New book: Abdul Hai Mutma'in's Taliban: A Critical History from Within

First published in Afghanistan a couple of years ago, Mutma'in's memoir is now available for pre-order in an English translation.

First Draft Publishing: "Taliban: A Critical History from Within" View this email in your browser "Mutma'in's book reveals the complexities of and within the Taliban movement. [...] In Taliban: A Critical History from Within we learn of the Taliban's own struggles with factionalisation within the movement; we learn of the difficulties in dealing with foreign powers that we normally ascribe as friendly to the Taliban; and we learn of just how extensively the Taliban are intertwined with the mujahedeen (and communist) landscape in Afghanistan from the 1980s." Mike Martin, scholar and author of "An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict" Our latest translation: Taliban: A Critical History from Within First Draft Publishing's latest release is now available for pre-order "I was around three or four years old when the Communists led the bloodiest coup in Afghanistan. KhAD personnel were arresting the faithful. One day, a few ugly moustached men knocked on our door. My father left with them and then he never came back. We never saw him again. "After a year, I began to understand that this kind person was no longer with me. Poverty, a cold fireplace, and my old clothes made it evident – I was an orphan. Every man with a moustache looked like my father's murderer. My uncle took us with him to another village, and we no longer had a home of our own." In this way Abdul Hai Mutma'in begins his memoir of time alongside the senior leadership of the Afghan Taliban movement. First published in Afghanistan a couple of years ago, Taliban: A Critical History from Within is now available for pre-order in an English translation. Mutma'in served as a political advisor to Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and as spokesperson. He worked in the media section of Kandahar's Culture and Information Ministry and from 2013 onwards served as a political and humanitarian affairs advisor to Mullah Akhtar Mansour from 2013. In short: he spent a good deal of time around the senior leadership and was privy to the internal workings and machinations of the Taliban movement at its highest levels. Taliban: A Critical History from Within by Abdul Hai Mutma'in offers an inside account of the Afghan movement and their government. In his preface, the author notes that his book will please neither supporters of the Taliban nor those who fight and condemn them. It is this trenchant quality that makes it unique among the memoirs of those who used to work for and with the Taliban. Mutma'in's account often feels like a corrective, critical of those outside the Taliban but also of the movement itself. Whereas most books of this kind stop with the invasion of the United States in October 2001, Mutma'in shares the story of how the Taliban fled, how resistance was organised and how they grew into a potent insurgency force. Mutma'in's book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Taliban and recent Afghan history. Pre-Order the Book An Undesirable Element tells the fast-paced story of Afghanistan's former Higher Education minister and his struggle to ensure access across the country. For More Information... Kandahar Assassins is an oral history of mujahedeen operations inside Kandahar City during the 1980s war. For More Information... I Am Akbar Agha, the memoir of a Taliban insider, is also available for purchase in electronic and paperback formats. For More Information... A senior Pakistani cleric analyses the Taliban movement, a unique primary source translated from the Urdu text first published during the late 1990s. For More Information... Copyright © 2019 First Draft Publishing, All rights reserved. You're on this list because you either signed up on our website or were already connected somehow with the publishers. Our mailing address is: First Draft Publishing Gutzmann Strasse 10a Berlin 14165 Germany Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Email / GDPR permission

Checking you're still ok to hear from us via email

Hello from Berlin!   You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), that comes into effect May 25, 2018. To help comply with GDPR consent requirements, we need to confirm that you would like to receive content from us. We hope that our content is useful to you. If you'd like to continue hearing from us, please update your subscription settings. Update Settings Copyright © 2018 First Draft Publishing, All rights reserved. You're on this list because you either signed up on our website or were already connected somehow with the publishers. Our mailing address is: First Draft Publishing Gutzmann Strasse 10a Berlin 14165 Germany Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

The best book to understand the Taliban according to Mullah Omar

First Draft Publishing: "Obedience to the Amir" View this email in your browser "This book is the guide the Afghan Taliban used to organise themselves differently from other Afghan groups. Anyone who wants to defeat them or negotiate with them should understand the organisational principles that guide them." Barnett R. Rubin, New York University An insider's guide to how the Taliban govern First Draft Publishing's latest release is available now In the last year of the Taliban's government in Afghanistan, visitors to Mullah Omar's office in Kandahar received a parting gift. As they left, the movement's supreme leader asked them to take a slim volume from a pile beside the door. He told them that if they wanted to know how the Taliban were meant to behave, they should read the book. The books which Mullah Omar handed out were Pashto and Farsi translation of Eta't Amir, or 'Obedience to the Leader'. Mufti Rasheed published the original in Urdu after having toured Taliban-run Afghanistan. Mullah Omar's endorsement indicates that he believed that Rasheed had captured the essence of the Taliban Movement. Michael Semple and Yameema Mitha have translated this important primary source and added a commentary and appraisal. "In war, and especially guerrilla war, the best organised party is likely to win. While numbers of fighters and weapons count, organisation determines whether the leader can use them. This book is the guide the Afghan Taliban used to organise themselves differently from other Afghan groups. Anyone who wants to defeat them or negotiate with them should understand the organisational principles that guide them." -- Barnett R. Rubin, Center on International Cooperation, New York University Buy UK Kindle version Buy UK paperback version An Undesirable Element tells the fast-paced story of Afghanistan's former Higher Education minister and his struggle to ensure access across the country. For More Information... Kandahar Assassins is an oral history of mujahedeen operations inside Kandahar City during the 1980s war. For More Information... Buy US Kindle version Buy USA paperback version I Am Akbar Agha, the memoir of a Taliban insider, is also available for purchase in electronic and paperback formats. For More Information... Copyright © 2016 First Draft Publishing, All rights reserved. You're on this list because you either signed up on our website or were already connected somehow with the publishers. Our mailing address is: First Draft Publishing Gutzmann Strasse 10a Berlin 14165 Germany Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences