Ghurid Sultanate Shansabānī
← 1148–1215 →   →
This map is showing the Ghurid Empire without their south-eastern territories of north-western India.
Capital	Herat, Ghor, Ghazni, Lahore
Language(s)	Persian (court poetry)[1]
Religion	Sunni Islam
Government	Sultanate
Sultan
- 1148–1157	Ala-ud-din Jahan-Suz
- 1157–1202	Ghiyasuddin Ghori
- 1202–1206	Muhammad of Ghor
- 1206–1210	Qutbuddin Aibak
History
- Established	1148
- Disestablished	1215

The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان‎; self-designation: Shansabānī) were a medieval Muslim dynasty of Iranian origin that ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries in Khorasan.^[2] At its zenith, their empire, centred at Ghōr (now a province in Afghanistan), stretched over an area that included the whole of modern Afghanistan, the eastern parts of Iran, Pakistan and the northern section of the India, as far as Delhi. The Ghurids were succeeded in Persia by the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty and in North India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

Origins[link]

In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty was Pashtun,^[3][4][5] but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable".^[6] Instead, the consensus in modern scholarship (incl. Morgenstierne, Bosworth, Dupree, Gibb, Ghirshman, Longworth Dames and others) holds that the dynasty was most likely of Tajik origin.^[7][8][9] Bosworth further points out that the actual name of the Ghurid family, Āl-e Šansab (Persianized: Šansabānī), is the Arabic pronunciation of the originally Middle Persian name Wišnasp, perhaps hinting at a (Sassanian) Persian origin.^[10]

Language[link]

The language of the Ghurids is subject to some controversy. What is known with certainty is that it was considerably different from the New Persian literary language of the Ghaznavid court. Nevertheless, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of New Persian literature, poetry, and culture, and promoted these in their courts as their own. There is nothing to confirm the recent surmise (as claimed in the Paṭa Khazāna) that the Ghurids were Pashto-speaking,^[11] and there is no evidence that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking.^[7]

History[link]

Before the mid-12th century, the Ghurids had been bound to the Ghaznavids and Seljuks for about 150 years. Beginning in the mid-12th century, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shāh poisoned a local Ghūrid leader, Quṭb ud-Dīn, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazna after a family quarrel. In revenge, the Ghūrid chief ʿAlāʾ-ud-Dīn Ḥusayn sacked and burned the city of Ghazna and put the city into fire for seven days and seven nights. It earned him the title of Jahānsūz, meaning "the world burner".^[12] The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuk help, but lost it to Oghuz Turk freebooters.^[12] In 1152, Ala ad-Din Jahan-Suz Husain refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firuzkuh but was defeat at Nab by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar.^[13]

In 1173, Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghori reconquered the city of Ghazna and assisted his brother Ghiyasuddin—to whom he was a loyal subordinate—in his contest with Khwarezmid Empire for the lordship of Khorāsān. Shahabuddin Ghori captured Multan and Uch in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186. After the death of his brother Ghiyas-ud-Din in 1202, he became the successor of his empire and ruled until his assassination in 1206 near Jhelum by Khokhar tribesmen (in modern-day Pakistan).^[14] A confused struggle then ensued among the remaining Ghūrid leaders, and the Khwarezmids were able to take over the Ghūrids' empire in about 1215. Though the Ghūrids' empire was short-lived, Shahabuddin Ghori's conquests strengthened the foundations of Muslim rule in India. On his death, the importance of Ghazna and Ghur dissipated and they were replaced by Delhi as the centre of Islamic influence during the rule of his successor Sultans in India.^[15]

Ghurid Dynasty[link]

• Blue shaded rows signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Ghaznavids.
• Yellow shaded rows signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Seljuks.

Ghor Branch[link]

• Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.

Bamiyan Branch[link]

• Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.

Cultural influences[link]

The Ghurids were great patrons of Persian culture and literature and lay the basis for a Persianized state in India.^[17][18] They also transferred the Khorasanian architecture of their native lands to India, of which several great examples have been preserved to this date (see gallery). However, most of the literature produced during the Ghurid era has been lost.

Out of the Ghurid state grew the Delhi Sultanate which established the Persian language as the lingua franca of the region – a status it retained until the fall of the Mughal Empire in the 19th century.

History of Afghanistan

See also: Timeline

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History of Iran

See also: Kings of Persia · Timeline of Iran

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See also[link]

• Minaret of Jam
• Mandesh

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) – Ghurid Sultanate
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) – Muizz-ud-Din-Muhammad a.k.a. Mohammad of Ghor
• Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition) – Muhammad of Ghor
• The Ghurid Rulers
• The Ghurids
• The Ghurids´ Firuzkuh, the summer capital of the Sultans

Prithviraj Chauhan
Statue of Prithviraj Chauhan at Ajmer
Born	1149
Died	1192 (aged 43)
Other names	Prithvi Raj III
Occupation	12th century king of Ajmer and Delhi

Prithvi Raj III, commonly known as Prithviraj Chauhan (1149–1192 CE), was a king of the Hindu Chauhan (Chauhamana) dynasty, who ruled the kingdom of Ajmer and Delhi in northern India during the latter half of the 12th century.

Prithviraj Chauhan belonged to the Rajput Chauhan clan, which according to a legend mentioned in later manuscripts of Prithviraj Raso was part of Agnivanshi Rajputs, derived its origin from a sacrificial fire-pit. Chauhan was the last independent Hindu king to sit upon the throne of Delhi. He succeeded to the throne in 1169 CE at the age of 20, and ruled from the twin capitals of Ajmer and Delhi which he received from his maternal grandfather Arkpal or Anangpal III of the Tomara dynasty in Delhi. He controlled much of present-day Rajasthan and Haryana, and unified the Rajputs against Muslim invasions. His elopement in 1175 with Samyukta (Sanyogita), the daughter of Jai Chandra Rathod, the Gahadvala king of Kannauj, is a popular romantic tale in India, and is one of the subjects of the Prithviraj Raso, an epic poem composed by Chauhan's court poet and friend, Chand Bardai.

Prithviraj Chauhan defeated the Muslim ruler Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghori in the First Battle of Tarain in 1191 and set him free as a gesture of mercy. Ghauri attacked for a second time the next year, and Prithviraj was defeated and captured at the Second Battle of Tarain (1192). Sultan Ghauri took Prithviraj to Ghazni and blinded him, legend states that in a archery show, Prithviraj's poet Chand Bardai gave him the physical location of Ghori in the arena via poem and then as Ghori ordered the start of show, Prithviraj shot him dead with a Shabdbhedi-baan. After his defeat Delhi came under the control of Muslim rulers.

Biography[link]

Prithviraj Chauhan's succession was not secure since the death of Vigraha Raja in 1165. Prithviraj re-consolidated control over the Chauhan kingdom and conquered several neighboring kingdoms, making the Chauhan kingdom the leading Hindu kingdom in northern India. He campaigned against the Chandela Rajputs of Bundelkhand. His kingdom included much of present-day northwest India including Rajasthan, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. The princely state of Nabha had close relations with Chauhan.

