continue but his army didn’t
• On his way back home, once he arrived at Babylon he died from fever while planning for more conquests against Arabia, Carthage, and possible the northern Steppe. He died in 323BC - p. 51

Chapter 3: The Prize of Conquest

• the 1000 year period between Alexander’s conquest and Islam’s conquest in Afghanistan (roughly 320BC - 640AD) are a “dark period”, there’s very little writing about Afghanistan during this time - p. 53
• following Alexander’s death, since he had no successor, things fell apart - p. 54 - 55
  • his unborn child (in Roxanne’s womb) and his mentally challenged brother took over as co-kings, but only lasted 2 years
  • his commanders took over various parts of his empire
• Segmentation of the empire:
  • Ptolemy took over Egypt, which lasted under his dynasty until Cleopatra
  • Seleucus took over the central and eastern parts of the Persian Empire
• Seleucus’s rule:
  • since his part of the empire was so large, he had to re-conquer it all, giving him the name Seleucus I Nicanor (conqueror)
  • many of the Greek garrisons left in Alexander started to leave once they heard of their king’s death
  • in order to Hellenize the area and re-gain control, he sponsored a huge immigration policy for settlers from Greece/Balkans to move to the east into Persian and Afghanistan. This policy was successful.
  • in 305BC a new power rose in India, the Maurya Empire. The fought against Seleucus and gained the south of Afghanistan, excluding Kandahar (Alexandria-in-Arachosia) - p. 56
• War of the Successors in 301BC - p. 56
  • Alex’s empire was divided into 5 parts at this time
    • Macedon & Greece: Cassander (son of Antipater, Alexander’s regent in Macedonia)
    • Thrace: Lysimachus
    • Egypt: Ptolemy
    • all eastern territories from the Euphrates to the Oxus: Seleucus
    • Asia Minor and Syria: Antigonus ‘the one-eyed’ and his son Demetrius
  • Lysimachus and Seleucus teamed up and easily defeated Antigonus, but later on they themselves fought each other and Seleucus won
• 20 years after the war of the successors, Alex’s empire was divided into thirds:
  • Greek/Balkan world under a revived Antigonid dynasty
  • Egypt under Ptolemaic dynasty
  • the east under Seleucid dynasty
  • Asia minor, Syria, and Palestine remained a battle ground for whoever was strongest at the time
• Maurya Empire: - p. 57
  • they continued to conquer more of Afghanistan, now controlling Kandahar, Ghazni, and Kabul
  • the founder’s (Chandragupta) grandson, Asoka, assumed the throne eventually and converted his empire from Hinduism to Buddhism
  • Asoka spread Buddhism all throughout his empire
  • after his death, the Maurya began to collapse
• Weakening of the Seleucid empire - p. 57
  • their decrease in power started in 250BC when the Parthians (related to Scythians) came down from the Steppe into Afghanistan, while simultaneously the governor of Bactria, Diodorus, began to asset his independence creating the Greek-Bactrian Kingdom
• Greek-Bactrian Kingdom - p. 58
  • it survived for 3 centuries, completely isolated from the Hellenic world
  • they conquered the west, Herat, from the Parthians
  • they conquered as far north as the Jaxartes and Xianjing in China
• Alliance of Seleucid and Bactria - p. 58
  • in 209BC, the new king of the Seleucid empire went conquering eastwards taking Areia and Arachosia, but came to an alliance agreement with Greek-Bactrian kingdom, deciding it’s better to unite and protect Hellenistic world from their new enemies, Parthians and others
• Seleucid vs Roman Republic - p. 59
  • around 190BC is when the Romans had control over the Greek world. Seleucid empire attacked but were defeated
• The Greek-Bactrian kingdom eventually conquered all of Afghanistan pushing back the Maurya. Their last great king became king in 155BC - p. 59
• As the Romans became stronger in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC, the Seleucid’s power decreased. The Parthians basically took over all of Afghanistan and Mesopotamia, rivaling the power of the Romans - p. 60
  • by 50BC or so, the Romans took control of all Greece, Egypt, and Syria, defeating both the Seleucid and Cleopatra
• The Romans attempted the take over Parthia in the battle of Carrhae in Asia Minor - p. 60
  • Parthians won and killed both generals, Crassus and his son
  • this cemented Parthian control over the middle east
• Central Asian tribes moving south in the 1st and 2nd century BC - p. 61
  • both the Scythians and the Kushans had to leave their homes in Central Asia down into Iran and Afghanistan
  • some Scythians (Sakas) settled in Sakastan (Sistan), some went to Kandahar, while others went to Bactria, causing battles between Scythians and Greeks, the latter of which were defeated
  • Greek presence in Afghanistan and India ended in 40BC, the Scythians finally defeating them entirely
  • eventually the eastern Scythians disappeared in Afghanistan… but in reality they didn’t truly disappear. A new ethnic group emerged in this region of Afghanistan south of the Hindu Kush.
    • They were dark-eyes men with heavy beards, fierce warriors with love of individual freedom
    • their language derives from an older Iranian group with touches of Indian, Persian, Aramaic and Greek influences.
    • they submersed the native population into themselves, merging the cultures
    • These people today are known as Pashtuns - p. 65
  • briefly discussed in The Scythians:

    • Saka Migrations Southward

      • this in-turn destabilized the central Asian nomads, like the Saka. The Saka moved south and settled in two major areas:
        • southern Afghanistan/western Pakistan, eventually expanding into southern Iran and creating an area known as Sakastan (now Sistan)
        • India. By 80BC that setup kingdoms in the region

      Link to original

• Parthian vs Kushan - p. 65
  • the Kushans came down from central Asian to Bactria, and by 60AD took many parts of Afghanistan from the Parthians
  • the Parthian-Scythian were defeated
• Who were the Kushans? Caucasian, Iranian-language speakers, but their ethnicity is largely a mystery
• Parthian influence in the east was replaced by Kushan influence, who were more than happy to establish trade with China and Rome. They were in the middle of the Silk Road - p. 66
• Kushan Empire reign - p. 66
  • Kanishka was one of the greatest Kushan rulers, assuming the throne in 125AD
  • his central capital was Peshawar; his summer capital was Bagram on the foundations of Kapish-Kanish and Alexandria-in-the-Caucasus; his winter capital was Mathura in India
  • he was Buddhist
  • Kanishka was the one who mainly spread Buddhism throughout the lands west of India. It was around this time Buddha took a human form rather than being purely symbolic (the swastika being the main symbol)
  • the Kushan empire didn’t last long, but was one of the greatest in Afghanistan, mainly due to the fact it connected all the great civilizations together - Persians, Indians, Romans, and Greeks
  • in 225AD they started to dwindle as a tribe of Scythians came down from Central Asia
• Sassanid Empire - p. 68
  • they started to rise in 225, after Ardashir, grandson of Sassan revolted against the weak Parthians
  • he claimed descent from the Achaemenids and was Zoroastrian
  • the Sassanids conquered most of Afghanistan from the weakening Kushans
• Sassanid VS Romans - p. 69
  • they fought in Asia Minor and the Romans were defeated. Emperor Valerian was captured and died in captivity
  • The Sassanids continued to eat away at Roman provinces in the middle east
• Roman VS Greek Success in the middle east - p. 69
  • why was Alexander so successful while the Romans, being way more powerful, never succeeded in conquering Mesopotamia and beyond?
  • It’s because Alexander attacked at just the right time, right before the Iranian Central Asian and Steppe warriors entered the region. It is evident that it was the Iranian nomads who were the strongest and most skilled fighters. Alexander conquered the east before these nomadic warriors were present, they were still in central Asia!
    • when Alexander was moving north passed the Oxus, as described ion previous chapter, it was an Iranian nomad who posed the biggest threat to him and who was his strongest enemy!
  • The Sassanid army was composed of many Iranian nomadic groups that were subsumed into the Sassanid empire, so the Romans stood no chance at all
• The Central Asian Iranian nomads were tremendously skilled and powerful. After Alexander’s time, they went to conquer Afghanistan, the entire middle east, India, and even eastern Europe - p. 69
  • the Chinese solution to the Iranian nomad problem was the creation of the Great Wall of China, that’s how dangerous they were!
• The White Huns - p. 70
  • also known as Ephthalite or Hephthalite, while the Persians called them Haytals or Aytals
  • they entered Afghanistan in the 4th century AD
  • their ethnicity is largely a mystery
    • they were probably a client people of the Avars
    • Roman historian Procopius said that they are part of the Huns, but they are the only Hun group to have white bodies and “countenances which are not ugly” - p. 71
    • it’s possible they were a branch of the Scythians
    • likely they were a mixture of Indo-Aryan and Turkic
  • they followed Atilla’s larger Hun confederation that invaded Europe
  • they were responsible for introducing the term ‘khan’ to the Afghan people
  • they practices head-binding of children which resulted in oddly shaped skull sizes
  • When they conquered parts of Persian and Afghanistan, they minted coins, which is the little cultural impact they had. It seemed they never abandoned their Steppe ways; they never lived in cities, rather they lived in moving nomadic tents - p. 73
  • they were tolerant of other religions, just like most shamanistic Steppe peoples
• White Huns vs Kushans - p. 72
  • The White Huns basically kicked out the Kushans which ultimately led to their demise
• White Huns vs Sassanids - p. 72
  • the White Huns defeated Sassanids many times, taking provinces of Herat and Merv
  • The White Huns cared more about the riches of India so they shifted their attention towards that direction
  • by the 5th century AD, the Sassanids allied with a Central Asian Turkic group, defeated the White Huns which led to their total collapse - p. 74
  • the remains of the Huns, genetically too, is mainly found in the Indian subcontinent around Punjab. Here is where the Huns faced little resistance.
    • Modern Gujars likely have some ties to the White Huns
• by the 7th century, the Sassanids regained control over all of Iran and Afghanistan, with the border being established at the Indus River with the Indian empires - p. 75
  • at this time, their attention was now towards the Muslim Arabs rising in Arabia
  • the Arabs defeated the Sassanids in every battle, eventually the Sassanids collapsed
• at the end of the 7th century AD the Arabs pushed into Afghanistan taking every major city - p. 76
  • here is where they named Balkh “The Mother of Cities”
  • at this time Afghanistan was primarily Buddhist, followed by Zoroastrian and other shamanistic religions
  • the Afghans did not convert right away. It took many decades for them to become Muslim
• in the 8th century AD, the Turkic Sammanids defeated a weakened Abbasid empire to control most of Afghanistan. They lasted around 200 years, til the late 900s
• The Ghaznavids - p. 76 - 77
  • in 977 a Turkic Slave named Alptigin, part of the Sammanids, staged a coup and started the Ghaznavid empire based in Ghazni. They basically took control over former Sammanid territories
  • King Mahmoud, the third king who assumed the throne in 998, took the Ghaznavid Empire to it’s greatest extent. He invaded many parts of India bringing lots of wealth back to Ghazni
  • Ghazni was such a great city it attracted the likes of Firdausi and Al-Biruni
  • The Ghaznavids pushed back all presence of Hinduism in the Afghan and Hindu Kush region, and they never returned
  • Most of the Punjab was converted to Islam
  • the fall of the Ghaznavids was caused by the rise of the Ghorid Dynasty
• The Ghorid Dynasty - p. 77
  • the came from the mountains of Ghor, central Afghanistan
  • who they actually were, we don’t know; they could’ve been descendants of Kushans, White Huns, or something different
  • they established their capital in Herat
  • in 1140 the Ghorid sacked Ghazni, and in 1186 killed the last Ghaznavid king
  • they collapsed in 1205, after being defeated and absorbed into the Khwarazm Empire
• Khwarazm Empire - p. 78
  • one of the many (Persianized) Turkic groups that came down from Central Asia, the other being Seljuks
  • in 1215 Khwarazm completed the total conquest of Afghanistan
  • the gained riches by bridging commerce between China, Persia, and India
  • At one point in time they were the most powerful Islamic Empire because the Abbasids were reduced to merely a symbolic pawn
  • they didn’t last too long largely due to the fact they were Turkic while their population was Persian and there was too much conflict. And also due to the fact a new Steppe warrior group was rising in the northeast: The Mongols

