History Of The Afghans

Joseph Philippe Ferrier (1811-86) was a French soldier who served as a military instructor in the army of Persia (present-day Iran) in 1839-42 and again in 1846-50. He was sent on a diplomatic mission to Europe by the Qajar ruler Muhammad Shah (1808-48, reigned 1834-48), but later fell out of favor with the shah and was forced to leave Persia. He returned to the Persian service in 1846, after undertaking a dangerous overland journey through Afghanistan and Persia in 1844-46. While working for the Persian army, Ferrier reported to the French government and sought to promote French interests in the rivalry with Great Britain and Russia for influence in the country. Ferrier produced two major books based on historical research and his personal observations. Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan and Beloochistan was published in London in 1857; the French edition, Voyages et aventures en Perse, dans l'Afghanistan, le Beloutchistan et le Turkestan appeared only in 1870. The book presented here, History of the Afghans, was published in London in 1858 and is an English translation of the manuscripts of Ferrier made by a British officer, Captain William Jesse. A French edition of the book was never published. The work is a history of the Afghans from ancient times to 1850. Ferrier chronicles the rise of British power in South Asia, which from a French perspective he regrets. In the final passage of the book, he notes that possession of Peshawar in the north and Shikarpur in the south had given the British control of the Indus River, and concludes: "These are the têtes-de-pont [bridgeheads] which command the passage of that river, and give the Anglo-Indian government the power of exercising the greatest influence over the policy of the chiefs of Kandahar and Kabul--may Europe never have cause to repent that she has permitted those conquests which will render Great Britain and Russia all-powerful over this planet." The book contains a detailed fold-out map.

Recent international intervention in Afghanistan has reproduced familiar versions of the Afghan national story, from repeatedly doomed invasions to perpetual fault lines of ethnic division. Yet almost no attention has been paid to the ways in which Afghans themselves have made sense of their history. Radically questioning received ideas about how to understand Afghanistan, Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes asks how Afghan intellectuals, ideologues and ordinary people have understood their collective past. The book brings together the leading international specialists to focus on case studies of the Dari, Pashto and Uzbek histories which Afghans have produced in abundance since the formation of the Afghan state in the mid-eighteenth century. As crucial sources on Afghans' own conceptions of state, society and culture, their writings help us understand the dominant and marginal, conflicting and changing, ways in which Afghans have understood the emergence of their own society and its relationships with the wider world.Based on new research in Afghan languages, Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes opens up entirely fresh perspectives on Afghan political, social and cultural life, providing penetrating insights into the master narratives behind domestic and international conflict in Afghanistan.

Joseph Philippe Ferrier (1811-86) was a French soldier who served as a military instructor in the army of Persia (present-day Iran) in 1839-42 and again in 1846-50. He was sent on a diplomatic mission to Europe by the Qajar ruler Muhammad Shah (1808-48, reigned 1834-48), but later fell out of favor with the shah and was forced to leave Persia. He returned to the Persian service in 1846, after undertaking a dangerous overland journey through Afghanistan and Persia in 1844-46. While working for the Persian army, Ferrier reported to the French government and sought to promote French interests in the rivalry with Great Britain and Russia for influence in the country. Ferrier produced two major books based on historical research and his personal observations. Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan and Beloochistan was published in London in 1857; the French edition, Voyages et aventures en Perse, dans l'Afghanistan, le Beloutchistan et le Turkestan appeared only in 1870. The book presented here, History of the Afghans, was published in London in 1858 and is an English translation of the manuscripts of Ferrier made by a British officer, Captain William Jesse. A French edition of the book was never published. The work is a history of the Afghans from ancient times to 1850. Ferrier chronicles the rise of British power in South Asia, which from a French perspective he regrets. In the final passage of the book, he notes that possession of Peshawar in the north and Shikarpur in the south had given the British control of the Indus River, and concludes: "These are the têtes-de-pont [bridgeheads] which command the passage of that river, and give the Anglo-Indian government the power of exercising the greatest influence over the policy of the chiefs of Kandahar and Kabul--may Europe never have cause to repent that she has permitted those conquests which will render Great Britain and Russia all-powerful over this planet." The book contains a detailed fold-out map.

Rugged, remote, riven by tribal rivalries and religious violence, Afghanistan seems to many a forsaken country frozen in time. Robert Crews presents a bold challenge to this misperception. During their long history, Afghans have engaged and connected with a wider world, occupying a pivotal position in the Cold War and the decades that followed.

Traces the political history of Afghanistan from the sixteenth century to the present, looking at what has united the people as well as the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them.

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.