Afghanistan: A Military History from the Ancient Empires to the Great
Game covers the military history of a region encompassing Afghanistan,
Central and South Asia, and West Asia, over some 2,500 years. This is
the first comprehensive study in any language published on the
millennia-long competition for domination and influence in one of the
key regions of the Eurasian continent.
Jalali's work covers some of the most important events and figures in
world military history, including the armies commanded by Cyrus the
Great, Alexander the Great, the Muslim conquerors, Chinggis Khan,
Tamerlane, and Babur. Afghanistan was the site of their campaigns and
the numerous military conquests that facilitated exchange of military
culture and technology that influenced military developments far beyond
the region. An enduring theme throughout Afghanistan is the strong
influence of the geography and the often extreme nature of the local
terrain. Invaders mostly failed because the locals outmaneuvered them in
an unforgiving environment. Important segments include Alexander the
Great, remembered to this day as a great victor, though not a grand
builder; the rise of Islam in the early seventh century in the Arabian
Peninsula and the monumental and enduring shift in the social and
political map of the world brought by its conquering armies; the
medieval Islamic era, when the constant rise and fall of ruling
dynasties and the prevalence of an unstable security environment
reinforced localism in political, social, and military life; the
centuries-long impact of the destruction caused by Chinggis Khan’s
thirteenth century; early eighteenth century, when the Afghans achieved
a remarkable military victory with extremely limited means leading to
the downfall of the Persian Safavid dynasty; and the Battle of Panipat
(1761), where Afghan Emperor Ahmad Shah Abdali decisively routed the
Hindu confederacy under Maratha leadership, widely considered as one of
the decisive battles of the world. It was in this period when the
Afghans founded their modern state and a vast empire under Ahmad Shah
Durrani, which shaped the environment for the arrival of the European
powers and the Great Game.