Chapter 4: The Mongols

• Mongol invasion and destruction left lasting impact that most areas like Merv, Balkh, and Bamyan simply never recovered from - p. 81
  • they destroyed the water irrigation system which to this day left Afghanistan to be a dry desert
• the goal of the Mongols was not conquest, it was destruction - p. 82
• So what made Genghis Khan different and successful? - p. 82 - 84
  • he united all the Turkic-Mongol nomads to create one giant entity
  • they had no stable homeland cause they were nomads. So they always had the advantage in the sense that their enemies had nothing to launch a counter-attack against
  • Steppe warriors for thousands of years have always been superior to everyone they faced. The Mongols shared in those tactics
  • his empire/confederation was so large it could never be absorbed by any opponents
  • Genghis was a great and organized leader:
    • he created the first formal and strict Steppe law
    • he used the script of the Uighur tribe to ensure Mongol language could be written
    • he created a robust military organization and discipline system - p. 83
  • his army was led by not only him, but an array of intelligent and great generals
    • we see this phenomenon often with new empires/armies. They often prefer meritocracy over social status therefore leading to more skilled men in high-raking positions
• Many ancient people during that time referred to the Mongols as “Tatars” simply because the Tatars were the most powerful tribe before the Mongols - p. 83
• Order of high-level events:
  • Genghis united all Turkic-Mongol tribes
  • Genghis attacks and conquers basically all of China, then ruled by 3 different kingdoms
  • Genghis intends on keeping peace with the Khwarazm Empire (ruled by Muhammad II) to the west, considering the King there to be “King of the West”
  • one of Genghis’s merchant groups goes to Khwarazm and are killed by a governor. When Genghis asks the King of Khwarazm for the governors head, he refuses. This started Genghis’s invasions against Khwarazm and the rest of the middle eastern Muslim powers, year is 1219
• When Genghis conquered Bukhara, he made a speech to the people saying: “O people, know that you have committed great sins and that the great ones among you have committed these sins. If you ask me what proof I have for these words, I say it is because I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you. - p. 90
• Why did Genghis’s army always slaughter the people of the city they conquered? - p. 92
  • to prevent a resistance/uprising/rebellion from being formed
  • to associate terror with the Mongol name. They caused people to fear them
• Khwarazm vs Mongol
  • the Mongols ransacked Persia and Khwarazm lands with ease, causing Muhammad II to retreat and eventually die from sickness near the Caspian Sea
  • Muhammad’s son Jalal-al-din takes the throne
  • in 1221, Jalal would serve the Mongols their ONLY defeat against Khwarazm, and their ONLY defeat outside of East Asia for the next 80 years. This happened in Parwan - p. 93-95
    • Jalal’s army was mainly the local Afghan tribes and hill-men/mountain tribes. These were the various tribes of Scythians, Kushans, White Huns, Turks, and maybe even Greeks
    • the result was an outstanding victory for Jalal
  • Genghis personally led the second battle which was a victory for him. Jalal managed to escape
• Why did the Mongols destroy the irrigation system in Afghanistan? - p. 97
  • the native Afghan warriors used these to hide and launch ambush attacks. They killed many Mongols this way. Perhaps the irrigation and cave systems were an explicit target of destruction by the Mongols and not simply a by-product of their general destruction
  • these were the same caves and tunnels used by Mujahideen against the Soviets
• Genghis died in 1227 and was buried in an unknown location in Mongolia - p. 98
  • his Empire continued on with his sons
  • Jalal returned and revived the Khwarazm Empire
• in 1230, the Mongols under Ogadei (Genghis’s son) reinvaded Persia, causing Jalal to run - p. 99
  • Jalal was killed by Kurds while hiding in Iraq
  • The Mongols launched many invasions in Christian Europe, defeating the Christian armies wherever they went
• in 1251, the Mongols sacked Baghdad and killed the Abbasid Caliph. They took Damascus and Aleppo as well.
• in 1240 a raid was made to Lahore, one of the few Mongol invasions against India (they didn’t do much against Indians because the climate was too hot). The Garrison troops were placed in the center of Afghanistan around the Hindu Kush. These people were named after the Persian translation “Hazar” of the Mongol word “ming” which means “thousand”. This is the origin of the Hazara
• in 1281, various cities of Afghanistan started to grow in power and be recognized in maps, like Kandahar, Balkh, and Kabul
• by the end of the 1200s, the Mongol Empire split into 4:
  • Khanate of the Great Khan: ruling Mongolia and China
  • Kipchak Khanate / Golden Horde: ruling Russia and northern Central Asia
  • Jagatai Khanate: ruling Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
  • Ilkhanate: ruling Iran and Iraq
  • this time also brought a change to the Mongol administration: rather than pure destruction, they worked on improving and building up their new respective territories, like any proper kingdom does
• Some Mongols became to convert to Islam in southern Asia, likely the Jagatai and Ilkhanate - p. 101
• Tamerlane was born in 1336. He was to be the next great Mongol conqueror - p. 101 - 103
  • at age 25 he came leader of his tribe. Shortly after, the assumed leadership of his entire nation, the Jagatai Khanate
  • his army was mainly Uzbek with other people like Arabs, Turks, and Tajiks
  • he was equally as ruthless as Genghis and massacred entire towns of people
  • he died in 1405
• Tamerlane’s legacy includes building up the Silk Road, which ended up bringing a lot of wealth to Afghanistan that allowed the rebuilding of Afghan cities - p. 104
• Tamerlane’s successors were not as violent as him and actually build many great structures in various Afghan cities - p. 104
  • following Tamerlane’s death, many Timurid nobles fought amongst each other for power. This allowed Afghan tribes some freedom and eventually a division of the Ghilzai tribe, the Lodis, established a dynasty in Delhi
• the near 2000 year military supremacy of the Steppe nomads ended with a new invention: firepower - p. 103
• the 16th century brought some new empires into the mix - p. 104 - 105
  • In Persia, Shah Ismail Safavi was gaining power with his capital in Isfahan. He was Iranian Kurdish
  • in Transoxiana, Babur was trying to gain power. He failed in Uzbekistan, so he went and conquered Kabul
    • Babur was a descendant of Genghis on his father’s side and Tamerlane on his mother’s side
• Babur conquered all of India, defeating the Afghan Lodi kingdom of India. This established the Moghul Empire which lasted until the mid 19th century - p. 107
• It was during Babur’s time that various Afghan tribes were identified, such as Ghilzai, Yusufzai, and Afridi

