Connecting Histories In Afghanistan

Most histories of nineteenth-century Afghanistan argue that the country remained immune to the colonialism emanating from British India because, militarily, Afghan defenders were successful in keeping out British imperial invaders. However, despite these military victories, colonial influences still made their way into Afghanistan. Looking closely at commerce in and between Kabul, Peshawar, and Qandahar, this book reveals how local Afghan nomads and Indian bankers responded to state policies on trade. British colonial political emphasis on Kabul had significant commercial consequences both for the city itself and for the cities it displaced to become the capital of the emerging Afghan state. Focused on routing between three key markets, Connecting Histories in Afghanistan challenges the overtly political tone and Orientalist bias that characterize classic colonialism and much contemporary discussion of Afghanistan.

Originally published online in 2008 by Columbia University Press.

Located along the busy trade routes between Asia and Europe, Afghanistan was for centuries a place where a diverse set of cultures met and exchanged goods and ideas.

Although extensive literature exists on the violence of war, little attention has been given to the ways in which this violence becomes entrenched and normalized in the inner recesses of everyday life. In Afghanistan Remembers, Parin Dossa examines Afghan women’s recall of violence through memories and food practices in their homeland and its diaspora. Her work reveals how the suffering and trauma of violence has been rendered socially invisible following decades of life in a war-zone. Dossa argues that it is necessary to acknowledge the impact of violence on the familial lives of Afghan women along with their attempts at recovery under difficult circumstances. Informed by Dossa’s own story of family migration and loss, Afghanistan Remembers is a poignant ethnographic account of the trauma of war. She calls on the reader to recognize and bear witness to the impact of deeper forms of violence.

An innovative exploration of how colonial interventions in Afghanistan have been made possible through representations of the country as 'backward'.

Al-Qaeda was unable to realize its lethal potential until it found sanctuary in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden fled after being expelled from Sudan. But why wasn't Al-Qaeda attacked before September 2001? Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy argue that the Taliban in Afghanistan was part of a much wider radical Islamist network in the region, whose true center was Pakistan. Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani Deobandis-all of these groups are based in Pakistan, which continues to serve as the regional hub for Islamist movements and their terrorist offshoots. In this critically acclaimed book, Abou Zahab and Roy investigate the almost twenty-five-year gestation of these interlinked radical Islamist networks of Pakistan, Central Asia, and Afghanistan. Taking into account the networks' divergent histories and doctrinal rifts, Abou Zahab and Roy lay bare the political contingencies that enabled these disparate Islamist movements to coordinate with the aim of attacking what would become their common adversary: the United States.