(THE CONVERSATION) The rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban left many surprised. To Ali Olomi, a historian of the Middle East and Islam at Penn State University, a key to understanding what is ...

Afghanistan is a sore, but it has been so for all the years of Pakistan's existence. More importantly, we have lived through it and kept a decent face. The Soviets and the Americans came and occupied ...

I grew up not far from Bagram Airfield, which is located about 60 kilometers north of my childhood home in Kabul. Yet despite that, and the years I spent reporting on the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, ...

pt. 1. Introduction. -- The land -- The people -- pt. 2. The historical background. -- Prehistory and Bronze Age civilisations -- Iron Age and the Iranians -- Alexander and the establishment of Greek ...