Chapter 5: Rise of Afghanistan

• Roughly for the next 200 years, 1500s - 1700s, Afghanistan played an interesting role in the region militarily - p. 109
  • Afghan warriors and mercenaries were desired by all kingdoms, but they never really built a single territory/empire for themselves
  • it was the Afghan military power that could make-or-break a neighboring empire’s entire state
• Neither Babur, Tamerlane, or Genghis could subdue the Afghan tribes… they ransacked the cities like Herat and Balkh, but the tribes remained independent and strong, and only increased in power
• it was around this time (16th century) where a few things happened:
  • the once nomadic, super-strong and feared Steppe warriors became rulers of great cities and empires, thus becoming sedentary and weakened
  • gunpowder! Everyone was using guns
• the equation of sedentary Steppe warriors x gunpowder that produced a new military ‘master-race’, the Afghan conqueror
  • the Afghans stuck to the old ways of the Steppe warrior, but now had the benefit of gunpowder. This is a deadly combination
• Moghuls vs Lodi - p. 111
  • after Babur died in 1530, the Pashtuns under Sher Shah took back Delhi and revived the Lodi Dynasty
  • After Sher Shah died 16 years later, the Afghan Pashtuns descended into infighting which allowed Babur’s son Humayan to take back Delhi. His son, Akbar, ruled for 50 years as the greatest Moghul emperor
• Akbar’s reign - p. 111
  • in 1581 he built the first road through Khyber Pass entering Kabul
  • this was the LAST time any Moghul army had easy passage into Afghanistan
  • in 1586, Akbar started a conquest of Kashmir against the Pashtuns
• Akbar vs Pashtuns in 1586 - p. 112
  • this was a big defeat for Akbar…
  • one army went against the Afridi tribe. Afridi defeated them in Kabul and Peshawar
  • another army went against the Yusufzai tribe. Yusufzai defeated them
  • This was the FIRST ever time any army tried to defeat Afghans in their own natural element. And it was the LAST time for another 400 years
• 16th century Afghanistan - p. 112
  • Safavids in the west, Moghuls in the east, and Ozbeg kingdom in the north
  • every generation Herat and Kandahar fell into a different empires hands
• 17th century Afghanistan - p. 113
  • this was the rise of the Pashtuns, a people organized into many tribes south of the Hindu Kush
  • til this time, Afghans only ever ruled lands OUTSIDE their country, like India (Lodi Dynasty)
  • the 17th century marked the rise of Pashtun nationalism. Pashtun poet-warrior Khushal Khan of the Khatak tribe (b. 1613) wrote about this (see poem on page 113)
• writings from Khushal Khan marked the first time Pashto was written down - p. 113
• 18th century Afghanistan - p. 114
  • by 1707 there were 300 identifiable Pashtun tribes, the most important were Ghilzai and Abdali
  • Ghilzai lived around Kabul and overlooked the route from Kabul to Ghazni to Kandahar
  • Abdali lived around Herat and overlooked the route from Herat to northwest Kandahar
• Safavid attempts to control Afghanistan - p. 114 - 115
  • Sultan Husain, leader of Safavid, installed a new governor of Kandahar who was forcing people to become Shia Muslims. The new governor was defeated by Baloch tribes and in return the Sultan sent another governor and army
  • The Ghilzai tribe fought this second army and lost and their leader, Mir Wais, was sent to Isfahan as prisoner
  • Mir Wais became friendly with the Safavids and eventually got to go back to his home and he rose up his people in rebellion against the Safavid governor in Kandahar
  • The Safavids sent a third army and they were defeated by the Ghilzai
  • 2 years later the Abdali revolted against the Safavid rule
  • The Safavid learned a vital lesson that many before them learned: entering Afghanistan is easy, holding/controlling was something else
• Ghilzai assault against the Safavid - p. 115
  • Mir Wais died in 1715
  • The Ghilzai, under Mir Wais’s son, Mahmud, launched a full scale offensive against the Safavid, defeating the Abdali on their way through Herat, concluding with a 6 month siege of Isfahan
  • Once they broke into Isfahan, they terrorized the city and conquered it in 1722
  • Mahmud briefly became leader of the Safavid Empire
  • Mahmud killed all the Persian nobility and Sultan Husain’s children
  • Mahmud became so crazy that his own people killed him in 1725 - p. 116
• Fall of Ghilzai rule over Isfahan - p. 116
  • Mahmud was succeeded by his cousin Ashraf
  • a Persian named Nadir Khan rose up against the Ghilzai, first defeating Abdali in Herat, then re-conquering Isfahan. Ashraf was killed in 1730
• These incursions into Persia gave the Afghan warriors a big name, and Nadir Khan (now Nadir Shah) even hired Abdali warriors to be his personal bodyguard - p. 116
• Battles of Nadir Shah
  • he swept through Afghanistan, hiring Ghilzai and Abdali tribes to be in his army
  • he then conquered parts of India, massacring the people of Delhi
  • he then attacked Uzbek cities of Bukhara and Samarkand
• difference between the west and the east in 18th century - p. 117
  • the people in the west (like Europe) used paper to spread beliefs or ideas around the monarchs. This caused widespread change. I.e. they were more intellectual over militaristic
  • in the east, the sword was still the most important thing
• Fall of Nadir Shah - p. 117
  • Nadir Shah became a psychopath, killing his own officers. His army revolted, killing him and sending his Abdali guards fleeing led by Ahmad Khan
• Rise of Ahmad Khan and the Abdali tribe - p. 117
  • in 1747 Kandahar, Abdali tribes held a council (jirga) to elect a leader. Ahmad Khan was chosen. He was only 25 years old, the youngest of the candidates
  • Because Ahmad was from the small Saddozai sub-tribe, the bigger tribes didn’t mind him getting elected, and he was an accomplished commander
  • He was given the name Ahmad Shah Durr-i-Durran (Pearl of Pearls)
  • The Abdalis then called themselves Durrani
• The Durranis filled a vacuum of power as the Mughals and the Safavids were at their weakest point
  • at this time sea-trade became more popular, leaving the Silk Road to be barren. This made the ancient rich cities poor
• Durrani conquests under Ahmad Shah - p. 119
  • the Durranis and Ghilzai were mainly unified at this time
  • The Durrani first took Ghazni and Kabul from a Persian governor
  • Then Durrani conquered Punjab and Lahore from the Mughals
  • Then Durrani conquered Herat from the Safavids after a 9 month siege
  • Then Durrani conquered the Safavid capital, Mashhad
  • Then Durrani attempted conquest at Nishapur but were defeated and had to retreat to Herat
  • a year later they went back to Nishapur and easily defeated them with the help of cannons
  • then Durrani conquered the north (Balkh, Mazar, Taliqan, Kunduz) from the Uzbeks
  • then, when Punjab rose in revolt, Durrani squashed them and conquered Kashmir
  • then Durrani went into Delhi and forced the Mughal ruler to acknowledge Durrani sovereignty over Kashmir and Sind
  • with the Mughals reduced to mere vassals, a new Hindu power in the south took hold, the Marathas
  • Durranis and Marathas fought a battle with the Durranis basically wiping out the entire Maratha army.
  • This fighting with the Marathas allowed a new power to rise up in Punjab, the Sikh
  • at the apex of Durrani power in 1762, they controlled all of Afghanistan, Iran’s Khorasan region, nearly all of modern Pakistan, parts of India, and Kashmir
• Ahmad Shah’s election as head of Durrani tribe in 1747 marks the birth of Afghanistan for most, but others disagree - p. 122
  • those who disagree say that Ahmad Shah was more tribal rather than creating a national ‘Afghan’ empire
• Post-Ahmad Shah Durrani empire
  • Ahmad Shah died in 1772 at age 50 from disease - p. 122
    • he was considered by all accounts a good and just ruler, living modestly and caring for his subjects
  • The Durrani empire was still a tribal-structure nation, rather than a real nation-state. So after Ahmad Shah’s death things became unsteady - p. 123
    • while the rest of the world was getting rid of their tribal institutions, Afghans clung to it
  • Ahmad Shah was succeeded by his son Timur. During his team, many lands conquered by Ahmad was conquered by other empires - p. 125
  • Timur had over 30 sons. After Timur died in 1793 and his sons split up his empire and fought against one another
  • one of his sons, Shuja, took power and consolidated it
• Shuja’s reign
  • Shuja faced many rebellions during his time
  • The Ghilzai rose against him many times
  • The Sikhs were growing in power in Punjab and Sind
  • the leader of Herat, another son of Timur named Mahmud, returned and defeated Shuja in battle. Shuja sought refuge in India with the Sikhs
• Mahmud’s reign
  • Mahmud was sadistic and tortured his vizier Fateh Khan, of the Durrani Barakzai tribe
  • Mahmud was then killed in 1818
  • This was the end of Ahmad Shah’s Saddozai tribe. Enter the Barakzai Muhammadzai family
• Dost Muhammad Khan’s reign
  • Vizier Fateh had many brothers in positions of power, one was Dost Muhammad who became the new Durrani leader in 1826
  • the Afghan state had no internal institutions and were weak because of it
  • the only way the Afghan state stayed alive was that the ruler could be followed for profit, and the fact that Afghans were capable of ad-hoc unity to defend against foreign invaders
• Shah Shuja’s return
  • he returned in 1834 to bring back the Saddozai line with the help of the Sikhs but failed
• the Afghans in the early 19th century actually took a step back and devolved back into local tribal government. The dream of a Pan-Afghan state by Ahmad Shah was dead - p. 127
  • most people simply did not care for the central government. They simply wanted to be left alone with their local tribe
  • the Afghans were unaware of how the rest of the world was evolving in terms of state building and politics. Since the 16th century Afghanistan was very isolated, losing its significance in the geopolitical sphere due to the rise of sea-travel and decrease in traffic in the Silk Road

Chapter 6: The Great Game

Background to The Great Game

• ‘The Great Game’ was a proxy war between British and Russian empires from 1846 - 1900
• in the 1800s, to the outside world Afghanistan was an independent nation, little did they know internally Afghans had no unity - p. 129
• by the 1830s there were 4 powers converging on Afghanistan
  • Persia, who took the province of Khorasan
  • Punjab, who conquered Peshawar, the Afghan winter capital
  • Russia coming down from the north
  • Britain coming up from the south
• Rise of Britain and Russia - p. 129-130
  • the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars caused 3 powers to emerge: Britain, Russia, and Prussia
  • Prussia began uniting the Germanic people but were too late to participate in the colonial age
• Britain involvement in India - p. 130
  • as Britain lost their American territories, they looked to India, defeating the Marathas in 1805
  • Britain had full control over Indian by 1832
  • The Marathas were defeated and the Moghuls were cut off from their supply of Afghan warriors due to the Sikhs being in between. This allowed easy conquest for Britain
• Russia involvement in Central Asia - p. 130-131
  • Peter the Great’s dream was to expand south, so the Russians followed through
  • they conquered Caucasus, then went into Kazakh territory
  • Central Asia at this time was ruled by various sultanates from their capitals of Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva
  • they also fought and defeated the Ottomans and Persians, annexing Armenia
• Sikh vs Britain - p. 132
  • They signed a pact to not fight each other, but eventually those fell through
  • Anglo-Sikh wars began in 1845

