Afghanistan Literature is Worlds greatest and richest without Afghan- Literature no European (German, French, Spanish or English) Literature would exist today The Vedas, Zoroastrian, and Buddhist, among the oldest known Literature of Afghanistan, originating from the Great capital of Bactria present day Balkh, and Aria present day Herat, Sanskrit is the reference to the original history of Afghanistan. The Saxon Europeans influence during the Great Games of the mid nineteenth century affected the Afghan language, religion and Territories size, which previously had extended from India to North Africa at 2.6 million square kilometers. The Great Games continued at any cost evolving into present-day conflicts of 2013.

‘The Pashtun Tribes of Afghanistan is a tour de force – combining erudite analysis, historical research, atmospheric story-telling, page-turning prose and above all, profound passion.’ - Sir Nicholas Kay, NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan (2019-2020) & British Ambassador to Afghanistan (2017-2019) The abrupt withdrawal of US and NATO forces in 2021 ushered in a new era for Afghanistan. The subsequent Taliban takeover facilitated a reversion to some of the worst hallmarks of Afghanistan’s past, including bans on women’s education and other rights-related roll-backs. Navigating this new reality necessitates that more constructive relationships are built between Westerners and Afghans, particularly with the majority ethnicity – the Pashtun tribes. The Pashtun Tribes in Afghanistan: Wolves Among Men is the toolkit for doing so. It provides the knowledge needed to navigate a complex tribal environment. Framed by first-hand experience and balancing in-depth analysis with engaging anecdotes, it sheds light on the Pashtun way of life still enshrined in the ancient “Pashtunwali” honor code. It explains the tribal structure, tribal territories, historic battles, prominent figures and even Pashtun proverbs and poets. It also highlights how recent wars are destroying the tribal arena. Focusing on people rather than politics, this book unveils the layers, paradoxes and subtleties of the world’s largest tribal society. On turning the final page, readers will understand the Pashtun brand of tribalism and how it influences Afghanistan today. They will be aware that tribal life has been permanently challenged but that the Pashtun identity remains intact – in psychology if not always in practice. They will recognize why Pashtuns are not a single entity and should not be treated as “one”. The need to understand the tribes as they understand themselves will also be clear, particularly their concept of honor. This book illuminates why, from Alexander the Great to Winston Churchill, and even with the Taliban today, Pashtuns are still stereotyped as primitive, violence-prone barbarians. But were men like Rudyard Kipling right to characterize tribesmen as being “as unaccountable as the grey Wolf, who is his blood brother?” This book has the answer.

‘This Hindu Sahiya dynasty is now extinct, and of the whole house there is no longer the slightest remnant in existence. We must say that, in all their grandeur, they never slackened in the ardent desire of doing that which is good and right, that they were men of noble sentiment and noble bearing.’ People and their acts of bravery are often lost to the annals of history. But what of mighty lineages? Generations of kings and the lands and people they fought for? What of kings who fought against their own people? The Hindu Sahi kings, to whom honour and pride were more important than their own survival, fought a near 150 year rear-guard action as they continued to be pushed east from Kabul, their original homeland, changing their capitals and defending themselves from their own countrymen. The last of their house had the misfortune of confronting the juggernaut that was Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Where obedience to the Sultan would have allowed their house to endure, their honour would have them confront him over and over. But who were they? This book tries to piece together their story from the limited sources that are available from an age where historical sources were few and, in the case of the Sahis, mostly from the point of view of their enemies. This is the story of a dynasty that represented a resurgent Hindu faith in a land that was long dominated by Buddhism but also coincided with the arrival of the Muslims.

10,000 Afghans. 21 Sikh soldiers. One epic battle. On 12 September 1897, 21 soldiers of 36th Sikh regiment stood undeterred as they guarded the post of Saragarhi against the onslaught of almost 10,000 Afghan tribesmen – a battle for the ages that ended in them laying down their lives in a final hand-to-hand combat. The unparalleled heroics of these 21 men have, however, been long forgotten by history. What led to the Battle of Saragarhi? What was the socio-political scenario at the time? Who were these tribesmen and why did they attack an outpost in such great numbers? Who were the 21 soldiers and how were they able to keep the enemy at bay against all odds? Based on colonial era records and information provided by the 4th Sikh battalion, the legatee unit of 36th Sikhs, 21 Kesaris attempts to answer these questions while paying homage to the brave soldiers who defended the 'kesari' flag – depicting their Khalsa heritage – with their last breaths.

