Offers the history of the land and peoples of Afghanistan since prehistoric times. This book discusses a variety of subjects including the Indo-Iranian invasions of the second millennium BC, the Persian Achaemenids, Alexander the Great, the Islamic conquest, the Mongols and the rise of the kingdom of Afghanistan in the eighteenth century.

The history also draws on a wide variety of other sources, including archaeological, historical and linguistic materials. For this new paperback edition, the author has provided a new final chapter covering events since 2001, including the fall of the Taliban, state building and foreign intervention in the region. The bibliography has also been updated.

List of Illustrations.Figures. List of Maps.Preface.Up and Down the Hindu Kush.The Peoples of Afghanistan.The Early Years.The Advent of the Indo-Iranian Speaking Peoples.Archaeology and the Indo-Iranians.Scythian Horsemen.Opening up to the West.The Greeks.Northern Rulers.The Reassertion of the Iranian West.The Advent of Islam.The Iranian Dynasties.The Mongols.Towards the Kingdom of Afghanistan.The Sadozay Dynasty.War with Britain.The Dynasty of Amir 'Abd Al-Rahman Khan.Changing Afghanistan.The Years of Communism.After the Soviets.Epilogue.Bibliography.Index.