Afghanistan’s New Role in the World

• Afghanistan assumed a new role: ‘The Crossroad of Asia’
  • The British didn’t need to pass through the dangerous lands of Afghanistan because they heavily relied on sea-travel.
  • The goal was to ensure Afghanistan remained a buffer state between the regional powers
    • the purpose of the Great Game was exactly that
  • The British were anxious due to Russia’s rapid expansion into Central Asia and alliance with Persia. Only Afghanistan was stopping them from entering India
  • Afghanistan went from being a conduit (pre-sea-travel) to a barrier
• Dost Muhammad Khan’s reign
  • during his time, he stayed in Kabul. Territory under his control included the Kohistan hills to the north and Ghazni to the south
  • The Ghilzai tribes independently ruled between Kabul and Punjab
  • The Durranis independently ruled the west and south
  • it would simply be too much work to bring the entire country under centralized control
• British envoy to Dost Muhammad - p. 134 - 135
  • The British wanted an alliance with Dost Muhammad. But they also had an alliance with the Sikhs
  • the problem was that Dost was trying to re-take Peshawar from the Sikhs, and the British could not support that. So the alliance fell through
  • This allowed an open invitation to Russian influence in Afghanistan

Background of the First Anglo-Afghan War

• 2 events worried the British
  • in 1837, the Persians with the help of Russians laid siege to Herat. This was the first Russian encroachment on Afghanistan
    • the Afghans won this after a 6 month siege. Persians retreated
  • second event was that a Russian official went to Kabul and had a meeting with Dost Muhammad
• these events led to the British making the decision to invade Afghanistan in order to protect India from the Russians
  • India was the prize and Afghanistan was the playing field
  • the British purposefully kept Shah Shuja in India for this exact reason, so they can put him on the Afghan throne as a puppet
• The British’s Sikh allies declined to participate. They know damn well how tough the Afghan warriors are, especially in their homeland. They thought it was wisest to sit this one out - p. 137

Anglo-Afghan War Officially Begins

• British & Shah Shuja’s invasion of Afghanistan - p. 139
  • it started with entering Kandahar in 1839. The local rulers, Dost’s brothers, fled
  • The British then entered Ghazni and faced the Ghazni fort. A battle ensued but the British won
  • Dost was shocked at the victory and fled Kabul as the British were marching towards Kabul
  • Shah Shuja was paraded in Kabul and the British invasion concluded
  • The British placed garrisons around east & south Afghanistan, namely Kabul, Jalalabad, Charikar (Parwan), Bamyan, Ghazni, and Kandahar
  • The British knew they haven’t faced the true Afghans, the ones on the hills who were the toughest fighters. And they knew their control wouldn’t last long - p. 144
• The British were pouring lots of money to keep various areas under their control (they couldn’t do it by force)
  • they were funding the rulers of Herat and the Sikhs
  • at this time the Sikhs were turning their backs against the British, because now they feared the only logical choice for the British would be to take over the Sikh lands
  • Shah Shuja was also an unpopular ruler due to him working with foreigners
• return of Dost Muhammad - p. 148
  • in 1840, Dost Muhammad (who had fled north of the Hindu Kush) came back with a new army, composed of residents of Afghan Turkistan, Uzbeks
  • he had varying degrees of success, but eventually voluntarily entered Kabul and surrendered to the British. He was exiled to India
• reasons for unpopularity of Shah Shuja
  • he had heavy taxation policy
  • he had no use for the Afghan tribes (who previously were hired to be part of the kings army) because he relied on the British army, therefore the Afghan tribes were not being funded
  • he was aided by the British and other infidels like Hindus so he was viewed as a foreign ruler
• During the early 1840s, Kabul was relatively peaceful, but Kandahar, garrisoned by a British commander was under constant threat from Durrani and Ghilzai tribes who would attack repeatedly
  • Luckily for the British, Kandahar was easy to defend considering it is on a flat plain, and the British army are accustomed to that while the Afghan tribes are not (they prefer fighting in valleys and mountains)

Chapter 7: The Triumph of the Tribes

Continuation of the First Anglo-Afghan War

• in September 1941, the British had to reduce spending in Afghanistan - p. 157
  • They cut the yearly stipend of the Ghilzai in half. In return, the Ghilzai plundered caravans crossing the Khyber passes
  • They had to reduce the amount of soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. So many of them went to India
• As the British were packing up and leaving, some officers who remained in Kabul were killed by Afghans - p. 161
• The rest of the British troops, officers, and their families were holding out in the cantonment that was built a mile away from Kabul
• The Afghans laid siege at the cantonment and for many days there was constant fighting.
  • The British were relying on a nearby village for food, but the Afghans occupied it.
  • This prompted the British to attack and re-take the village. Their entire army was destroyed by the Afghans
  • Akbar Khan, son of Dost Muhammad was one of the commanders involved on the Afghan side
  • The defeat forced the British to negotiate a way out with Akbar Khan
• Negotiations between Akbar and British
  • it went many days with many offers and counter-offers proposed
  • eventually Akbar Khan called the British commanders including McNaughton to a meeting
  • this was a trap; McNaughton was killed along with the other commanders
• An agreement was reached to allow the remaining British to flee from Kabul to Jalalabad
  • this route was the infamous route through the valleys and mountains
  • this was a tough journey because it was the middle of winter and many Afghan tribes (mainly Ghilzai) were still launching attacks against the British caravan/army
  • Akbar Khan tried to get the Ghilzai to back off, but they refused
  • As each day went by, more and more of the British caravan and army were being killed.
  • At around Gandamak (3/4 of the way to Jalalabad), the final people in the British caravan and army were killed by Ghilzai… mostly
  • There was ONE British person who managed to get to Jalalabad, a man named Dr. Brydon. The Ghilzai managed to kill everyone else

Chapter 8: Victorian Vengeance

Continuation of the First Anglo-Afghan War

• after the Kabul caravan was wiped out, 3 remained:
  • a small garrison in Ghazni
  • an army in Kandahar
  • an army in Jalalabad
• Ghazni was under siege and eventually the Afghans managed to wipe out the army there
• Jalalabad was under siege by Akbar Khan
• Kandahar was under attack but the British managed to repulse the Afghan tribes
  • eventually Kandahar was short on supplies and food and the re-supply army was intercepted by Afghans and defeated
  • The British in Kandahar were ordered to retreat to Quetta, but Nott (British commander there) refused
• Meanwhile in Kabul, Shah Shuja still sat the throne. He decided to go against the British and assemble an army to help Akbar Khan, but Shah Shuja was assassinated - p. 194
• The British under General Pollock assembled in Peshawar and marched the Khyber pass to get to Jalalabad to provide relief from Akbar’s siege
  • they defeated the Ghilzai tribes. This is likely one of the very few times an army forced their way through the Khyber pass, usually you’d have to bribe the Afghan tribes to allow you to go across
  • the Jalalabad siege was lifted when the British defeated Akbar Khan’s troops
• By spring 1842, two strong British armies were back on Afghan soil
  • Kandahar: Nott and General England
  • Jalalabad: General Pollock and General Sale (who was already camping out in Jalalabad)
• in late 1842, General Pollock began his march from Jalalabad to Kabul along the same route that the massacred British army took fleeing Kabul
  • the British saw hundreds of their people killed along these valleys and mountains and it infuriated them and helped them to fight harder
  • they fought many Afghans along this route and defeated them all
  • in September Pollock arrived in Kabul to find the Afghan resistance had disappeared
  • the British took their people back who were being kept hostage
• General Nott from Kandahar also began his march to Kabul. He arrived just shortly after Pollock
  • together they formed a 14k strong army
  • they destroyed the main Kabul bazaar and sacked Kohistan / Charikar as punishment for Afghans killing their army earlier
  • they also sacked and pillaged Kabul
• The British released Dost Muhammad, who retook the Afghan throne - p. 201
  • this marked the end of the first Anglo-Afghan War

Events after the First Anglo-Afghan War

• Dost Muhammad’s second reign started in 1843 - p. 201
  • his son Akbar Khan was appointed vizier, but died in 1845
  • Dost reconquered Afghan Turkestan, Bactria, Kandahar, and Bamyan. He defeated all the local warlords
  • Herat was occupied by Durrani Saddozai, who looked to the Persians for support
  • in 1863, Dost finally conquered Herat
  • he died a few weeks after the Herat conquest, having conquered basically all the territory that encompasses modern Afghanistan
• by 1849 the Sikhs collapsed and Punjab became a province of British India - p. 202
• the 50s introduced lots of problems in India for the British
  • a huge rebellion ensued started by the Moghuls
  • the Moghul line was exterminated and the British took back control
  • 50k+ soldiers were killed
  • during this time, the British feared an Afghan invasion to take back Peshawar. Dost could’ve done it easily but for whatever reason did not. Because of that, to this day Peshawar remained out of Afghan hands despite it being purely Pashtun populated
• after Dost Muhammad’s death in 1863: - p. 203
  • his son Sher Ali took over, but his uncle, Dost’s brother Afzal Khan wanted the throne
  • Afzal’s son, Abdur Rahman, won a series of battles that placed Afzal on the throne in 1866
  • Afzal ruled for 3 years before dying and then Abdur fled to the north
  • Sher Ali took back the throne in 1869
• Russia vs Britain - p. 203
  • the Great Game was still in full force
  • Russia conquered all of Transoxiana but made an agreement with British to not encroach on Afghanistan. It would be off-limits to both powers
  • Russia declared war on Ottomans in 1877 and as they marched on Istanbul, the British navy was ready to defend it. After 6 months they signed a peace treaty

