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M. Hassan Kakar has distinguished himself by two detailed studies concerning the circumstances in Afghanistan in the late nineteenth century. The author considers the present work the apex of his scholarly achievement. Kakar repeatedly stresses the "excellence" of his historical sources, which, in combination with his "specialist knowledge of the subject," enable him to give a "balanced and proportionate account" of the developments during the period spanning the reigns of Sher 'Ali Khan (1863-78) and 'Abd al-Rahman Khan (1800-1901) (pp. ix, 8).
This book provides a useful overview of the period in question. It consists of two parts discussing the internal developments (pp. 9-158) and the external relations of Afghanistan (pp. 159-216). The first part is enriched by personal accounts of members of the royal family, such as Sher 'Ali Khan's grandson, 'Abd al-Qadir b. Muhammad Ayyub Khan, and the famous intellectual Mahmud Tarzi. The materials on the relationship between Afghanistan and British India are supplemented by the full text of the treaties concluded between 1855 and 1893.
Despite these interesting materials, the book hardly lives up to Kakar's promise of a thorough analysis and, in parts, remains curiously disjointed. Part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that the author fails to provide a conceptual framework that would enable the reader to...