Lineage[link]

Anangpal Tomar-II, the King of Delhi, had two daughters, Roopsundari and Kamaladevi. Roopsundari was married to Vijaypal, King of Kannauj, and had a son named Jai Chandra. Jai Chandra's daughter was named Samyukta. Kamaladevi was married to Someshwar Chauhan, the King of Ajmer, and had a son, Prithviraj, and a daughter, Pratha. Prithviraj married Samyukta, and Pratha was married to Samar Singh, Maharana of Chittor. His uncle Kanha Chauhan's daughter was married to Raja Pajawan of Amber.

Early battles[link]

The battle against Bhimdev Solanki of Gujarat[link]

Prior to this battle, Prithviraj Chauhan had killed many of Bhimdev's generals. During this battle Bhimdev's son, Vanraj Solanki, was seen as a real danger due to his military tactics. A general who served Someshwar had betrayed Prithviraj and had joined Bhimdev. He had given information to Bhimdev and had poisoned Prithviraj Chauhan's army, which was reduced to 300 men. Bhimdev's first round of combat was to send 500 soldiers to finish off Chauhan's army. When this failed, Bhimdev sent 1,000 soldiers to attack in the middle of the night. On the final day, Bhimdev himself clashed with Prithviraj Chauhan's sword and was defeated.

The battle against Mahoba[link]

Some soldiers from Delhi were injured in Digvijay and decided to stop at the Mahoba royal gardens to ask for help. Guards at the gardens told the soldiers that they had insulted the Mahoba king Parmar by stepping into his garden and attacked and killed the men. Chauhan learned of this and declared war on Mahoba. During the battle the Mahoban army was split into three different sections. One was led by the Prince of Mahoba, while the other two were led by the brothers Alha and Udal. Chauhan defeated the sections under Udal and the Prince of Mahoba. Udal had injured Pundir, a friend and general of Chauhan, in combat. Udal was killed by Chauhan, who was badly injured and could hardly move. Prithviraj and Sanjham Rai, who was also badly injured, fell down a nearby hill and were left to be eaten by crows. Sanjham Rai, in an attempt to save his friend Prithviraj, allowed the crows to feed on him and not on Prithviraj. Chauhan was saved by Sanjham Rai, who died a slow death. Alha, commander of the third section, had seen Chauhan fall. Alha was stopped from killing Chauhan by his guru, who explained that Alha only wanted to kill to revenge his brother Udal, and not for the welfare of the Mahoba State. When help arrived from another friend, Chand Bardai, Prithviraj became unconscious. He woke in a hut in front of an alchemist, and was shocked and grieved to learn of the death of his friend.

Prithviraj Chauhan recovered from this battle and continued his conquests winning one kingdom after another.

• One of Chauhan's minor battles was against King Raichand. King Raichand and some of the other neighbouring kings saw Prithviraj's injury. At a time when they knew he could not fight, they attacked. The generals and close friends of Chauhan guarded him. Some villagers also came to help fight off King Raichand. King Raichand was killed in this battle.

• Chauhan had claimed victory over forces in mountains, taking over the Kukada kingdom. He continued to take over kingdoms, extending his dominion in all four directions. His army continued these tactics for over four years.

• The last battle of his victory march was against the king of Dariyagargh. Chauhan won the battle and decided to return to Delhi to celebrate his victory.

First Battle of Tarain, 1191[link]

In 1191, Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghori, leading an army of 120,000 men, invaded India through the Khyber Pass and was successful in reaching Punjab. Shahabuddin Ghori captured a fortress, either at Sirhind or Bathinda, in present-day Punjab state on the northwestern frontier of Prithviraj Chauhan's kingdom. Prithviraj's 100,000 strong army led by his vassal prince Govinda-Raja of Delhi rushed to the defense of the frontier, and the two armies met at the town of Tarain, near Thanesar, in present-day Haryana, 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of Delhi.

Shahabuddin Ghori's army was divided into three flanks, with Shahabuddin Ghori on horseback leading the centre flank. In addition to being almost twice in number, Chauhan's army had elephant cavalry comprising 300 elephants, whereas Shahabuddin Ghori's army had no elephants. Many Turkish soldiers in Shahabuddin Ghori's army had not even seen elephants before. The armies clashed first with the charge of the Chauhan cavalry. Shahabuddin Ghori's horse cavalry was unable to hold its own against the elephants, which resulted in the defeat of Shahabuddin Ghori's left and right flanks.

Shahabuddin Ghori led two regiments in an attack on the center, where Shahabuddin Ghori met Govinda Raja in personal combat. Govinda Raja, mounted on an elephant, lost his front teeth to Shahabuddin Ghori's lance. As the battle continued, Ghori's army, exhausted in face of the persistent Rajput attacks and out of water, fled leaving their general Muhammad Ghauri as a prisoner in Pritiviraj's hands. Muhammad Ghauri was brought in chains to Pithoragarh – Prithviraj's capital and he begged his victor for mercy and release. Prithviraj's ministers advised against pardoning the aggressor. But the chivalrous and valiant Prithviraj thought otherwise and respectfully released the vanquished Ghori – which was a decision he later regretted, because Muhammad Ghori started to regroup his forces again to defeat Prithviraj Chauhan the next year.

Second Battle of Tarain, 1192[link]

In 1192, Shahabuddin Ghori reassembled an army of 120,000 men and returned to challenge Prithviraj at the Second Battle of Tarain. When he reached Lahore, he sent his envoy to demand surrender but Prithviraj Chauhan refused to comply. Chauhan then issued a fervent appeal to his fellow Rajput rulers and the aristocracy to come to his aid against Shahabuddin Ghori.

Prithviraj assembled a very large army with the aid of approximately 150 Rajput rulers and aristocrats. According to the Persian historian Firishta, it consisted of 3,000 elephants, 300,000 horsemen, and considerable infantry. The army was larger than that of Shahabuddin Ghori. The armies met in Tarain, where Shahabuddin Ghori delivered an ultimatum to Pritvi Raj that he convert to Islam or be defeated. Prithviraj countered with an offer that Ghori should consider a truce and be allowed to retreat with his army. Shahabuddin Ghori decided to attack.

Shahabuddin Ghori divided his troops into five parts and attacked in the early morning hours, sending waves of mounted archers. They retreated as the Chauhan elephant phalanx advanced. Shahabuddin Ghori deployed four parts to attack the Rajputs on four sides, keeping a fifth part of his army in reserve. General Khande Rao of the Chauhan forces was killed. At dusk, Shahabuddin Ghori himself led a force of 12,000 heavily-armored horsemen to the center of the Rajput line, which collapsed into confusion. Prithviraj attempted to escape but was captured. The Rajput army broke ranks and fled, thereby conceding victory to Shahabuddin Ghori.