Background of the Second Anglo-Afghan War

• cause of the second Anglo-Afghan war
  • The Russians sent a delegation to Kabul to get Sher Ali’s support to invade British India
  • when the British heard that the Russians were in Kabul, they demanded Sher Ali accept a British permanent delegation in Kabul as well or else they’ll start a war
  • Sher Ali accepted, but the message was received too late… Second Anglo-Afghan War begins in November 1878
• many things changed in between the two Anglo-Afghan wars despite only being 40 years apart from each other - p. 204
  • there were many technological developments that increased the divide between rich and poor nations
    • the British had rail and telegraph lines all around Indian up to the Afghan border
    • at sea, steam replaced win which allowed faster and larger ships to deliver troops
    • the Suez canal cut the travel time from Britain to India in half
    • a new much more efficient rifle was being used by the British
  • the British now also had the advantage of being familiar with Afghans and their lands. They also had Sikhs in their army who were very familiar with Afghans

Second Anglo-Afghan War Officially Begins

• Sher Ali’s reaction to the British declaring war - p. 205
  • he tried to raise a 50k army but most soldiers were loyal to their tribes and not the king
  • he fled to Mazar to get the Russians to help, they refused
  • he died in Balkh in Feb 1879 and is succeeded by his son Muhammad Yaqub Khan
• the British begin their invasion, easily defeating Afghans on their way
• Yaqub Khan and the British signed the “Treaty of Gandamak” in May 1879 - p. 208
  • the Afghans ceded some valleys near Quetta and the Khyber Pass
  • the Afghan handed over foreign affairs to the British
  • British were allowed a permanent mission to settle in Kabul
  • in return Yaqub received a 60k a year and support against outside aggressors
• a few months later, the entire British mission in Kabul were killed by Afghans
• General Roberts, stationed in the Kurram valley, led an army to take Kabul in October 1879 at retaliation for the British deaths - p. 210
  • he was victorious and killed many citizens of Kabul who he suspected of treason to Yaqub Khan
  • Yaqub Khan turned himself in
• Various Afghan rose up in Jihad against General Roberts just 2 months later - p. 211
  • this Jihad was called by a mullah named Mushk-i-Alam from Ghazni
  • alongside him was Wardak chief Muhammad Jan, an excellent general
    • he defeated the British in one battle outside Kabul
    • at one point he commanded 40 THOUSAND men
  • eventually General Roberts was victorious
• The British needed to get out of Afghanistan, but they couldn’t go without ensuring there’s stable leadership, so they supported Abdur Rahman Khan
  • Abdur Rahman came back from Turkestan with an army of 100k armed with good rifles. They had assistance from Russia
  • Although he was Russian influenced, the British still backed him cause they believed he could hold power effectively. And they had no other option.
• Meanwhile in Kandahar, Ayub Khan (brother of Yakub Khan) the ruler of Herat (and supported by Persians) attacked the British army in Kandahar with 20k men - p. 215-216
  • the British had 2500 men, albeit with much better equipment and guns
  • they were fighting in the Kandahar terrain, which gave the British the advantage
  • half the British army were killed. The other half retreated. Afghan victory
• In retaliation of this Kandahar defeat, general Roberts went from Kabul to Kandahar with 12k troops and defeated Ayub Khan
  • at this point, Roberts and the Kandahar army as well as the Kabul garrison went back to India
  • this concludes the Second Anglo-Afghan war in 1880
• So, what was the point, or the outcome of this second Anglo-Afghan war?
  • was it really a British victory? Not really. They achieved nothing and lost many soldiers
  • General Roberts upon returning to England said: “The best thing is to leave (Afghanistan) as much as possible to itself… the less the afghans see of us the less they will dislike us. Should Russia in future years attempt to conquer Afghanistan, or invade India through it, we should have a better chance of attaching the Afghans to our interest if we avoid all interference with them in the meantime”
  • in other words, they learned the lesson many before them already learned the hard way: don’t mess or interfere with the Afghans. Simple as that.

Events after the Second Anglo-Afghan War

• Wakhan corridor - p. 218
  • in 1895, the British gave the Wakhan corridor to Afghanistan, just so there’s no shared border between Russia (Tajikistan) and British India
  • the Wakhan corridor is a long sliver of land that connects China to Afghanistan
• The reign of the ‘Iron Amir’ - p. 218
  • he took many steps to dismantle the tribal system to reduce their power
  • he forcibly converted the Nuristanis to Islam
  • he forced 10k Ghilzai families to immigrate north of the Hindu Kush
    • 2 impacts: reduced Ghilzai power in the south, increased Pashtun influence in the north
  • unlike previous rulers, he ensured succession after his death (1901) would be smooth. And it was. Power went to his son Habibullah
• Habibullah reigned from 1901 to 1919 when he was assassinated. Unknown who did it - p. 218
  • his rule was calm overall. He was more like a British provincial governor than an independent ruler
• Habibullah’s son Amanullah took power in 1919.
  • He inherited a kingdom that held a lot of animosity towards the British
  • during this time, Afghan tribes on either side of the Durand land raided British India attacking British forts, etc. They hated the British

Third Anglo-Afghan War Officially Begins

• Third Anglo-Afghan War was started as a call to Jihad by Amanullah in May 1919 - p. 219
  • Afghans had lots of success at the beginning
  • The British suffered heavy losses. At a last resort, they bombed Jalalabad and Kabul
  • within a month both sides realized this is a stupid war and stopped
  • they signed a treaty in Rawalpindi in 1919
    • Amanullah was stripped of his financial subsidy from the British
    • arm shipments from India would stop
    • Afghans were forced to recognize the Durand line
    • What did Afghans get in return? Afghanistan was to be “free and independent in its internal and external affairs”, i.e. Britain finally relinquished control over Afghan foreign affairs
      • This is marked as the birth of the modern Afghan nation
    • the British didn’t need to still have control over Afghan foreign affairs, after all, the Russian Empire fell after WW1 and the Communists took over. The communists were not a threat because they were busy with internal conflict and turmoil.
    • The entire time Britain was simply concerned that Russia would invade British India. That sums up “The Great Game”

Chapter 9: The Soviets

Relationship Between the Soviets and Afghanistan

• Since the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1919, Afghanistan and the Soviets were very close
• each nation were the first to recognize each other’s states
• Soviets supported Afghanistan under Amanullah through financial aid, building telephone lines, building highways, sponsored a textile factory in Herat, started their air force by providing 11 military aircraft, etc
• both nations signed a friendship treaty in 1920
• So why did the Soviets have such a vested interest in being friends with Afghanistan?
  • during the Russian Civil war, communists vs tsarist forces, the communists were attempting to fully control Central Asia
  • they were worried that Afghanistan would become a safe-haven and launching ground for Muslim resistance groups to fight against the Soviets in Central Asia

Amanullah’s Reign

• he reigned from 1919 to 1929
• him and his wife, Queen Soraya, were the first Afghan royalty to embark on a world tour to visit other foreign world leaders
  • Soraya went unveiled which stirred a lot of controversy in Afghanistan
• he wanted to modernize his country
  • he insisted to the tribal leaders during a Loya Jirga that they shave their beards and wear top hats
  • he announced compulsory education for women
• these policies made him unpopular
• in 1928 an uprising by Tajik in Kabul took place. In 1929, they conquered Kabul and Amanullah fled
• Amanullah eventually settled in Italy where he would die in 1960

Nadir Shah’s Reign

• 9 months after the Tajik took over, Nadir Shah assembled an army of Pashtun tribes and took back the country
  • The Tajik and his people were hanged
• Nadir Shah became the next king
  • he was of the Muhammadzai line of Durrani tribe, same as Amanullah
  • Amanullah’s great-great-grandfather was Dost Muhammad Khan
  • Nadir’s great-grandfather was Sultan Muhammad Khan Telayee, the older brother of Dost who ruled before Dost
• Nadir was also determined to modernize the nation but preferred a slower approach than Amanullah
• Nadir reigned from 1929 - 1933, when he was murdered by a Hazara
• the throne went to Nadir’s 19 year old son, Zahir Shah, but in reality the country was ruled by Nadir’s brothers

International Scene and Changes Until WW2

• in 1934 Afghanistan joined the league of nations
• the US established ties with them
• Germany and Japan also established close ties with Afghanistan
• Nazi Germany was a close ally of Afghanistan
  • they built a damn and irrigation projects
  • the built Afghanistan’s first railroad
  • they also sent lots of German scholars to investigate the Nuristani people (Nazi pursuit of Aryanism)
• Afghanistan remained neutral during WW2
• WW2 brought the power of an air force to the front and sea power wasn’t as important anymore. This is why Britain lost most of its power
  • they lost India in 1947
  • India and Pakistan shortly went through partition to split along religious lines
• Afghanistan and Pakistan immediately did not get along because Pakistan refused to readjust the Durand line to unify the Pashtun people under Afghanistan

Afghanistan During the Cold War

• in the 50s Soviets invested heavily in Afghanistan by building dams, roads, airfields, school, and irrigation systems
• At the same time, the US also invested in Afghanistan
  • mainly south of the Hindu Kush while the Soviets focused on north of the Hindu Kush
• Pakistan was aligned with the US, so because of that Afghanistan was excluded from any international treaty or organization (NATO, CENTO, etc)
  • in order for aid and military help, the Afghan prime minister Muhammad Daoud turned to the Soviets
• during this time (50s to 70s) almost 4000 Afghan officers received military training in the Soviet Onion
• over the course of these decades, the Soviets poured a few BILLION in aid to Afghanistan
  • they built many highways and passes through the mountains… why came in real handy during the invasion

Reign of Muhammad Daoud

• he was the prime minister under King Zahir Shah, but he did most of the work
• in 1961 Pakistan closed it’s Pashtun border. Muhammad Daoud wasn’t happy with that
  • until that point, Pashtuns would freely cross
• in order to root out extremists, he had his female family members go out in public unveiled. Once the mullahs complained, he had them arrested - p. 227
• in 1963, Daoud’s policies started impacting the country negatively
  • overflowing prisons
  • stagnated economic progress
  • tribes and leaders were upset because Daoud was very controlling
• Daoud was asked to step down and he complied
  • Zahir Shah and the rest of the government wanted to decentralize power and give it to the people (i.e. the local tribes) and as well as implement a more liberal constitution

