Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 March 2014
• Author: Smith, Anthony

Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival

Author: Amin Saikal

Published by: I.B. Tauris, London, 2012, revised edition, 389pp, 13.99 [pounds sterling](pb).

Professor Amin Saikal, as the director of Middle East and Islamic studies at the Australian National University, is a highly regarded scholar. He is also originally from Afghanistan. In the voluminous literature on Afghanistan that exists now, what does Saikal offer in this volume? The particular contribution here is to make sense for a general audience of the highly complex world of Afghanistan's politics since the middle of the 18th century.

Saikal starts his narrative with the founding of Afghanistan in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, running through the establishment of the Mohammadzai dynasty created by Dost Mohammad in the 19th century (whose own powerful brothers would spawn rival families for influence), which in turn gave way to Nadiri rule from 1929. The last king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, engaged in a long power struggle with various relatives who functioned at times as regents, and was eventually deposed by his cousin (and former premier) Daoud in a coup in 1973. Daoud's coup, which incorporated leftist elements, would spark a spiral of events that would culminate in yet another coup (the communist coup...