Shahabuddin Ghori took the captured Prithviraj back with him to Ghazni. According to one of the view Prithviraj killed Ghori by Shabdbhedi ban vidya when there was archery contest organised by Ghori in his court in ghazni.^[1][2] There is one more theory which suggests Ghori killed prithviraj after deafeating him in the second battle of Tarain,.^[3]

Even today Afghans vent there anger by stabbing on the grave of Prithviraj Chauhan, according to them Prithviraj had killed Ghori.^[4][5] Sher Singh Rana, a member of Rajput community, visited Afghanistan to trace grave of Prithviraj Chauhan, he dug Chauhan's "grave" and collected sand from it. This incident created sensation in Indian news and public media – as he said he did it to get back India's pride & respect.^[6][7]

Death of Ghori and Prithviraj[link]

As a prisoner in Ghor, Prithiviraj was presented before Muhammad, where he looked Ghori straight into the eye. Ghori ordered him to lower his eyes, whereupon a defiant Prithiviraj scornfully told him how he had treated Ghori as a prisoner and said that the eyelids of a Rajputs eyes are lowered only in death. On hearing this, Ghori flew into a rage and ordered that Prithviraj's eyes be burnt with red hot iron rods. This heinous deed being done, Prithiviraj was regularly brought to the court to be taunted by Ghori and his courtiers. In those days Prithiviraj was joined by his former biographer Chand Bardai, who had composed a ballad-biography on Pritiviraj in the name of Prithviraj Raso (Songs of Prithviraj). Chand Bardai told Prithiviraj, that he should avenge Ghori's betrayal and daily insults.Prithviraj is considered to be the greatest warrior of India, and also one of the greatest in the world. He was tortured by Ghori but he died a undefeated warrior, taking Ghori down before he could die.

The blind Prithviraj avenges the injustice done to him. The two got an opportunity when Ghori announced a game of Archery. On the advice of Chand Bardai, Prithviraj, who was then at court said he would also like to participate. On hearing his suggestion, the courtiers guffawed at him and he was taunted by Ghori as to how he could participate when he could not see. Whereupon, Prithiviraj told Mahmud Ghori to order him to shoot, and he would reach his target. Ghori became suspicious and asked Prithviraj why he wanted Ghori himself to order and not anyone else. On behalf of Prithiviraj, Chand Bardai told Ghori that he as a king would not accept orders from anyone other than a king. His ego satisfied, Mohd Ghori agreed.

On the said day, Ghori sitting in his royal enclosure had Prithiviraj brought to the ground and had him unchained for the event. On Ghori's ordering Prithviraj to shoot, we are told Prithiviraj turned in the direction from where he heard Ghori speak and struck Ghori dead with his arrow. This event is described by Chand Bardai in the couplet, "Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul ashta praman, Ete pai Sultan hai (Taa Upar hai Sultan). Ab mat chuko Chauhan."(Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan, do not miss him now, Chouhan). Just after the death of Ghori, Prithviraj was killed by Ghori's bodyguards. There is another version of this story that in order to avoid further humiliation at the hands of afghans prithvi and chandra bardai stabbed each other.

See also[link]

• Ajanbahu Lohana -Great general of Prithviraj Chauhan notable for his bravry.

References[link]

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Muizz-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām
Sultan of the Ghorid Empire
Sultan Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Ghori سلطان شہاب الدین محمد غوری
Reign	1202–1206
Born	1150
Birthplace	Ghor in present-day Afghanistan
Died	March 15, 1206
Place of death	Damiak, Jhelum District, Pakistan
Buried	Damik, Jhelum District, Pakistan
Predecessor	Ghiyāṣ-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām
Successor	Qutbuddin Aibak
Royal House	Ghurid dynasty
Father	Malik Baha-ud-din Sām bin Hussain
Religious beliefs	Islam

Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori (also Ghauri, Ghouri) (Persian: سلطان شہاب الدین محمد غوری‎), originally called Mu'izzuddīn Muḥammad Bin Sām (and also referred to by Orientalists as Muhammad of Ghor) (1150 – March 15, 1206), was a ruler of the Ghurid dynasty who reigned over a territory spanning present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India.

Shahabuddin Ghori reconquered the city of Ghazna (in modern-day Afghanistan) in 1173, and assisted his brother Ghiyasuddin in his contest with Khwarezmid Empire for the lordship of Khorāsān. He captured Multan and Uch in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186. After the death of his brother Ghiyas-ud-Din in 1202, he became the successor of the empire and ruled until his assassination in 1206 near Jhelum (in modern-day Pakistan).

A confused struggle then ensued among the remaining Ghūrid leaders, and the Khwarezmids were able to take over the Ghūrids' empire in about 1215. Though the Ghūrids' empire was short-lived, Shahabuddin Ghori's conquests strengthened the foundations of Muslim rule in India.

Early life[link]

Shahab-ud-din Ghori was born Muizz-ud-dīn Muhammad Bin Sām in 1150 CE in Ghor in what is present-day Afghanistan. The exact date of his birth is unknown. His father, Baha-ud-din Sām bin Hussain, was the local ruler of the Ghor region at the time.

The Ghurid Empire[link]

Ghor (now a province in central Afghanistan) lay on the western boundary of the Ghaznavid Empire, which, in the early 12th century, covered an area stretching from what is now central Afghanistan to the Punjab in what is now Pakistan, with capitals at Ghaznā.

Beginning in the mid-12th century, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shāh poisoned a local Ghūrid leader, Quṭb ud-Dīn, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazna after a family quarrel. In revenge, the Ghūrid chief ʿAlāʾ-ud-Dīn Ḥusayn sacked and burned the city of Ghazna and put the city into fire for seven days and seven nights. It earned him the title of Jahānsuz, meaning "the world burner".^[1] The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuk help, but lost it to Oghuz Turk freebooters.^[1] The Ghurids reconquered Ghaznā from the Oghuz Turks and in 1173, Shahabuddin Ghori became governor of the Ghazna province while his brother, Ghiyasuddin Ghori, became the Sultan of the Ghurid Empire.

Invasions of Ghaznavid territories of Pakistan[link]

Shahabuddin Ghori first invaded what is now Pakistan in 1175, capturing Multan and the fortress of Uch. He attacked Gujrat in 1179.

Capture of Lahore, 1186[link]

In 1181, Shahabuddin Ghori invaded the Ghaznavid Empire in India, reaching and capturing Lahore in 1186, thus ending the Ghaznavid Empire and bringing the remaining Ghaznavid territory under Ghurid control. This victory marked the beginning of the Ghurid Empire. ^[2]

Invasions of India[link]

Defeat in the Battle of Kayadara (Gujarat), 1178[link]

The battle of Gujarat or Kayadara (1178) was a defeat suffered by Muhammad of Ghur during his first campaign against a Rajput ruler in India. Muhammad's first campaign had been against the Muslim rulers of Multan in 1175 and had ended in victory. In 1178 he turned south, and led his army from Multan to Uch and then across the desert towards the Gujarat capital of Anhilwara (modern Patan).