Birth of Communism Inside Afghanistan

• in 1965 the PDPA was founded in the home of Nur Muhammad Taraki in Kabul
• they had funding from the KGB
• the party broke up into 2 groups
  • Khalq (the people), Parcham (banner)
• Taraki and the Khalq were Pashtun mainly and more radical
• Babrak Karmal and Parcham were willing to work inside the system

Return of Muhammad Daoud

• since he was asked to step down in 1963, the next 10 years were rough for Zahir Shah
  • his rule was ineffectual and there was a lot of conflict within the country - p. 229
  • he was not able to establish stability in the country
• in 1973, while Zahir was in Italy, Muhammad Daoud took power and established a Republic, getting rid of the Monarchy
• the PDPA helped him gain power, but once he took office he didn’t like how close the Soviets were getting to Afghanistan so he purged his government of communists
• he ruled with an iron fist, imprisoning all his political opponents, including leftists and Islamic extremists
• in 1977 Daoud had a meeting with Brezhnev where the Soviets were complaining about Daoud’s policies on getting closer to the Arab nations
  • Daoud said Afghanistan is an independent nation and could do what they want… this was the straw that broke the camels back
• Although Daoud had a tight grip on his government, the army officers were all Soviet trained back in the 50s to 70s
• in April 1978, a prominent Communist activist was assassinated and Daoud implicated
• that very same month the communists surrounded Daoud’s palace in Kabul, killed him and his whole family, and established communist rule in the country

Establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (Communists)

• Taraki was made president and Karmal deputy premier - p. 231
• due to Karmal being of the Parcham faction, Taraki got rid of him by sending him off as an ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Muhammad Amin became deputy premier
• in the same year (1978) the Communist party revealed their plan and new policies
  • equal rights and female education
  • national language status for Uzbek Turkmen Baloch and Nuristani
  • credit reform
  • land distribution
• In response, riots broke out
  • these policies went against the socioeconomic structure of Afghan rural society
• the riots quickly turned to armed rebellion. The tribes rose up and fought against the communist army
• The communist government was slowly collapsing
  • Taraki was killed (likely by Communists), and his deputy Amin took over
  • the resistance was growing, with many communist soldiers joining the ranks of the resistance
  • the US started arming the resistance
• the Soviets decided to intervene
  • the first deposed Amin, thinking that placing the blame on the Khalq faction would solve the issue. They would place Karmal, a Parcham as head of government
  • this didn’t help, so they dispatched their military on Afghan soil
  • this was per the “Brezhnev doctrine” that states any communist regime under threat needs to be helped by the Soviet Union
  • the Soviets expected this to be an easy and smooth operation cause they’ve dealt with rebels before in Hungary and Czechoslovakia

Cold War Realities

• why did the US have a vested interest in Afghanistan?
  • they had recently lost Iran to the Islamic uprising
  • they no longer had any type of connection to the region, and therefore no logistical advantage on a Soviet border. By getting Afghanistan under their wing, they would re-gain those advantages by bordering the Soviets
• why did the Soviets have a vested interest in Afghanistan?
  • they always feared a Muslim uprising, considering they have 10s of millions of Muslims in their own territory (Caucasus, Central Asia)
  • these Muslims lands were hard to control too, so a Muslim rebellion would be detrimental
  • Iran just went through an Islamic revolution which might’ve inspired Muslims in Soviet territory to do the same.
  • the Soviets would’ve preferred Afghanistan NOT to also fall into the hands of Islamic extremists as that would’ve further inspired Muslims in Soviet territories
  • the Soviets have been building and funding Afghanistan since 1919. If the PDPA fell, that would’ve been for nothing

Soviets Soldiers Land on Afghan Soil

• on Christmas Eve 1979 the Soviet army landed in Afghanistan
• by Dec 27, 50k soldiers were in the country and invasion officially began
• Amin was immediately deposed and killed and Karmal took his place
• by the end of December there were 80k troops deployed
• The Soviets very quickly captured and controlled the major ‘ring’ high way (see p 239 for map) and the major cities along it: Kabul, Ghazni, Kandahar, Farah, Herat, Mazar, Kunduz, Jalalabad
• after their initial capture concluded, the calls for Jihad were made and the true fighting strength of the Afghans began to creep out of the mountains - p. 238

Afghan People

• the sedentary people living in the cities were easy to capture. They simply didn’t fight. They had the urban living lifestyle
• the majority of the country were on the countryside, the hills, the mountains. They didn’t care who the government was, they took commands only from their tribal leader
• the rural people valued this above all: individual freedom and defiance to foreign power
  • EVERY single uprising of Afghans was caused when their individual freedoms were being encroached on or if a foreign power invaded
• Communist theorists always considered Afghanistan the worst place to have a Communist revolution - p. 238

Soviet Initial Reaction / Early Stages of the Invasion

• the Soviets’ biggest concern invading Afghanistan was the potential for the US to also send their army and an all-out war would start
• soon after the invasion started and the Soviets took over major cities, they started to face a new enemy. An enemy they did not anticipate: the Mujahideen
• the Soviets thought they were entering Afghanistan to support the Afghan Army, but they were in fact facing it!
  • Basically saying that most of the Afghans were NOT in the government’s military, they were part of the Mujahideen

Chapter 10: The Mujahideen

• The Afghan army shrunk from 90k to 30k by the mid 80s
  • they simply didn’t want to fight against the Mujahideen, rather they joined them and brought their Soviet weapons along with them
• the initial Red Army consists of many soldiers from the Soviets Muslim lands. This backfired
  • the Soviets couldn’t trust them because their loyalties were divided
  • the Soviets sent those soldiers back home and replaced them with non-Muslim Russians
• the Soviets had many advantages over the Mujahideen
  • they had better guns that operated at longer range
  • they had air force power
  • the guns the Mujahideen used were old and not effective against Russian armor
• Tactics of the Mujahideen
  • Afghan warriors are used to fighting in large armies in a disorganized manner. But that proved in effective against Russian firepower, so they switched to smaller units of 10-30 men
  • their main tactic was the use of ambush attacks, especially along the tight mountain passes and valleys
• The Mujahideen were NEVER a unified group; they all had their own commanders and tribal leaders - p. 248
  • this is what makes their victory even greater. They were a disorganized resistance that beat the world’s superpower
• The Soviet answer to the Afghans tactic of using the mountains to their advantage, was relying on air power to defeat the mountain-men
• Pakistan started supplying the Mujahideen in 1982, so they went from using old weapons (even WW1 era) to using AK-47s, RPG-7, and grenade launchers - p. 250
• Why did Pakistan support Mujahideen?
  • it was obvious the Soviet objective was to control Afghanistan, then proceed down to Pakistan’s Baluchistan province so they can reach the Arabian Sea. Pakistan did not want a war with the Soviets
  • The Pakistan President, Zia, was generally disliked by many, especially the west. By helping the Mujahideen he could support the cause of Islam while also fighting the Crusade against Communism
• What risks did Pakistan face by supplying Mujahideen?
  • the Soviets might get mad at them for supplying the resistance
  • Pakistan would have to ‘cede’ the northwest Frontier province to the Pashtun Resistance as a base of operations
• China, Egypt, and Saudi also started to send money and guns to the resistance - p. 251
  • Iran supported various Shia Hazara resistance groups, but they were in a war with Iraq so couldn’t help much
• Soviets vs Panjshir
  • the Soviets launched many attacks all of which failed
  • the biggest attack so far was in May 1982 when the Soviets deployed 15k troops just to capture Panjshir, opposed by Ahmad Shah’s 3000 troops
  • 2 weeks of battle latter and the Soviets retreated in shame
  • the Soviets came back and managed to conquer Panjshir valley but left after a few weeks after hundreds of their soldiers died
• in 1983, some Mujahideen factions were attacking each other
  • during this time the war with the Soviets died down after Brezhnev died
• in 1984 Zia organized a meeting with the 7 Afghan resistance parties in Peshawar
  • 4 parties were more staunchly Islamic and wanted an Islamic government
    • Gulbudeen Hekmatyar
    • Burhanudeen Rabbani: he had Ahmad Shah and Ismail Khan on his side
    • Rasul Sayyaf: he had support from Saudi Arabia
    • Yunis Khalis: he had split from Hekmatyar earlier. He had Abdul Haq on his side
  • 3 parties were more moderate and wanted a constitutional government
    • Nabi Muhammadi
    • Ahmed Gailani: supported restoration of monarchy
    • Sibghatullah Mojaddedi
• by 1984 the PDPA was becoming a bit more steady
  • their army increased to 40k, largely due to more conscription
• the Red Army committed many atrocities against civilians, largely due to not being successful against Mujahideen fighters
  • they needed to take out their anger somehow
• in 1984 the Red Army took it a step further: constant carpet-bombing against rural areas and deployment of mines all around the country, many of which were disguised as children toys
  • these mines were not meant to kill but rather take off limbs. They figured injured resistance fighters are more of a headache than dead one for the resistance commanders
• Soviet vs Panjshir, “Panjshir 7”
  • in 1984 the Soviets launched their biggest attack yet with a force of 20k vs Ahmad Shah’s 5k
  • the Soviets completely changed their tactics which shocked Ahmad Shah
  • the Soviets won and captured the valley and even stationed garrisons along the valley
  • a few months later, Ahmad Shah came back and retook the valley
• in 1985 the war went to a new level
  • Gorbachev became the new Soviet leader and gave free reign to the Red Army
  • at the same time Raegan won a reelection and signed a bill to give half a billion dollars to the Mujahideen
  • Islamic fighters from around the world came and joined the battle
• in 1986 Karmal was forced to step down and was replaced by the head of the KHAD (secret police), Najibullah
• in 1986, the Mujahideen first used a new weapon that changed everything…
  • the Stringer was given to the Mujahideen by the US
  • it was a heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft rocket launcher
  • Soviet air supremacy finally came to an end
• the introduction of the stinger changed the mentality of the Mujahideen
  • at first, their objective was to outlast the Soviets.
  • now, they truly believed they could actually defeat them
• in 1987 Gorbachev announced retreat, with retreat actually starting in 1988 and concluding on Feb 15 1989

