Learning from Military, Cultural, and Political History to Build Identity, Institutions and Future

Speech at the Launch of Ali Ahmad Jalali’s Book "A Military History of Afghanistan"

Keypoints: 

• Historical Awareness: Learning from Afghanistan’s military, cultural, and political past.
• Cultural Continuity: Preserving diverse heritage to strengthen national identity.
• Political Insight: Using past governance lessons to guide leadership.
• Institutional Strength: Building accountable, resilient institutions.
• Education & Scholarship: Promoting research, debate, and knowledge.
• Inclusivity & Representation: Valuing contributions of women and minorities.
• National Unity: Shared history fosters cohesion and resilience.
• Forward-Looking Vision: Applying history to build a sustainable future.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Very dear brother honorable Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, writers, scholars, sisters and brothers, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

Honoring the Legacy of Afghan Scholarship

Today is a day of pride. The first part is that Mr. Jalali has today refreshed the lineage of the late Ustad Jalali, the late Habibi Sahib, the late Kohzad Sahib, Ghubar Sahib, and other elders. Jalali Sahib was born into a family where science, literature, history, and knowledge were like air to him and were injected into him through his mother's milk; at the same time, this tradition continues today in the existence of his daughter, Dr. Bahar Jalali. Therefore, for this, Mr. Jalali, I congratulate you for both refreshing the memory of past teachers and continuing the lineage that Ustad Jalali started for you.

The criteria by which Jalali Sahib’s writing was approved were very tough; if he had recited poems incorrectly, it would not have been an easy task. The standards of debate he held with the masters were very high. I start from this point because people think there was no tradition of history writing and debate in Afghanistan. The Historical Society and the Pashto Tolana (Academy) truly created a culture and civilization that must be researched.

The Scholar-Statesman and Global Standards

Secondly, Jalali Sahib is a man of thought and action, and he has combined thought and action. His writings are not just those of a professor, but the writings of a responsible Afghan politician. His responsibility is not just to one generation, but to generations and all compatriots. For this reason, I especially thank him because despite having very many preoccupations, he has still worked in this field.

Thirdly, the book Mr. Jalali has written today is not only at an international standard but is above international standards. Today is important because an Afghan writer and an Afghan scholar has written such a book that, God willing, will be a standard for the next 100 years, and anyone who speaks about the military or security history of Afghanistan from now on will have their first and basic reliance on Jalali Sahib’s book. Therefore, reading this book and debating it is necessary.

Understanding the Structural Past

Secondly, the fundamental issue for us is that the past in Afghanistan is not the past. The discussion Jalali Sahib has labored over for several decades is not the result of six months or one year of work; it is the work of at least 50 years. But truly, what is the importance of this? Our past has not [just] become history; we have a structural past present in our current state that has deep roots in the past, and until that past is understood on one hand and we understand its characteristics, and on the other hand it truly becomes history, the discussion of our future cannot take place. We must understand this deep past of ours, and one important dimension of this deep past is our type of location in which our past military history has taken place, and this part was fundamentally raised by Mr. Jalali.

Instead of me commenting on it, I hope that Ustad Ghazanfar, Mr. Azmoon Pacha, and Mr. Miakhel—my suggestion is this: hold a large seminar on this book so that all its aspects are debated, exactly as we held for Mr. Majrooh. Now we intend to also hold seminars for Mr. Kohzad and others, because this requires a multi-faceted discussion. Specialists must write articles on every chapter; my suggestion is that we will designate a prize for the articles. For the 5 best articles written on this book that will be a supplement to it, we will designate a prize; these two teachers will do this, God willing.

The Three Dimensions: War, Culture, and Trade

Thirdly, through Jalali Sahib’s blessing, we understood the history of war. Two other dimensions of our ancient history that currently exist and should receive equal attention are: one is the history of culture and the other is the history of our trade. Afghanistan was a place of continuity for cultures. If you look at the great British historian Toynbee, he differentiated between two locations or peoples. To one he called "Chaharsu" or crossroads, and to the other he called "Cul-de-sac" or a place where the road is blocked.

If war is one dimension of our history, this land, this country, and this nation were the center of the convergence of cultures for thousands of years. Only in the 19th century did we go into cultural isolation; until that time, we were a central place. If you look at Frederick Starr’s book in this regard, you will understand. Professor Frederick Starr, who also wrote the introduction to Mr. Jalali’s book, has worked with us. Do not forget that in the history of water, the position that Balkh and Afghanistan hold, very few countries in the world possess. Perhaps for the first time, the management of underground water was done in this land. Likewise, if you look at Afghanistan’s part in the development of mathematics. The universities we had in the Buddhist era in Nangarhar or in Kunduz or Bamiyan were matchless.

We do not know enough about our cultural history. It is very much necessary that we understand this, because here a question was: why was Bukhari Sharif or Tirmidhi Sharif compiled in Central Asia? The answer is that a culture of book-writing, interpretation, debate, and others existed here, and in the Islamic era, Balkh was not less than Baghdad. If one part, as Mr. Jalali said, is about isolation and this society being gradually divided into societies from a geographical perspective, on the other hand, we were in the center of great civilizations. This is also very necessary for us to understand these parts of this land, because our future is again tied to how we turn back into a center from a cultural perspective.