Gujarat was ruled by the young Raja Bhimdev Solanki II (ruled 1178–1241), a member of the Agnivansha Rajput Solanki or Chalukya clan, although the age of the Raja meant that the army was commanded by his mother Naikidevi. Muhammad's army had suffered greatly during the march across the desert, and Naikidevi inflicted a major defeat on him at the village of Kayadra (near to Mount Abu, about forty miles to the north-east of Anhilwara). The invading army suffered heavy casualties during the battle, and also in the retreat back across the desert to Multan.

Muhammad of Ghur never returned to Gujarat. An army led by Qutb al-din Aibak, his deputy in India, invaded in c.1195–97 and plundered the capital. Bhimdev defeated Aibak again and adorned himself as "Abhinav Siddharaj". Gujarat wasn't annexed by the Sultanate of Delhi until 1297.

He captured Lahore in 1186 and constructed the fortress of Sialkot. In 1191, he pushed further eastwards against the Rajput kingdoms, and his forces were defeated by the armies of Prithviraj Chauhan, the Rajput ruler of Delhi and Ajmer and his allies. A year later, in 1192, Ghori again fought the Rajputs, which resulted in victory.

Defeat in the First Battle of Tarain, 1191[link]

A sign post in Sohawa pointing towards the direction of Shihab-ud-din Ghori's Tomb

In 1191, Ghauri proceeded towards India through the Khyber Pass in modern day Pakistan and was successful in reaching Punjab. Ghauri captured a fortress, either at Sirhind or Bathinda in present-day Punjab state on the northwestern frontier of Prithvīrāj Chauhān's kingdom. Prithviraj's army led by his vassal prince Govinda-Raja of Delhi, rushed to the defense of the frontier, and the two armies met at the town of Tarain, near Thanesar in present-day Haryana, approximately 150 kilometres north of Delhi. In this battle, Muhammad's army was vanquished and the remnants fled back towards Afghanistan. Details of this battle are discussed in the article on the Battles of Tarain. Ghauri's defeated army retreated to Lahore and, thereafter, returned to Ghazni.

Victory in the Second Battle of Tarain, 1192[link]

In 1192, Ghauri re-assembled his army of 120,000 men and returned to challenge Prithviraj at the Second Battle of Tarain. When he reached Lahore, he sent his envoy to Prithviraj Chauhan to demand his surrender but Prithviraj Chauhan refused to comply. Prithviraj Chauhan then issued a fervent appeal to his fellow Rajput rulers and aristocracy to come to his aid against Ghauri.

The army proceeded to meet Ghauri in Tarain where Prithviraj a year before had inflicted defeat on his adversary, confident of defeating him again. Muhammad Ghauri delivered an ultimatum to Pritviraj that he convert to Islam or be defeated. Prithviraj countered with an offer that Muhammad consider a truce and Ghauri will be allowed to retreat with his army, in an effort to buy time. His terms not met, Ghauri decided to attack. Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated. Details of this battle are discussed in the article on the Battles of Tarain.

Consolidation of the Ghurid Empire[link]

After defeating Prithvīrāj Chauhān. Prithvīrāj was captured and taken to Ghauri's kingdom. Shahabuddin Ghori marched onwards unchallenged towards Ajmer and soon established Ghurid control in northern and central India.^[3][4][5] Rajput kingdoms like Saraswati, Samana, Kohram and Hansi were captured without any difficulty. Finally his forces advanced on Delhi, capturing it soon after. Within a year, Ghaurī controlled northern Rajasthan and the northern part of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab.^[6] The Kingdom of Ajmer was then given over to Golā, on condition that he send regular tributes to the Ghurids.

Shahabuddin Ghori, having settled the affairs of the province of Lahore, conferred the government of Lahore on Ali Karmakh^[7] who was then the Governor of Multan. In 1206, Shahabuddin Ghori appointed Qub-ud-din Aibak as his Naib us Sultanat in India^[7] at a grand darbar (reception) at Lahore, which was attended by a large majority of the nobles and dignitaries of his kingdom. It was at this occasion that Shahabuddin Ghori bestowed upon Qutb-ud-din the title of Aibak, meaning "Axis of the Faith".^[8]

Muḥammad Ghorī returned west to Ghaznā to deal with the threat to his western frontiers from the unrest in Iran, but he appointed Aibak as his regional governor for northern India. His armies, mostly under Turkic generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal. Aibak ransacked Ayodhya temples in 1193, followed by his conquest of Delhi. In 1204, after becoming sultan, Shahabuddin Ghori defeated the advance of Muḥammad II of Khwārezm. Aibak's protégé Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji had been appointed as a general by Muhammad of Ghor in 1203, and in 1204 he helped defeat the army of Lakshman Sen of the Sena Empire.

Final days[link]

In 1206, Shahabuddin Ghori had to travel to Lahore to crush a revolt. On his way back to Ghazni, his caravan rested at Damik near Sohawa (which is near the city of Jhelum in the Punjab province of modern-day Pakistan). He was assassinated on March 15, 1206, while offering his evening prayers. The identity of Shahabuddin Ghori's assassins is disputed, with some claiming that he was assassinated by local Hindu Gakhars and others claiming he was assassinated by Hindu Khokhars, both being different tribes.

The Khokhars were killed in large numbers, and the province was pacified. After settling the affairs in the Punjab. Shahabuddin marched back to Ghazni. While camping at Dhamayak in 1206 AD in the Jehlum district, the sultan was murdered by the Khokhars.^[9]

Hasan Nizami and Ferishta record the killing of Shahabuddin Ghori at the hands of the Gakhars. However, Ferishta may have confused the Ghakars with the Khokhars. Other historians have also blamed Shahabuddin Ghori's assassination to a band of Hindu Khokhars.^[10]

All the historians before the time of Ferishta agree that the Khokhars, not the Gakhars killed Shahab ud din Ghori.^[11]

Some also claim that Shahabuddin Ghori was assassinated by a radical Ismaili Muslim sect.^[12]

There is a literary story^[13] about the death of Muhammad of Ghor, which has considerable appeal,^[14] but which is not borne out by historical documents.^[13][15][16] This is described in the article Prithviraj Raso.

As per his wishes, Shahabuddin Ghori was buried where he fell, in Damik.

Ghurid-Ghaznavid struggles[link]

Shahabuddin Ghori is credited with the decimation of the Ghaznavids, his ancestral enemies.

In alliance with the Hindu Raja of Jammu Vijaya Dev, he attacked Lahore in 1187, which was held by his ancestral enemy, the descendent of Mahmud of Ghazni, and made him prisoner. Mahmud of Ghazni's line of Sultans and Governors became extinguished.^[17]

Mahmud Ghazni had attacked Ghor and the King Amir Suri, an ancestor of Shahabuddin Ghori, died taking poison after being taken prisoner. Various sources including Ferishta and Siraj attest to these events.

