Obedience to the Amir: An Early Text on the Afghan Taliban Movement (Primary)

In the last year of the Talibans government in Afghanistan visitors to Mullah Omars office in Kandahar received a parting gift. As they left the movements 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 Etat Amir or Obedience to the Leader. Mufti Rasheed published the original in Urdu after having toured Taliban-run Afghanistan. Mullah Omars 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.