Islam and Politics in Afghanistan

A victorious jihad against the Soviet invader followed by years of internecine war have spurred leading analysts of Islam to try to make sense of Afghanistan. Olesen, a social anthropologist at Copenhagen University, combines personal experience with massive research to understand how, since 1880, Islam has legitimated both the country's central administration and the rebellions against it. In the course of an impressively factual but challenging account, the author argues that the issue of legitimacy stands at the center of Afghanistan's travails over the past century. Briefly put, the pattern was set at the end of the 19^th century, reached relative stability through the middle decades of this century, and fell apart in the 1970s. Today, Olesen concludes, the situation is as dire as it has ever been.