In the following year AH 401 (AD 1010), Mahmood led his army towards Ghoor^[18]

According to Minhaj us Siraj, Amir Suri was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, taken prisoner along with his son, and taken to Ghazni, where Amir Suri died.^[19]

Soor, being made prisoner was brought to the king, but having taken poison, which he always kept under his ring, he died in a few hours; his country was annexed to the dominions of Ghizny.^[18]

A little over a hundred years after Mahmud, one of his successors to the throne of Ghazni fell into a blood feud with the ruler of Ghor, southeast of Herat. In reprisal Ghazni was sacked by the prince of Ghor a fellow Muslim in 1150, and burned for seven days and nights. All the magnificent Mahmudi palaces and halls were destroyed and plunder, devastation and, and slaughter were continuous. It might be a historian reporting one of Mahmud's own murderous Indian raids. The Ghori victor earned the title of Jahansoze, the world burner. The bells ring again: the perpetrations of the northern foreigners were not essentially anti-Hindu. They could be quite merciless with Muslim rivals as well, for that was a part of their way of life. Ghazni now fell to a Turkman tribe which was in its turn ousted by the nephew of Jahansoze in 1173. The latter gave it to his brother later to be known as Muhammad of Ghori.^[17]

Muhammad of Ghori launched expeditions into India, first capturing Multan from a fellow Muslim chief in 1175–76. Three years later he invaded Gujarat and was roundly defeated by the Hindu King. Another three years later, and Shahabuddin Ghori was back to take Peshawar and Sialkot in 1181. Now in alliance with the Hindu Raja of Jammu Vijaya Dev, he attacked Lahore in 1187, which was held by his ancestral enemy, the descendant of Mahmud of Ghazni, and made him prisoner. Mahmud of Ghazni's line of Sultans and Governors became extinguished.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Muhammad Ghorī was a loyal brother; he refrained from declaring his independence in the Indian Subcontinent, knowing that it would result in civil war between the two brothers. Until the death of Ghiyās ud-Dīn in 1202, after every victory the General would send the best of the looted items to his elder brother in Khorasan. Ghiyās ud-Dīn reciprocated by never interfering in the affairs of his younger brother. Thus they were each able to concentrate on their own responsibilities.

Coins[link]

• 

  Copper coin

• 

  Bull and horseman type copper coin

Succession[link]

Shahabuddin Ghori had no offspring, but he treated his Turkic slaves as his sons, who were trained both as soldiers and administrators and provided with the best possible education. Many of his competent and loyal slaves rose to positions of importance in Shahabuddin Ghori's army and government.

When a courtier lamented that the Sultan had no male heirs, Shahabuddin Ghori retorted:

"Other monarchs may have one son, or two sons; I have thousands of sons, my Turkish slaves who will be the heirs of my dominions, and who, after me, will take care to preserve my name in the Khuṭbah (Friday sermon) throughout these territories."^{[cite this quote]}

Shahabuddin Ghori's prediction proved true. After his assassination, his Empire was divided amongst his slaves. Most notably:

• Qutb-ud-din Aibak became ruler of Delhi in 1206, establishing the Sultanate of Delhi, which marked the start of the Slave dynasty^[20].
• Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha became ruler of Multan in 1210.
• Tajuddin Yildoz became ruler of Ghazni.
• Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji became ruler in parts of Bengal.

Legacy[link]

Muhammad of Ghor is revered by many Pakistanis as a true Muslim hero who came, fought and conquered the Hindu Raja Prithvi Raj Chauhan. However others, most notably the Hindus of India, consider him an iconoclast, whose unprovoked raids across India caused a lot of death and destruction, not unlike his predecessor from Ghazni. Nevertheless, the Pakistani military named three of its medium-range ballistic missile Ghauri-I, Ghauri-II and Ghauri-III, in the memory of Muhammad of Ghor.^[21]

[edit] Historical contemporaries

• Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin)
• Richard the Lionhearted
• Qutb-ud-din Aibak
• Prithviraj Chauhan

See also[link]

• Ghurids
• Ghiasuddin Ghori
• Ghor Province
• History of Pakistan
• History of Afghanistan

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• John Keay (May 2001). India: A history. Grove Press; 1 Grove Pr edition. ISBN 0-8021-3797-0. 
• A History of India By August Friedrich Rudolf Hoernle, Herbert Alick Stark
• The history of India from the earliest ages By James Talboys Wheeler
• Outline of Indian history By Sri Ram Sharma
• Elliot, Sir H. M., Edited by Dowson, John. The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period; published by London Trubner Company 1867–1877. (Online Copy: The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period; by Sir H. M. Elliot; Edited by John Dowson; London Trubner Company 1867–1877 – This online Copy has been posted by: The Packard Humanities Institute; Persian Texts in Translation; Also find other historical books: Author List and Title List)

• Briggs, John (Translator): The History of the Rise of Mohammedan Power in India. (Translation of the Mughal-Era Tārikh-i Farishtah. Available online at the Packard Humanities Institute.)

Ahmad Shah Massoud
File:Ahmad Shah Massoud.jpg
Nickname	"Lion of Panjshir"
Born	September 2, 1953 (1953-09-02) Bazarak, Panjshir, Afghanistan
Died	September 9, 2001 (2001-09-10) (aged 48) Takhar Province, Afghanistan
Service/branch	Military
Years of service	1978-2001 †
Rank	Commander, Minister of Defense
Commands held	Prominent Mujahideen commander during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Defense Minister of Afghanistan and commander of the anti-Taliban United Islamic Front
Battles/wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan
Awards	National Hero of Afghanistan

Ahmad Shah Massoud (احمد شاه مسعود Aḥmad Šāh Mas'ūd; September 2, 1953 – September 9, 2001) was a political and military leader in Afghanistan. He was a central figure, known as the "Lion of Panjshir", in the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989, fought against the alliance of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the early 1990s, and led resistance against the Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001. Massoud was assassinated on September 9, 2001, two days before the attacks of September 11.