The History of Connectivity and Trade

The other dimension is our trade history. In the history of trade, specifically the one who did the most work before Frederick Starr was Holdich. In 1908 he wrote two books. One of these books titled The Gates of India analyzes our trade history from Greek history to our Greek era, before Alexander until the coming of the British. At this point, if security contradictions were the means of separation, trade was the means of connection. Look at the cities of Afghanistan; all the major cities of Afghanistan are located on rivers; there was not one major city of Afghanistan that was not located on an Afghan river, and every city of Afghanistan was the center of an empire in history. There is no major point of Afghanistan that was not a center for creating states in history, and all of them had aspirations of creating empires; but alongside this, the history of trade was a history of connection. Two thousand years ago we had Hawala (remittances); in the last 600 years we fundamentally had Hawala which was connected, and one part of our history that was a point of connection was our nomads (Kochis). The greatest means of transport before the creation of trucks and roads were our nomads and our caravans. So it is necessary that we also understand this part of history. I hope all writers and youth follow Jalali Sahib’s path and work in this field.

The Architects of the Homeland and Biographies

I have two other points as well. One is that I congratulate you on the book Architects of the Homeland. I have now seen its second volume; I thank Azmoon Pacha because he gave me most of them. First, Abdur Rahman Khan’s Dunya and Deen (World and Religion), second the biography of Mahmoud Tarzi, third the memoirs of the late Siddiq Farhang, and fourth of Mr. Bakhtani. These biographies and autobiographies are another dimension and another part of our history. In this section, the architects have described their environment in their own language under the name of "Religion and World." This is just the beginning, but if you join these parts together, Jalali Sahib’s history finds a living example.

The History of Women in Afghanistan

To a great extent, we especially do not know the history of our women. For example, everyone speaks about Nazo Ana and Zarghuna Ana, but very few Afghans are aware that the mother of Shah Zaman had the most property in Afghanistan. Very few Afghans understand that Zainab Hotaki, the sister of Shah Hussain, conducted negotiations with Nader Afshar. Very few Afghans know that the mother of Abdur Rahman Khan reached a treaty with the British and brought her son to the kingship, and very few people know that a proverb in Kabul was: "Everyone is afraid of Abdur Rahman Khan, and he is afraid of Bibi Hawa." For twenty years before Abdur Rahman Khan’s death, all control of remittances (Zabt-e-Hawalat) rested with Bibi Hawa so that she would not stage a coup for her son. So my point is that women's history is an elevated part; I hope work is also done in this field. General Khatol is present; I congratulate her and I congratulate everyone else; truly, the women of Afghanistan have played a great part in past times. Our history is not only the history of men. Another biography that remained was that of Ustad Akbar. These two volumes of Ustad Akbar’s biography are truly a very good mirror of the past, specifically the 60, 70, 80, and 90 years.

Building Institutional Consensus

My last topic; the topic with which Ustad Jalali Sahib ended his discussion is "strong institutions." My proposal is that our focus should be on the fact that we are at the current juncture of history: what is our mission as a nation and what is the legacy we want to leave behind? If we look at this past, one line [issue] of this from the time of Ahmad Shah Baba until now is that the political class of Afghanistan has not been able to create consensus on lasting structures. Emperors and Khans never reached a political consensus. The royal family among themselves never reached a consensus on the issue of succession, and likewise, they did not reach a consensus on the army. These major issues must be clarified: what are these 5 big problems on which we had not reached consensus in history? And how should we reach consensus on them?

Now what is the opportunity? The opportunity is that we now have a Constitution; this Constitution can prepare the path for our strong institutions. It is necessary that we come to a national debate where in this national debate, on one hand, our present past or deep past is discussed. We cannot determine our future based on a two-year vision. If we do not understand our deep cultural roots and at the same time do not see future opportunities from a clear perspective, our judgment becomes wrong.

Conclusion: Knowing Afghanistan

So, in this regard, what is the great message of Jalali Sahib to us? If you want to build Afghanistan, then know Afghanistan. Knowing Afghanistan does not happen through books [alone]! We have not written that many books. The reason I came here is not only Jalali Sahib’s personality, but also that today, among the achievements of the three years of Afghanistan, this book is a major accomplishment. How many books have we written in these hundred years?! Until 1978, I had read approximately 90 percent of them. The reason is not that I have worked a lot, but the reason was that books were very few.

So again I say, it is necessary to bring the culture of debate to the society. It is necessary for the youth to know their roots and for the energy they have to be turned into prudence. If Mr. Jalali agrees with this view, mistakes have been made because every leader of Afghanistan was not aware of the deeds of previous leaders and started again from the beginning. If you look at Abdur Rahman Khan’s era, you realize he was not aware of Amir Dost Mohammad Khan’s era. If later you look at Mohammad Hashim Khan, the same... and sometimes exactly the same mistakes are repeated that were seen before, but they were not debated.

I will not take much of your time; again I congratulate Mr. Jalali, and I thank Mr. Miakhel and all other friends. It is hoped that Ustad Ghazanfar and Ustad Azmoon Pacha continue this series of debate so that this book, which is truly a point of transformation, turns into a national debate in our current history. We will always take fruit from this and we will take continuous fruit from it. So Jalali Sahib, may God keep you; we will always be proud of you.