Chapter 11: The Rise of the Taliban

Battle Between Mujahideen and DRA Post-Soviet Retreat

• after the Soviets left, the Mujahideen established AIG (Afghan interim government), consisting of all 7 Sunni Mujahideen groups
• in March 1989, the Mujahideen laid siege to Kabul but eventually lost. Why did they lose?
  • the biggest reason was because they were unorganized. The various leaders still did not want to cooperate with each other. So the assault was very unorganized and not coordinated
  • after losing 3k men, the Mujahideen backed off from Kabul
• Hekmatyar leaving AIG - p. 272
  • In July 1989 Hekmatyar attacked a convoy of Ahmad Shah’s men, killing 36
  • Ahmad retaliated and captured the perpetrators and hung them
  • Hekmatyar then left the AIG and went solo
• the Soviets continued to deliver $300 million in aid to Afghan government a month
• Many Arab volunteers helped the Mujahideen, but this was simply to gain combat experience. They then went on to commit terrorist acts around the world under the banner of various terror organizations
  • the Arabs mainly joined Hekmatyar or Sayyaf’s group
  • Osama Bin Laden created his own group
• Osama Bin Laden activities in Afghanistan
  • he first visited in 1980 by command from Saudi intelligence
  • by 1982 he established a base in Pakistan to provide aid to Mujahideen
  • since he was wealthy, he was able to carve out caves and tunnels in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan
  • he left in 1990 after seeing the infighting between the Mujahideen
  • he created an organization to aid and support the 35 THOUSAND Arab veterans of the Afghan war. This group later became known as Al Qaeda
• in 1990, Najibullah survived a coup attempt by a Khalq communist, Shah Nawaz Tanai - p. 274
  • Shah Nawaz later joined Hekmatyar. What loyalty did they have in common? Both Ghilzai Pashtuns
• The Mujahideen in 1990 and onwards went back to their guerilla style warfare, launching ambush attacks on major roads, etc
• at this point, the Afghan Communist army was 60k strong
  • they also had the help from local militias
  • one of the most prominent was Abdul Rashid Dostom, who created his own mini-state in Afghan Turkestan
• In May 1990, the UN devised a peace plan with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, US, and Soviets, but the Mujahideen rejected it
  • earlier in the year they made good progress taking back their country so they probably thought the peace plan was bogus
• in October 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. The Afghan communist government was now on its own with no funding being sent to them
• in Feb 1992 Dostom turned against the communists and joined Ahmad Shah in capturing Mazar-i-Sharif - p. 276

Collapse of DRA and Najibullah’s Government

• in April 1992, Najibullah disappeared, the commander of KHAD committed suicide, and the Mujahideen had Kabul surrounded
  • by pressure from the US, the Mujahideen leaders established the Islamic Jihad Council to decide the future of the government, but this was created too late…
  • the battle for the capital began
• on April 28 1992, Dostom + Ahmad Shah managed to kick out Hekmatyar’s army out of Kabul
  • Hekmatyar had a larger army, but Ahmad Shah was a superior commander and had an organized military
• New government established by the Islamic Jihad Council
  • Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was named President
  • Ahmad Shah Masoud was named Minister of Defense
  • Ahmed Gailani was named Foreign Minister
  • Abdul Rasul Sayyaf was named Minister of the Interior
  • Hekmatyar was named Prime Minister but he refused this role
• The new government made a lot of sense. They included all prominent members of the Mujahideen. So why didn’t it work out?
  • Kabul fell not to Pashtuns, but to the better-organized Tajiks and Uzbeks. This was a psychological blow to the Pashtuns like Hekmatyar. He simply could not accept this agreement

Civil War Between Mujahideen Factions

• Mojaddedi was quickly replaced by Rabbani
  • now the government ‘strongmen’ were Rabbani, Dostom, and Masoud. All non-Pashtuns
  • this prompted Hekmatyar to start bombing Kabul
• during the Soviet war Kabul was left intact; the fighting happened in the countryside.
  • now the fighting was happening in Kabul and the city was destroyed
  • 30k Kabul citizens were killed
• by 1993, the fight for Kabul continued
  • Ismail Khan, a Tajik under Rabbani’s banner, established order at Herat with Iranian help
  • Pashtuns controlled Kandahar
  • the North was independent under Dostom’s administration
  • Dostom and Masoud fought over Kunduz
• with the loss of external aid, how did the Mujahideen sustain themselves?
  • they got rich off the opium trade, supplying 70% of the world’s opium
  • they justified it by saying the end-users are infidels so it doesn’t matter
• Iran unified the various Hazara Mujahideen factions under one umbrella
  • this unified group joined Hekmatyar in attacking Kabul
• in early 1994, Dostom joined Hekmatyar in attacking Kabul
• in mid 1994, Masoud still held on to Kabul, but he heard about an entirely new group formed in the south, the Taliban

Rise of the Taliban

• in Kandahar, a local strongman/ruler raped several girls in the summer of 1994. This prompted the people to turn to Mullah Muhammad Omar for help
• Mullah Omar with his students executed the rapist and gained a “Robin Hood” type name for themselves
• soon many civilians of neighboring villages called to Mullah Omar for help against local warlords and tyrants
• The Pakistan government asked the Taliban for help rescuing a convoy that was captured by a warlord. The Taliban obliged gladly
• The Taliban then turned to Kandahar and captured it within 2 days of fighting
  • some say the commander of Kandahar was bribed with the Taliban
  • The Taliban captured lots of government and Soviet military equipment and guns
• over the rest of 1994, the Taliban gained lots of recruits from the religious schools of Pakistan and refugees who had nowhere else to go - p. 280
  • many of the recruits were orphans and refugees of the Soviet war, not participants. They grew up in the 80s, and by the time 1994 rolled around they were probably 20 years old ready to fight on behalf of the Taliban
• The Taliban established proper order in every place they captured, implementing strict Shariah law
• Taliban vs Hekmatyar
  • in January 1995 Taliban attacked Ghazni, held by Hekmatyar
  • the Taliban were victorious
  • the Taliban proceeded to defeat contingent after contingent of Hekmatyar’s army in southeast and eastern Afghanistan
  • eventually, Hekmatyar was utterly defeated and forced to flee. His entire army either dead or joined the Taliban
• Taliban vs Hazara groups
  • with Hekmatyar gone, Ahmad Shah went after the Hazara who fought against him.
  • the Hazara asked Taliban for help but Taliban killed their leader
  • the Hazara groups dispersed after that
• Taliban vs Masoud
  • at this point, the only players left were Masoud and Taliban
  • Taliban attacked Kabul, launching rockets into the city too
  • Masoud defeated them, which was the Taliban’s first defeat
• Taliban vs Ismail Khan - p. 282
  • after the Taliban’s fled post-defeat in Kabul, they attacked Herat
  • Masoud airlifted 1000 fighters to assist Ismail
  • it was Ismail’s 12k army vs Taliban’s 20k army
  • again, Taliban were defeated, largely due to their inexperience and Iran helping Ismail
• Taliban cry for help - p. 282
  • after these 2 big defeats, the Taliban sent out calls for help in the Pakistani religious schools
  • Pakistan’s ISI assisted in sending recruits to the Taliban
• Taliban vs Ismail Khan part 2
  • in September 1995, after the Taliban’s army was beefed up with new recruits from Pakistan (and trained by the ISI), the Taliban captured Herat
  • Ismail Khan fled to Iran
• Taliban vs everyone else
  • in October 1995, the Taliban were back at Kabul
  • the battle was a stalemate for several months
  • in June 1996 Hekmatyar returned and took his position as Prime Minister in Rabbani’s government
  • Dostom also re-joined Masoud’s cause
  • The Taliban defeated the Hazara unified group under Karim Khalili. So Karim then also joined Masoud’s cause
  • in September 1996, the Taliban captured Jalalabad, then turned their attention to Bagram
  • Masoud knew that if the Taliban captured Bagram, the route north to Panjshir would be cut, and the route east to Pakistan was also cut since Taliban controlled Jalalabad
  • in September 1996, Masoud evacuated Kabul
  • it’s important to note he was never defeated by the Taliban

Taliban’s Reign Over the Country

• Taliban capture Kabul
  • after Masoud left, no one was left to defend Kabul so the Taliban took it
  • first thing they did was find Najibullah and kill him
• Taliban vs Masoud + Dostom
  • in the fall of 1996, the Taliban attempted an attack north of Kabul
  • Dostom and Masoud defeated the Taliban forces and took Bagram
• Taliban offensive in the north
  • after the winter in 1997, the Taliban attack Mazar from the west (from Herat)
  • Dostom was betrayed by his own commander, Abdul Malik, which allowed the Taliban to take the city
  • after the Taliban imposed their strict rule, Abdul Malik and others turned against the Taliban and drove them out
• Masoud called a meeting of all forces opposing the Taliban: this became known as the Northern Alliance
• in July 1998 the Taliban launched a new offensive in the north
  • they captured Taliqan from Masoud and Mazar from Dostom
    • they killed 9000 Hazara in Mazar
• throughout 1998 and 1999 towns in the north continued to change hands, sometimes controlled by Taliban sometimes by Northern Alliance
  • the largest battle took place in Bagram; Masoud defeated the Taliban killing 1000 of their soldiers
  • Taliban captured Bamyan after 2 years of fighting against the Hazara groups
• the Panjshir valley never fell to the Taliban. In fact it remained the only part of the country outside of Taliban control - p. 285