Massoud was an Afghan-Tajik Sunni Muslim born in the Panjshir in northern Afghanistan. He studied engineering at Kabul University in the 1970s, where he became involved with Muslim anti-communist movements around Burhanuddin Rabbani. He led an uprising against the Soviet-backed communist government in his native Panjshir in 1979. His role in the following period of armed resistance against the Soviet occupation forces earned him the nickname of "Lion of Panjshir" (شیر پنجشیر). Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan the Wall Street Journal named Massoud "the Afghan who won the Cold War".^[1] In 1992, he was appointed minister of defense in the government of the newly established Islamic State of Afghanistan by the peace and power-sharing agreement Peshawar Accords. He led the Islamic State's defense against attacks by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's alliance of militias which were backed by Pakistan. Following the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Massoud, who rejected the Taliban's and Al-Qaeda's extremist interpretation of Islam, returned to the role of an armed opposition leader, serving as the military and political leader of the multiethnic United Islamic Front (also known in the West as Northern Alliance).^[2] In 1997, he helped end the civil war in neighboring Tajikistan urging parties to accept a United Nations peace plan.^[3][4]

Massoud was assassinated by two Arab suicide bombers, allegedly belonging to Al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan's Takhar Province on September 9, 2001, just two days before the September 11 attacks that finally caused the US and NATO to intervene in Afghanistan, allying themselves with Massoud's forces. His earlier effort, together with the most senior leaders of Afghanistan's ethnicities, at forging a wide coalition across political and ethnic factions were instrumental in preparing the ground for the ultimate overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and the establishment of a multiethnic government.

Massoud was posthumously named "National Hero of Afghanistan" by the order of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The date of his death, September 9, is observed as a national holiday known as "Massoud Day" in Afghanistan.^[5] His followers call him Āmir Sāhib-e Shahīd ("Our Beloved Martyred Commander"). Many of his followers see him not only as a military commander but also as a spiritual leader.^[2] In 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.^[2]

Early life[link]

The son of police commander Dost Mohammad, an ethnic Tajik, Ahmad Shah Massoud was born on September 2, 1953 in Bazarak, Panjshir, Afghanistan.

While studying in Kabul in 1972, Massoud became involved with the Sazman-i Jawanan-i Musulman ("organization of Muslim youth"), the student branch of the Jamiat-i Islami ("Islamic Society"), whose chairman was professor Burhanuddin Rabbani. This Islamist organization opposed the rising communist and Soviet influence that became especially evident after the coup d'état that brought Mohammed Daoud Khan to power in 1973: the coup was orchestrated by the Parcham faction of the PDPA, the Afghan communist party.

In 1976, the movement split between supporters of Rabbani, who led the Jamiat, and the extremist elements surrounding Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who then founded the Hezb-i Islami. Massoud, who had regular and vehement disputes with Hekmatyar, joined Rabbani's faction.

The Soviet invasion and PDPA communism[link]

Communist revolution in Afghanistan (1978)[link]

The government of Mohammed Daoud Khan increasingly distanced itself from the Afghan communists and the Soviet Union. In 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA, حزب دیموکراتیک خلق افغانستان) orchestrated a bloody coup assassinating Mohammed Daoud Khan, his family and bodyguards and consequently assuming power. The PDPA soon started reforms along Marxist-Leninist and Soviet lines. The reforms and the PDPA's affinity to the Soviet Union were met with heavy resistance among the population and also the Afghan Islamic fundamentalists, especially as the government attempted to enforce its Marxist policies by arresting or simply executing those who resisted. Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 100,000 people may have been killed in the countryside alone by government troops. The repression plunged large parts of the country, especially the rural areas, into open revolt against the new Marxist government. By spring 1979 unrests had reached 24 out of 28 Afghan provinces including major urban areas. Over half of the Afghan army would either desert or join the insurrection.

Having ascertained that an uprising against the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan would be backed by the people, Massoud made his way to the Panjshir and started an insurrection on July 6, 1979, which failed. Drawing lessons from this failure, Massoud decided to avoid conventional confrontation with larger and better armed government troops and to instead wage a guerrilla war.^[6]

Resistance against the Soviet Union (1979-1989)[link]

Major resistance forces against the Soviets 1985; Army-green depicts locations of Jamiat-i Islami. Shura-e Nazar (Massoud's alliance) comprised many Jamiat positions but also those of other groups.

Following the 1979 invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet troops, Massoud devised a strategic plan for expelling the invaders and overthrowing the communist regime. The first task was to establish a resistance force which had the hearts and minds of the people. The second phase was one of "active defense" of the Panjshir stronghold, while carrying out asymmetric warfare. The third phase, the "strategic offensive", would see Massoud's forces taking control of large parts of Northern Afghanistan. The fourth phase was the "general application" of Massoud's principles to the whole country, and the final demise of the Afghan communist government.

From the start of the war, Massoud's mujahideen proved to be a thorn in the side for the occupying Soviet forces by ambushing Soviet and Afghan communist convoys travelling through the Salang Pass, resulting in fuel shortages in Kabul.^[8] The Soviets mounted a series of offensives against the Panjshir. Between 1980 and 1985, these offensives were conducted twice a year. Yet, despite engaging more men and hardware on each occasion, the Soviets were unable to defeat Massoud's forces. In 1982, the Soviets began deploying major combat units in the Panjshir numbering up to 30,000 men. Massoud pulled his troops back into subsidiary valleys, where they occupied fortified positions. When the Soviet columns advanced onto these positions, they fell into ambushes. When the Soviets withdrew, they handed over their positions to Afghan army garrisons, and Massoud and his mujahideen forces attacked and recaptured them one by one.^[9]

In 1983, the Soviets offered Massoud a temporary truce, which he accepted in order to rebuild his own forces and give the civilian population a break from Soviet attacks. He put the respite to good use. In this time he created the Shura-e Nazar (Supervisory Council) which subsequently united 130 commanders from 12 Afghan provinces in their fight against the Soviet army. This council existed outside the fold of the Peshawar parties that were prone to internecine rivalry and bickering, and served to smooth out differences between resistance groups, due to political and ethnic divisions. It was the predecessor of what could have become a unified Islamic Afghan army.^[10]

Relations with the party headquarters in Peshawar were often strained, as Rabbani insisted on giving Massoud no more weapons and supplies than to other Jamiat commanders, even those who did little fighting. To compensate for this deficiency, Massoud relied on revenues drawn from exports of emeralds^[11] and lapis lazuli,^[12] that are traditionally exploited in Northern Afghanistan.

To organize support for the mujahideen, Massoud established an administrative system that enforced law and order (nazm) in areas under his control. The Panjshir was divided into 22 bases (qarargah) governed by a military commander and a civilian administrator, and each had a judge, a prosecutor and a public defender.^[13] Massoud's policies were implemented by different committees: an economic committee was charged with funding the war effort. The health committee provided health services, assisted by volunteers from foreign humanitarian non-governmental organizations, such as Aide médicale internationale. An education committee was charged with the training of the military and administrative cadre. A culture committee and a judiciary committee were also created.^[14]

This expansion prompted Babrak Karmal to demand that the Red Army resume their offensives, in order to crush the Panjshir groups definitively. However, Massoud had received advance warning of the attack through his intelligence agents in the government and he evacuated all 130,000 inhabitants from the valley into the Hindukush mountains, leaving the Soviet bombings to fall on empty ground and the Soviet battalions once again to face the mountains.^[15]

With the defeat of the Soviet-Afghan attacks, Massoud was able to carry out the next phase of his strategic plan, expanding the resistance movement and liberating the northern provinces of Afghanistan. In August 1986, he captured Farkhar in Takhar Province. In November 1986, his forces overran the headquarters of the government's 20th division at Nahrin in Baghlan Province, scoring an important victory for the resistance.^[16] This expansion was also carried out through diplomatic means, as more mujahideen commanders were persuaded to adopt the Panjshir military system.