Based on unprecedented empirical research conducted with lower levels of the Afghan police, this unique study assesses how institutional legacy and external intervention, from countries including the UK and the US, have shaped the structural conditions of corruption in the police force and the state. Taking a social constructivist approach, the book combines an in-depth analysis of internal political, cultural and economic drivers with references to several regime changes affecting policing and security, from the Soviet occupation and Mujahidin militias to Taliban religious police. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Singh offers an invaluable contribution to the literature and to anti-corruption policy in developing and conflict-affected societies.

In Iranian Hospitality, Afghan Marginality, Elisabeth Yarbakhsh unpacks ideas around culture, identity, and the relationship between Iranian citizens and Afghan refugees living in Shiraz, Iran, and surrounding areas. Yarbakhsh highlights the ways in which shifting policies and practices toward refugees over the past forty years have run parallel to the transitive notions of what it means to be Iranian. Yarbakhsh exposes the complex interplay of identity and hospitality as it emerges out of variously competing and intersecting Islamic, historical, and literary narratives of Iranian identity, carefully illustrating how these factors circumscribe Afghan refugee life in the city of Shiraz.

- Minerals Yearbook, 2014, V. 3: Area Reports: International: Asia and the Pacific. Volume III, Area Reports: International, is published as four separate reports. These regional reports contain the latest available minerals data on more than 180 foreign countries and discuss the importance of minerals to the economies of these nations and the United States. Each report begins with an overview of the region's mineral industries during the year. It continues with individual country chapters that examine the mining, refining, processing, and use of minerals in each country of the region and how each country's mineral industry relates to U.S. industry. Most chapters include production tables and industry structure tables, information about Government policies and programs that affect the country's mineral industry, and an outlook section.

- Minerals Yearbook, 2014, V. 3: Area Reports: International: Asia and the Pacific. Volume III, Area Reports: International, is published as four separate reports. These regional reports contain the latest available minerals data on more than 180 foreign countries and discuss the importance of minerals to the economies of these nations and the United States. Each report begins with an overview of the region's mineral industries during the year. It continues with individual country chapters that examine the mining, refining, processing, and use of minerals in each country of the region and how each country's mineral industry relates to U.S. industry. Most chapters include production tables and industry structure tables, information about Government policies and programs that affect the country's mineral industry, and an outlook section.

Violence disturbs. And violent depictions, when encountered in the biblical texts, are all the more disconcerting. Isaiah 63:1-6 is an illustrative instance. The prophetic text presents the "Arriving One" in gory details ('trampling down people'; 'pouring out their lifeblood' v.6). Further, the introductory note that the Arriving One is “coming from Edom” (cf. v.1) may suggest Israel's unrelenting animosity towards Edom. These two themes: the "gory depiction" and "coming from Edom" are addressed in this book. Irudayaraj uses a social identity reading to show how Edom is consistently pictured as Israel's proximate and yet 'other'-ed entity. Approaching Edom as such thus helps situate the animosity within a larger prophetic vision of identity construction in the postexilic Third Isaian context. By adopting an iconographic reading of Isaiah 63:1-6, Irudayaraj shows how the prophetic portrayal of the 'Arriving One' in descriptions where it is clear that the 'Arriving One' is a marginalised identity correlates with the experiences of the "stooped" exiles (cf 51:14). He also demonstrates that the text leaves behind emphatic affirmations ('mighty' and 'splendidly robed' cf. v.1; “alone” cf. v.3), by which the relegated voice of the divine reasserts itself. It is in this divine reassertion that the hope of the Isaian community's reclamation of its own identity rests.

Geography as Inquiry invites teachers and learners to explore geography in exciting ways, across key concepts, connected to history and the social sciences, reestablishing its place in the social studies and history curriculum.