The Muqaddam Represented in the pre-Mongol Persian Documents from Ghur

This paper addresses the Muqaddam, or the village headman, the relevant fiscal department, and the process of tax collection as represented in pre-Mongol Persian documents found recently in the Ghur region in present day Afghanistan. It argues that “Muqaddam” was the title used for a village notable associated with the fiscal department called the Diwān al-Ikhtiyārī. The Muqaddam collected the ʿushr, or the state's shares of harvests as prescribed under Islamic law. The tax is collected only in the presence of the Muʿtamid, who is the Diwān's trusted agent. Tax collection followed the Diwān's issuance of an edict termed ḥukm-i tafṣīl, which detailed the instructions given to the Muqaddam. The analysis in this article highlights the Ghurid aspect of the Muqaddam's role, which was previously unknown. This is due in part to the scarcity of primary sources about his roles; in part because the Muqaddam mentioned in the medieval north Indian Persian literature overshadowed discussion on the Muqaddam. By analysing the Ghurid documents, this paper thus argues “Muqaddam” was a term specifically used in the Ghur region in a particular agricultural context.

Nurturing Masculinity, Resisting Patriarchy: An Ethnographic Account of Four Women's Folk Songs from Northeastern Afghanistan

Western literature has presented the condition of Afghan women as either empowered or helpless. Their stories have been overlooked, romanticized, or seen as an outcome of tribalism, patriarchy, and war. Women's ability to articulate their personal experiences, grief, happiness, gender roles, and capacity to imagine an alternative has been missing. This article argues that through their folk songs women in northeastern Afghanistan criticize the behavior of husbands in their families while supporting their brothers, fathers, and sons. These women nurture and dismantle masculinity to their advantage. In singing space, women support but also bargain with patriarchy. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.

The Pashtun Borderlands: Development, Nation, and Agency 1947–55

Histories of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the North-West Frontier summarize the borderland events of 1947 and the next years as concerned with several enduring issues. The nation-states of Afghanistan and Pakistan became rivals. Each projected different, contested claims to sovereignty over border territories and populations. The Afghan government, especially Sardar Muhammad Daud, used the Pakhtunistan issue to consolidate an Afghan national identity, attract borderland Pashtuns, and extract advantages from an economically weak, politically vulnerable Pakistan. Within the tribal agencies, the government of Pakistan at first withdrew regular military units from forward bases, nominally to exhibit nation-building unity in a new country for Muslims. 1 In both countries, economic development and political integration were policy goals intended to build human capital and legitimate the nation-state, but also to maintain established internal hierarchies of authority and power. 2 By 1955 despite such efforts, borderland residents continued to negotiate relationships with state officials now recruiting signatures on documents of national loyalty. 3

Dissolving Gender Difference – Female Teachers, Male Allies and the Creation of Islamic Sufi Authority in Afghanistan

This article offers a case study of contemporary female Sufi leadership and teaching within a branch of the Qadirriyah Sufi order originating with pir Allama Faizani. Based on ethnographic participant observation and oral history interviews, it traces the development of female inclusion within spiritual practice, such as meditative zikr [lit. remembrance], and religious leadership in urban Afghanistan. Addressing the paucity of writing on Afghan women as Muslim actors, the article considers how the founding pir became a moral exemplar for gender inclusive conduct, facilitating women's participation and inspiring a community ethos of male allyship. The Faizanis legitimize women's participation through recourse to the spiritual psychophysiological organ of the heart, rendering divine connection a non-gendered endeavor that transcends social categories. In addition to the discursive erasure of gender, the community navigates restrictive environments and expectations through practical adaptations such as new cultural organizations. This article examines how women train to access, navigate and control inner states during zikr and documents how this process is interlinked with the relational establishment and creation of spiritual authority.

The 2019 Afghan Presidential Election: An Assessment of Problematic Processes and Results

This article assesses Afghanistan's Presidential Election of 2019. Analyzing official data from the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC), it examines voting patterns at both the national and provincial levels and compares these results with those of past elections. It draws on statistical methods to evaluate Afghan electoral procedures, focusing in particular on the practice of ballot invalidation and voter suppression as well as the role of ethno-linguistic voting blocs. The analysis reveals highly unusual voting patterns and other dynamics that point to significant irregularities and fraud. The article concludes with a number of recommendations for future Afghan elections.

The Medieval Urbanism of Ghazni (Afghanistan, 10th–12th Centuries). A Cross-Reading of Textual and Material Evidence

Attempts to reconstruct the historical geography of medieval Ghazni are complicated by the scarceness and discontinuity of both textual and material sources. This calls for a cross-check of archaeological and epigraphic data with the testimony of medieval geographers, chroniclers and poets who were conversant with the former capital city of the Ghaznavid sultanate. Such an investigation provides new insights into the growth principles of the town. The close interrelation between secular and religious spaces emerges as one of the main features of Ghaznavid state-sponsored monuments, and may have had an influence on the further developments of the urban fabric.