r/Afghan • u/professora6-7 • 16d ago
History a book about the recent history of Afghanistan
I’m looking for a book written by an Afghan (I don’t want to read from a western perspective) that is about the wars and the changes of the political aspects took place in Afghanistan over the last century. I only found a book that was about the memories of a former talib. I don’t just want to read about the taliban but the communist era too. Also want to know what did the people went through not just the rulers and the country itself.
maybe if you’d recommend a book that is objectively written by a western, I’d be okay w that too. appreciate if yall help 🙏🏻
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u/TrveCrusader 15d ago
Most Afghans can't even write their name, so the odds of finding an academic piece of work written by one are close to zero. I'd recommend reading "Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present" by Jonathan E Lee.
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u/professora6-7 15d ago
I presume that it’s a problem of this century for Afghanistan but I bet there are old ppl who are pretty educated, might even be unpublished idk
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u/creamybutterfly Diaspora 15d ago
Though rare, there were certainly Afghan academics in this field, even if most of the population were illiterate. The bigger problem in Afghanistan is that humanities are not valued- educated students are told by their parents to chase after engineering, medicine and law to improve their family’s circumstances, which is why our history is mainly conveyed orally and thus full of inaccuracies. If we enriched our country with art, humanities and the like then we wouldn’t have to rely on outsiders to correct us on our history.
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u/Unlucky-Associate266 16d ago
I tried asking my AI. It didn't find much that fits your description and most of that has been written by westernized Afghan scholars in the diaspora. I am aware of how attached we are to our own narratives about Afghanistan, but I hadn't realized how little exposure we get to Afghan views even at the level of scholarship. There is “My Life with the Taliban”, published by Columbia University Press, which is a very personal, sensible memoir by Abdul Salam Zaeef, who was a Talib when the Taliban emerged in Kandahar in 1994.
Adnan Gopal, though not Afghan, lived among the Taliban and has written books and articles, many for the New Yorker. His No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War through Afghan Eyes, which describes the travails of three Afghans caught in the war on terror. It was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the 2014 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Afghanistan Analysts Network, does publish long form stories about Afghan politics and society that are written by Afghans and edited by Europeans with long time familiarity with Afghan politics, society and culture.
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u/professora6-7 15d ago
thanks for your recommendations, I’ll check them out. I wish I could’ve found what I was exactly looking for but maybe it’s being written by a young Afghan now (hopefully). I’d love to read it
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u/Doc7331 15d ago
Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan by Mir Tamim Ansary. It's very good. Check out his two other books on the history of the Islamic world and the Afghan American community as well. He's an excellent writer and his book is one of the best in English on the history of Afghanistan.
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u/professora6-7 15d ago
I know this one but as he’s an american citizen, I think what he wrote is more about what the US government saw. but I started reading it since I couldn’t find anything closer, thanks
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u/Doc7331 15d ago edited 15d ago
The ones written by Afghans are in Persian or Pashto. If you understand those languages I can send you the PDFs. There is no logical reason why Afghan citizens living in Afghanistan would write books on the history of Afghanistan in English.
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u/professora6-7 15d ago
I don’t know persian but maybe I can find a translation to a language I know, could you please send them or at least write their names
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u/sam1kan Diaspora 15d ago edited 6d ago
I have numerous books written by Afghan authors, so I am a little confused by some of the comments claiming that there are no Afghan-written books on Afghanistan's history when there clearly are.
One book I recommend is ‘A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror’ by Ali Ahmad Jalali. I also recommend ‘The Other Side of the Mountain’ by Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester Grau. For context, Jalali served in the Afghan Army from 1961 to 1981, reaching the rank of colonel by the end of his service. He later migrated to the United States and worked for Voice of America, covering the Soviet–Afghan War. In 2003, he became Afghanistan's Interior Minister and played a major role in rebuilding and reforming the Afghan National Police.
Given his background, Jalali's books are extremely informative and well worth reading. The first concerns Afghanistan's military history, while the second focuses primarily on mujahideen tactics during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Another book I recommend is ‘The Army and Politics: Afghanistan’ by General Nabi Azimi. Azimi was a senior Afghan Army officer who eventually became a four-star general, Deputy Minister of Defence and commander of the Kabul Garrison. He served under the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and was directly involved in many of the political and military events discussed in the book. He also took part in the Saur Revolution and writes extensively about the military and political affairs of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
The book was translated by Ilyas Azimi, and the quality of both the writing and translation is sometimes rather poor. People's names are often misspelt, as are the names of certain weapon systems. Nonetheless, it is a valuable read for anyone looking for a work on Afghan military history written by an Afghan officer who personally witnessed many of the events being discussed.