Taliban

The Taliban (Pashtun and Persian: طالبان; "students"), also transliterated as Taleban, is an Islamist and Pashtun nationalist movement which effectively ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, despite having diplomatic recognition from only three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. The most influential members, including Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the movement, were simple village ulema (Islamic religious scholars). The Taliban movement derived mainly from Pashtuns of Afghanistan and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, but also included many non-Afghan volunteers from the Arab world, as well as Eurasia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In Winston Churchill's story of the Malakand Field Force (1897) the 'Taliwan', a warlike group of tribes on the North-West Frontier are mentioned.

Further reading

• Coll, Steve (2005) Ghost wars: the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden ISBN 0143034669
• Griffin, Michael. (2003). Reaping the Whirlwind: Afghanistan, Al Q'aida and the Holy War. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0745319165
• Jones, Owen Bennett (2002). Pakistan: Eye of the Storm, 2nd Ed.. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300097603. Note pp. 9-11.
• Rashid, Ahmed (2000) Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, ISBN 0300089023
• Matinuddun, Kamal (1999) Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997 ISBN 0195779037