Al-Qaeda

• Osama established Al Qaeda in the early 90s
• the Saudi and Sudanese governments revoked his citizenship so he needed somewhere else to establish his base of operations… since he already had experience there, Afghanistan became a natural option
• in 1998 Al Qaeda blew up 2 American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing 12 Americans and hundreds of Africans
  • in response, the US military launched 72 missiles into Al Qaeda bases around Khost and Jalalabad
• Bin Laden and Mullah Omar worked together in 2000/2001
  • Bin Laden got fresh recruits from Afghanistan, while Mullah Omar benefited from the international network of fighters and scholars dedicated to jihad
• there were other conflicts that caused more recruits to rise up
  • name Israel-Palestine and Pakistan-Kashmir
• just 2 days prior to 9/11, 2 Al-Qaeda suicide bombers killed Masoud
  • one could say this was a ‘gift’ to the Taliban who could never defeat Masoud in battle
• little did the Taliban know, that Al Qaeda were planning their biggest attack yet. An attack that would cause the end and destruction of the Taliban government

Chapter 12: The Americans

• Osama Bin Laden was shocked the world trade center towers completely collapsed
  • he only expected them to burn above the airplanes impact. He didn’t think the entire buildings would collapse
  • this further supports the theory that the US government planted bombs in the towers to cause them to collapse
• At first, the ISI tried to reason with Mullah Omar to hand over Osama. He refused. He wanted clear evidence that Osama did it
• Once US mobilized against the Taliban, the whole world were behind them including Pakistan - p. 294
  • Pakistan created the Taliban but they recognized the monster they made is slipping out of their control

Initial Attack

• On October 7, US and British air force made the first attack in Afghanistan, blowing up various Taliban bases and their small air force - p. 295
• Pakistan discouraged US from air strikes because it might cause the Northern Alliance to retake the country which Pakistan did not want
• Abdul Haq also discouraged the US from air strikes because he said it would cause Afghans to rally with Taliban
• The US themselves realized they didn’t have many military targets to strike anyways
• on October 19 the US launched their first boots-on-the-ground attack with special operatives
  • there were some accidents causing death of US personnel so that discouraged them from more operations
  • the US barely sent any soldiers to the ground. They mainly supported the local tribes and militias with air support
• Abdul Haq attempted to raise a group of Mujahideen Pashtuns but he was caught and killed by the Taliban
• Taliban leaders were laughing at the airstrikes while Northern Alliance leaders were saying it’s not effective - p. 298
  • they simply weren’t hitting Taliban targets

Return of the Mujahideen

• in November 2001, various Mujahideen leaders rose up
  • Ismail Khan returned to Herat and formed a militia. He retook Herat and 6k Taliban soldiers joined his army
  • Dostom returned to the north and took back Mazar
  • Haji Mohaqiq mobilized his militia in Hazarajat
  • Atta Muhammad of the Northern Alliance helped Dostom take Mazar
  • slowly more and more cities in the north were being captured by Mujahideen leaders
• The CIA was deployed to either pay off Taliban commanders to disperse or pay Mujahideen leaders to fight - p. 302

Fall of the Taliban Government

• In November 2001, the Northern Alliance defeated the Taliban multiple times and the Taliban retreated. Northern Alliance took Kabul - p. 302
  • the people welcomed the Northern Alliance
  • strict Islamic rule never sat well with the Kabul people especially after experiencing modernity under communist rule
• on the same day Yunis Khalis captured Jalalabad and Dostom captured Mazar
• the last place to fall in the north was Kunduz, where many pro-Taliban foreign fighters were staying
  • it took a 2 week siege for it to fall.
  • Many of the foreign fighters were killing Pashtun Taliban members who wanted to surrender
• On December 7, the ‘new’ Taliban capital, Kandahar, fell to Pashtun and American soldiers
• On December 9, the last of the Taliban holdouts, in Zabul, fell. The Taliban officially collapsed
• it must be said that the Taliban were not toppled by the west, but rather the Afghans themselves
  • no one liked the Taliban rule. Afghans in general despise centralized government. And the Taliban were extremely strict
  • the Mujahideen had a lot of support from Afghans including Pashtuns
• the north fell by the hands of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and Turkmen, but the south fell by the hand of Pashtuns
  • it goes to show the Taliban never had unanimous Pashtun support

The US’s New Strategy: Proxy Troops

• the US learned a new strategy of warfare: use the local militias as proxy troops and provide them with air support. This way no American has to die - p. 304
• due to the high casualty rate in Vietnam, the US government and the US public had no tolerance for more military casualties - p. 307
• they planned on doing this in Iraq to take down Saddam. They’ll support the Shia and Kurdish militias

Establishment of a New Afghan Government

• in early December 2001, a council of Afghan leaders in Bonn Germany elected Hamid Karzai (Durrani) as the head of the interim government
• this interim government had many Northern Alliance and Tajik members
• very quickly Mujahideen and other chiefs took their places as regional leaders. Karzai was reduced to simply the “American-backed Kabul mayor” - p. 320
• like all empires before America, they learned the eternal lesson of Afghanistan: You can conquer it, but you can’t control it

Hunt for Bin Laden and Mullah Omar

• in December after the fall of the Taliban, Osama was hiding in the east of the country, the Tora Bora mountains
  • the US asked the Mujahideen, mainly eastern Pashtun tribes, to attack his base and capture him
  • Bin Laden got away but his base of operations was destroyed and seized to exist in Afghanistan
• Mullah Omar was never caught.
  • the US sent hundreds of ground soldiers of their own and they couldn’t capture him
• the US did get their hands on many Al Qaeda and Taliban soldiers, many of which went to Guantanamo - p. 312

Chapter 13: Pashtunistan

State of Afghanistan in 2008

• by 2008, Afghanistan was a mess again
• 62k western troops were deployed
  • at the height of US takedown of the Taliban it was only around 8k
• Karzai was simply the ruler of Kabul. The provinces were ruled by local warlords. Corruption was rampant in the Karzai government
• around this time is when Taliban started to do suicide bombing, which likely means they still had Arab help at this point - p. 341
• A British Brigadier said in 2008: “we’re not going to win this war. It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army” - p. 344
• in September 2008, Karzai met with Taliban leaders in Saudi Arabia alongside Hekmatyar who was a Taliban ally at the time
  • Karzai finally realized that taking control of the country via force won’t work and he must forge internal alliances like in the old days
• Pashtuns in Pakistan also adopted the Taliban banner and ideology and started causing issues there - p. 345 - …

What Went Wrong??

1. The US miscalculated the nature of Afghan warfare
   1. When the US ousted the Taliban, they thought they won the war
   2. the countryside and tribal warriors was completely ignored or forgotten by the Americans. Those were the real people that they’d have to face. You can’t just focus on the ‘central government’ that holds no real power anyways
   3. the reliance on air power was wrong; air power does not hold/control ground, soldiers do. The Americans did not understand this
2. Post 9/11 the American goals in Afghanistan became unclear
   1. they wanted to nation build, but weren’t fully committed… Bush had plans to invade Iraq so the planning and money went towards that
   2. they also wanted to wipe out Al Qaeda and the Taliban; neither goal was met
3. America’s faulty assessment of the Afghan/Pakistan border
   1. the creation of this border by Durand created a new invisible country on the map: Pashtunistan
   2. The US trusted that Pakistan would secure the border to prevent Pashtun or Al Qaeda operatives getting through either side… what the US didn’t know is in reality, there is no border, people come and go as they please
4. Misunderstanding of the Taliban
   1. the Taliban was simply a charismatic movement that saw a problem (corruption by warlords) that people needed a solution for. The Taliban was that solution
   2. the Taliban was drew in various people from tribes all over. When the Taliban fell, those people simply returned to their home tribes
5. The Iraq War
   1. all the money, resources, and best military divisions were being deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan was being ignored. This allowed instability to remain unchecked

Return of the Taliban

• in 2006 the Taliban made a big return fighting against coalition troops - p. 333
• the Taliban primarily fought in the south, namely Kandahar
• when the Taliban returned, the came fully trained and fully armed… where were this whole time and who trained them / armed them? It was Pakistan’s ISI

Pakistan’s Stake in the Taliban - p. 336

• Pakistan has always been at odds with India, and have a legitimate fear that India would invade and take over their capital - it’s not too far from the border
• Pakistan would then need a strong ally and some territorial depth in case their eastern part of their country is overrun: Afghanistan
• Pakistan would also hope that the Pashtuns in their country would rise up in their defense, so they NEED Pashtun alliance
• all of these things rely on the fact that the Afghan government is their strong ally, and Karzai never was
  • Karzai was more of an ally of India
• This is why Pakistan preferred the Taliban
• it must also be said many high ranking personnel in the Pakistan ISI and military are Pashtun - p. 337

Taliban and the Future

• if the Taliban and the idea of Afghan nationalism merge, then that may not be such a bad thing. Because at that point you’ll have many ideological factions within the Taliban. Then you can bring the Taliban into the fold of the existing government.
• The new US administration should learn from the last 2500 years of history about the people who always defied conquest. Instead there needs to be more diplomacy, less military action - p. 348

Analysis

Notes

Refer to the summary section for linked ideas and notes.

Main Idea of the Book

This book aims to cover a comprehensive history of Afghanistan from a military perspective going back to the time of Alexander the Great. It includes politics, peoples and ethnicities, geography, and much more.

Reflections

Reading the end of the book (Taliban and the Future), in light of the events as of 2024 is pretty crazy… turns out the Taliban didn’t change, they stayed the same, and eventually took power by force. The US EVENTUALLY learned their lesson and withdrew their troops. Trump was the one who started diplomatic talks with the Taliban, a lesson that should’ve been learned a long time ago

Unfortunately the Taliban don’t represent the entirety of the Afghan people. We don’t know what the future will bring, but it could very much be the case that the Taliban will fall to another group and the cycle continues yet again.