Despite almost constant attacks by the Red Army and the Afghan army, Massoud was able to increase his military strength. Starting in 1980 with a force of less than 1,000 ill-equipped guerillas, the Panjshir valley mujahideen grew to a 5,000-strong force by 1984.^[8] After expanding his influence outside the valley, Massoud increased his resistance forces to 13,000 fighters by 1989.^[17] These forces were divided into different types of units: the locals (mahalli) were tasked with static defense of villages and fortified positions. The best of the mahalli were formed into units called grup-i zarbati (shock troops), semi-mobile groups that acted as reserve forces for the defense of several strongholds. A different type of unit was the mobile group (grup-i-mutaharek), a lightly equipped commando-like formation numbering 33 men, whose mission was to carry out hit-and-run attacks outside the Panjshir, sometimes as far as 100 km from their base. These men were professional soldiers, well-paid and trained, and, from 1983 on, they provided an effective strike force against government outposts. Uniquely among the mujahideen, these groups wore uniforms, and their use of the pakul made this headwear emblematic of the Afghan resistance.

Massoud's military organization was an effective compromise between the traditional Afghan method of warfare and the modern principles of guerilla warfare that Massoud had learned from the works of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara. His forces were considered the most effective of all the various Afghan resistance movements.^[18]

The United States provided Massoud with close to no support. Part of the reason was that it permitted its funding and arms distribution to be administered by Pakistan, which favored rival mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In an interview Massoud expressed: "We thought the CIA knew everything. But they didn't. They supported some bad people [meaning Hekmatyar]."^{[citation needed]} Primary advocates for supporting Massoud instead were State Department's Edmund McWilliams and Peter Tomsen, who were on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Others included two Heritage Foundation foreign policy analysts, Michael Johns and James A. Phillips, both of whom championed Massoud as the Afghan resistance leader most worthy of U.S. support under the Reagan Doctrine.^[19][20]

Still, the Soviet army and the Afghan communist army were mainly defeated by Massoud and his mujahideen in numerous small engagements between 1984 and 1988. In 1989, after labeling the Soviet Union's military engagement in Afghanistan "a bleeding wound", Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began a withdrawal of Soviet troops from the nation. On February 15, 1989, in what was depicted as an improbable victory for the mujahideen, the last Soviet soldier left the nation.

Fall of the Afghan communist regime (1992)[link]

After the departure of Soviet troops in 1989, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime, then headed by Mohammad Najibullah, proved unexpectedly capable of holding its own against the mujahideen. Backed by a massive influx of weapons from the Soviet Union, the Afghan armed forces reached a level of performance they had never reached under direct Soviet tutelage and were able to maintain control over all of Afghanistan's major cities.

By 1992, however, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the regime began to crumble. Food and fuel shortages undermined the capacities of the government's army, and a resurgence of factionalism split the regime between Khalq and Parcham supporters.^[21]

A few days after it was clear that Najibullah had lost control of the nation, his army commanders and governors arranged to turn over authority to resistance commanders and local notables throughout the country. Joint councils (shuras) were immediately established for local government in which civil and military officials of the former government were usually included. In many cases, prior arrangements for transferring regional and local authority had been made between foes.^[21]

Collusions between military leaders quickly brought down the Kabul government. In mid-January 1992, within three weeks of the demise of the Soviet Union, Massoud was aware of conflict within the government's northern command. General Abdul Momim, in charge of the Hairatan border crossing at the northern end of Kabul's supply highway, and other non-Pashtun generals based in Mazari Sharif feared removal by Najibullah and replacement by Pashtun officers. The generals rebelled and the situation was taken over by Abdul Rashid Dostum, who held general rank as head of the Jowzjani militia, also based in Mazari Sharif. He and Massoud reached a political agreement, together with another major militia leader, Sayyed Mansour, of the Ismaili community based in Baghlan Province. These northern allies consolidated their position in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 21. Their coalition covered nine provinces in the north and northeast. As turmoil developed within the government in Kabul, there was no government force standing between the northern allies and the major air force base at Bagram, some seventy kilometers north of Kabul. By mid-April 1992, the Afghan air force command at Bagram had capitulated to Massoud.^[21] On March 18, 1992, Najibullah announced his willingness to resign, and on April 17, as his government fell apart, he tried to escape but was stopped at Kabul Airport by Dostum's forces. He then took refuge at the United Nations mission, where he remained unharmed until 1995. A group of Parchami generals and officials declared themselves an interim government for the purpose of handing over power to Massoud, who at that time was the dominant military force and popular among the people.^[21]

Massoud transferred power to create an interim government to the political parties in order to give nobody a reason to continue the war. He kept his forces outside of Kabul trying to convince other commanders especially Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to do the same in order to avoid bloodshed. In early 1992, in a recorded conversation, Massoud tried to convince Gulbuddin Hekmatyar not to attack Kabul but instead to join the peace talks. see video Massoud was awaiting a political accord. In April 1992 the political leaders finally agreed on a plan for peace: the Peshawar Accords.

Pakistani interference and war in Afghanistan (1992-today)[link]

War in Kabul and other parts of the country (1992-1996)[link]

This article contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (May 2012)

The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period. Ahmad Shah Massoud was appointed as the minister of defense under president Burhanuddin Rabbani. The interim government soon came under attack from the Hezb-e Islami militia of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who refused to recognize it. What followed was several years of civil war in and around Kabul, with Massoud's Shura-e Nazar forces pitched against Hekmatyar and several other militias. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Junbish-i Milli militia backed by Uzbekistan joined an alliance with Hekmatyar in early 1994.^[22] Kabul witnessed intense indiscriminate shell and rocket attacks that inflicted heavy casualties on civilians, most heavily from Hekmatyar's side but also from the other warring parties, as well as other atrocities committed by all sides.^[23][24] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar received operational, financial and military support from Pakistan,^[25][22] while Iran provided assitance to the Shia Hazara Hezb-i Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari,^[23][22][26] and Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction.^[23][22]

There has been some discussion about the extent of personal responsibility of Massoud for atrocities committed by his Shura-e Nazar and allied forces during these years of civil war. A 2005 report by Afghanistan Justice Project assigns personal responsibility to Massoud for some part of the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas with heavy weapons in Kabul, which it describes as a war crime.^[24] It also describes him as indirectly responsible for an ethnically motivated massacre and mass rape committed by his forces on taking the suburb of Afshar in February 1993, arguing that he and his subcommanders failed to prevent atrocities that they could have foreseen.^[27] Other observers have argued that atrocities in this and other events were the responsibility of individual elements in his forces and that Massoud personally did all in his power to prevent them.^[2]

In 1993 Massoud created the Cooperative Mohammad Ghazali Culture Foundation ("Bonyad-e Farhangi wa Ta'wani Mohammad-e Ghazali") to further humanitarian assistance and politically independent Afghan culture.^[2][28] The Ghazali Foundation provided free medical services during some days of the week to residents of Kabul who were unable to pay for medical treatment themselves.^[2] The Ghazali Foundation's department for distribution of auxiliary goods was the first partner of the Red Cross. The Ghazali Foundation's department of family consultation was a free advisory board, which was accessible seven days a week for the indigent. Although Massoud was responsible for the financing of the foundation, he did not interfere into its cultural work. A council led the foundation and a jury consisting of impartial university lecturers decided on the works of artists. The Ghazali foundation enabled Afghan artists to exhibit their works at different places in Kabul and numerous artists and authors were honoured for their works; some of them neither proponents of Massoud nor the Islamic State government.

