Download or read book New Light on Ancient Afghanistan written by Nicholas Sims-Williams and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bactrian is an ancient language of northern Afghanistan, belonging to the family of Indo-European languages and so related to both Persian and Pashto. This lecture gives a historical overview of Bactrian studies and assesses the importance of recently discovered manuscripts for the field.
Download or read book Afghanistan written by Jonathan L. Lee and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A colossal history of Afghanistan from its earliest organization into a coherent state up to its turbulent present. Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia, and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern Afghanistan is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, but one divided by conflict, political instability, and by mass displacements of its people. In this magisterial illustrated history, Jonathan L. Lee tells the story of how a small tribal confederacy in a politically and culturally significant but volatile region became a modern nation-state. Drawing on more than forty years of study, Lee places the current conflict in Afghanistan in its historical context and challenges many of the West’s preconceived ideas about the country. Focusing particularly on the powerful Durrani monarchy, which united the country in 1747 and ruled for nearly two and a half centuries, Lee chronicles the origins of the dynasty as clients of Safavid Persia and Mughal India: the reign of each ruler and their efforts to balance tribal, ethnic, regional, and religious factions; the struggle for social and constitutional reform; and the rise of Islamic and Communist factions. Along the way, he offers new cultural and political insights from Persian histories, the memoirs of Afghan government officials, British government and India Office archives, and recently released CIA reports and Wikileaks documents. He also sheds new light on the country’s foreign relations, its internal power struggles, and the impact of foreign military interventions such as the “War on Terror.”
Download or read book Games without Rules written by Tamim Ansary and published by Public Affairs. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the author of Destiny Disrupted: an enlightening, accessible history of modern Afghanistan from the Afghan point of view, showing how Great Power conflicts have interrupted its ongoing, internal struggle to take form as a nation
Download or read book The History of Afghanistan written by Meredith L. Runion and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-04-24 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This chronological account traces the history of Afghanistan from pre-civilization to present-day events and considers the future of democracy in Afghanistan. For centuries, Afghanistan has endured control by a gamut of political regimes as a result of its strategic location along the trade route between Asia and the Middle East. The area has been at the center of constant conflict and only in recent years has recovered from the vestiges of warfare. The second edition of this popular reference offers a fresh glimpse at the country, showing modern Afghanistan to be a melting pot of cultures, tribes, and political influences all under the guiding belief of Islam. In addition to thorough coverage of the country's political, economic, and cultural history, the book provides students with an account of recent events in Afghanistan since 2007, such as the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and the removal of NATO soldiers. Other changes include a revised timeline, an updated glossary, additions to the notable figures appendix, and an expanded bibliography that includes electronic resources.
Download or read book The Lost Kingdom written by His Royal Highness Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His Royal Highness Prince Ali Seraj, a member of the royal family of Afghanistan, brings four decades of history to life—from the Cold War era when his famed nightclub in Kabul was a hotspot for global celebrities, jetsetters, and spies, to the communist Soviet takeover that killed members of his family, put a price on Prince Ali’s head, and forced him to make a harrowing escape from his homeland in disguise with his American wife and family. Prince Seraj’s intimate and historic portrait of modern Afghanistan tells the inside story of a proud, ancient culture grappling with a turbulent history of invasion and transformation. His passionate and adventure-filled story opens a new door to understand a nation irrevocably linked to the stability and prosperity of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and to the United States.
Download or read book Lost World of the Golden King written by Frank L. Holt and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-10-18 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on ancient historical writings, the vast array of information gleaned in recent years from the study of Hellenistic coins, and startling archaeological evidence newly unearthed in Afghanistan, Frank L. Holt sets out to rediscover the ancient civilization of Bactria. In a gripping narrative informed by the author’s deep knowledge of his subject, this book covers two centuries of Bactria’s history, from its colonization by remnants of Alexander the Great’s army to the kingdom’s collapse at the time of a devastating series of nomadic invasions. Beginning with the few tantalizing traces left behind when the ‘empire of a thousand cities’ vanished, Holt takes up that trail and follows the remarkable and sometimes perilous journey of rediscovery. Lost World of the Ancient King describes how a single bit of evidence—a Greek coin—launched a search that drew explorers to the region occupied by the tumultuous warring tribes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Afghanistan. Coin by coin, king by king, the history of Bactria was reconstructed using the emerging methodologies of numismatics. In the twentieth century, extraordinary ancient texts added to the evidence. Finally, one of the ‘thousand cities’ was discovered and excavated, revealing an opulent palace, treasury, temple, and other buildings. Though these great discoveries soon fell victim to the Afghan political crisis that continues today, this book provides a thrilling chronicle of the search for one of the world’s most enigmatic empires.
Download or read book New Light on the Most Ancient East written by V. Gordon Childe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a detailed survey on major archaeological discoveries in the Near and Middle East. This classic account focuses on the findings in three great centers of ancient civilization: Egypt, Sumer, and the Indus valley. Professor Childe discusses the excavation of the three cities of Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro on the Indus and Harappa on the Ravi, and what these sites have revealed about Indian civilization in the third millennium B.C. He describes the findings at the numerous tells between Mesopotamia and the Indus basin, and in the three provinces of the Fertile Crescent; the succession of cultures in pre-dynastic Egypt and the rise of the Pharaohs; the findings at Ur and Kish and the development of an urban civilization in Mesopotamia. Throughout the text, the author sets forth the step-by-step gathering of precise archaeological evidence, relating these findings both to the context of their particular culture and to the larger context of the origins of European history.
Download or read book Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan written by Arezou Azad and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about a sacred place called Balkh, known to the ancient Greeks as Bactra. Located in the north of today's Afghanistan, along the silk road, Balkh was holy to many. The Prophet Zoroaster is rumoured to have died here, and during late antiquity, Balkh was the home of the Naw Bahār, a famed Buddhist temple and monastery. By the tenth century, Balkh had become a critical centre of Islamic learning and early poetry in the New Persian language that grew after the Islamic conquests and continues to be spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia today. In this book, Arezou Azad provides the first in-depth study of the sacred sites and landscape of medieval Balkh, which continues to exemplify age-old sanctity in the Persian-speaking world and the eastern lands of Islam generally. Azad focuses on the five centuries from the Islamic conquests in the eighth century to just before the arrival of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the crucial period in the emergence of Perso-Islamic historiography and Islamic legal thought. The book traces the development of 'sacred landscape', the notion that a place has a sensory meaning, as distinct from a purely topographical space. This opens up new possibilities for our understanding of Islamisation in the eastern Islamic lands, and specifically the transition from Buddhism to Islam. Azad offers a new look at the medieval local history of Balkh, the Faḍā"il-i Balkh, and analyses its creation of a sacred landscape for Balkh. In doing so, she provides a compelling example of how the sacredness of a place is perpetuated through narratives, irrespective of the dominant religion or religious strand of the time.
Download or read book Exegisti Monumenta written by Werner Sundermann and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2009 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of forty articles dedicated to one of the most distinguished contemporary iranists, Nicholas Sims-Williams, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on 11th April 2009. It includes an essay on Sims-Williams' outstanding contributions to Iranian studies, especially Sogdian and Bactrian, a list of his publications, editions of various texts written in Sogdian, Khotanese, Parthian, Middle Persian, and Avestan and articles on Old Persian, Middle Persian, New Persian, Bactrian, Balochi, Tati, Judeo-Persian, Caucasian, Uighur philology, linguistics and iconography. The book is illustrated by numerous plates. From the table of contents (40 contributions) A.D.H. Bivar, The Rukhkh, Giant Eagle of the Southern Seas F. de Blois, A Sasanian Silver Bowl A. Cantera, On the History of the Middle Persian Nominal Inflection C.G. Cereti, The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates (Tabula Quilonensis) J. Cheung, Two Notes on Bactrian I. Colditz, The Parthian "Sermon on happiness" J. Elfenbein, Eastern Hill Balochi H. Falk, The Name of Vema Takhtu P. Gignoux, Les relations interlinguistiques de quelques termes de la pharmacopee antique.
Download or read book Into the Land of Bones written by Frank L. Holt and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The so-called first war of the twenty-first century actually began more than 2,300 years ago when Alexander the Great led his army into what is now a sprawling ruin in northern Afghanistan. Frank L. Holt vividly recounts Alexander's invasion of ancient Bactria, situating in a broader historical perspective America's war in Afghanistan.
Download or read book Art Through The Ages in Afghanistan written by Hamid Naweed and published by Author House. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art through the Ages in Afghanistan, written in two volumes is a major work. It is the product of many years of research, including frequents visits to Kabul Museum and important archeological sites in Afghanistan, as well as visits to major museums in Europe and America housing important artifacts from Afghanistan. In completing his work Hamid Naweed has also made use of numerous interviews with Afghan and international scholars, local artist and local people living in the vicinity of historical sites. The second volume covering the art of Afghanistan from the advent of Islam through present time is expected to be published shortly after the publication of the first volume.
Download or read book Resistance at the Edge of Empires written by Cameron A. Petrie and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 797 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1985 to 2001, the collaborative research initiative known as the Bannu Archaeological Project conducted archaeological explorations and excavations in the Bannu region, in what was then the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This Project involves scholars from the Pakistan Heritage Society, the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), Bryn Mawr College and the University of Cambridge. This is the third in a series of volumes that present the final reports of the exploration and excavations carried out by the Bannu Archaeological Project. This volume presents the first synthesis of the archaeology of the historic periods in the Bannu region, spanning the period when the first large scale empires expanded to the borders of South Asia up until the arrival of Islam in the subcontinent at the end of the first and beginning of the second millennium BC. The Bannu region provides specific insight into early imperialism in South Asia, as throughout this protracted period, it was able to maintain a distinctive regional identity in the face of recurring phases of imperial expansion and integration.
Download or read book The Light Garden of the Angel King written by Peter Levi and published by Eland Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient scrolls and beliefs entered the land in the satchels of Buddhist pilgrims and in the baggage of military invaders - from Alexander the Great to Mughal, Persian and Arab conquerors and even the ill-fated armies of the British Raj. This title seeks the clues which each migration left, in the company of the young Bruce Chatwin.
Download or read book A Journey Through Afghanistan written by David Chaffetz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, David Chaffetz and a fellow American student slipped from the protection of Western culture and immersed themselves in the customs, fears, and hopes of the Afghan people, setting out on horseback through the mountains and into a lonely, hermetic world of nomads and isolated villages. Chaffetz's vivid, honest, and often poignant account of their experience reveals a great deal about the people of Afghanistan-and Willard Wood, his traveling companion, contributes a foreword considering the experience of the Afghan people in the new light of autumn, 2001.
Download or read book A Brief History of Afghanistan written by Shaista Wahab and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Silk Road written by Valerie Hansen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history. In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For centuries, key records remained hidden--sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs. The Silk Road is a fascinating story of archeological discovery, cultural transmission, and the intricate chains across Central Asia and China.
Download or read book Afghanistan written by Thomas Barfield and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-25 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