Meanwhile, southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders such as Gul Agha Sherzai and their militias. In 1994, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force, reportedly in opposition to the tyranny of the local governor.^[29] Mullah Omar started his movement with fewer than 50 armed madrassah students in his hometown of Kandahar.^[29] When the Taliban took control of the city in 1994, they forced the surrender of dozens of local Pashtun leaders who had presided over a situation of complete lawlessness and atrocities.^[30] In 1994, the Taliban took power in several provinces in southern and central Afghanistan.

In late 1994, most of the militia factions (Hezb-i Islami, Junbish-i Milli and Hezb-i Wahdat) which had been fighting in the battle for control of Kabul were defeated militarily by forces of the Islamic State's Secretary of Defense Ahmad Shah Massoud. Bombardment of the capital came to a halt.^[24][31][32] The Islamic State government took steps to restore law and order. Courts started to work again also convicting individuals inside government troops who had committed crimes.^[33] Massoud tried to initiate a nationwide political process with the goal of national consolidation and democratic elections. A conference in three parts was arranged by Massoud. He united political and cultural personalities, governors, commanders, clergymen and representatives, in order to reach a lasting agreement. Massoud, like most people in Afghanistan, saw this conference as a small hope for democracy and for free elections. His favourite for candidacy to the presidency was Dr. Mohammad Yusuf, the first democratic prime minister under Zahir Shah, the former king. In the first meeting representatives from 15 different Afghan provinces met, in the second meeting there were already 25 provinces participating. Up until then the Islamic State's reach had been limited. Massoud was now trying to put a consolidation process into action to unite Afghanistan. He also invited the Taliban to join the process wanting them to be a partner in providing stability to Afghanistan during such a process.^[2] Massoud unarmed went to talk to some Taliban leaders in Maidan Shar. But the Taliban declined to join a process leading towards democratic elections. When Massoud returned to Kabul unharmed, the Taliban leader who had received him as his guest paid with his life: he was killed by other senior Taliban for failing to assassinate Massoud while the possibility had presented itself.

Neighboring Pakistan exerted strong influence over the Taliban. A publication with the George Washington University describes: "Initially, the Pakistanis supported ... Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... When Hekmatyar failed to deliver for Pakistan, the administration began to support a new movement of religious students known as the Taliban."^[34] Many analysts like Amin Saikal describe the Taliban as developing into a proxy force for Pakistan's regional interests which the Taliban decline.^[22] The Taliban started shelling Kabul in early 1995 but were defeated by forces of the Islamic State government under Ahmad Shah Massoud.^[31] (see video) Amnesty International, referring to the Taliban offensive, wrote in a 1995 report:

"This is the first time in several months that Kabul civilians have become the targets of rocket attacks and shelling aimed at residential areas in the city."^[31]

—Amnesty International, 1995

The Taliban's early victories in 1994 were followed by a series of defeats that resulted in heavy losses.^[30] Pakistan provided strong support to the Taliban.^[22][35] On September 26, 1996, as the Taliban with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia prepared for another major offensive, Massoud ordered a full retreat from Kabul.^[36] The Taliban seized Kabul on September 27, 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Massoud and his troops retreated to the northeast of Afghanistan.^[37][38][39]

Resistance against the Taliban (1996-2001)[link]

Map of the situation in Afghanistan in late 1996; Massoud (red), Dostum (green), Taliban (yellow)

United Front[link]

Ahmad Shah Massoud created the United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban that were preparing offensives against the areas under the control of Massoud and against those under the control of other regional leaders. (see video) The United Front included forces and leaders from different political backgrounds as well as from all ethnicities of Afghanistan including Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Hazaras or Turkmens. From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled territory in which roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population was living in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan.

Massoud did not intend for the United Front to become the ruling government of Afghanistan. His vision was for the United Front to help establish a new government, where the various ethnic groups would share power and live in peace through a democratic form of government. Massoud told Roger L. Plunk, George Washington University author of the Wandering Peacemaker and international mediator, that his dream was of "an Afghanistan at peace with itself, and of the Panjshir Valley, which had been stripped of many of its trees, being once again full of flowering almond trees and laughing children."^[2]

Meanwhile, the Taliban imposed on the parts of Afghanistan under their control their political and judicial interpretation of Islam issuing edicts forbidding women to work outside the home, attend school, or to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.^[40]

"To PHR's knowledge, no other regime in the world has [like the Taliban do] methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment...."^[40]

—Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), in "The Taliban's War on Women" (1998)

Women were required to wear the all-covering Afghan burqa, denied access to health care and education, windows needed to be covered so that women could not be seen from the outside and they were not allowed to laugh in a manner they could be heard by others.^[40] The Taliban, without any real judicial process, cut people's hands or arms off when accused of stealing.^[40] Taliban hit-squads watched the streets conducting arbitrary brutal public beatings.^[40]

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf - then as Army Chief of Staff - was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and their ally Osama Bin Laden against the forces of Massoud.^{[2][35][41][42]} In total there were believed to be 28,000 Pakistani nationals fighting inside Afghanistan against the forces of Massoud.^[2] 20,000 were regular Pakistani soldiers either from the Frontier Corps or army and an estimated 8,000 were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks.^[43] The estimated 25,000 Taliban regular force thus comprised more than 8,000 Pakistani nationals.^[43] A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20-40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani."^[35] The document further states that the parents of those Pakistani nationals "know nothing regarding their child's military involvement with the Taliban until their bodies are brought back to Pakistan."^[35] Further 3,000 fighters of the regular Taliban army were Arab and Central Asian Al Qaeda militants.^[43] Of roughly 45,000 Pakistani, Taliban and Al Qaeda soldiers fighting against the forces of Massoud only 14,000 were Afghan (Taliban).^[2][43]

According to a 55-page report by the United Nations, the Taliban, while trying to consolidate control over northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians.^[44][45] UN officials stated that there had been "15 massacres" between 1996 and 2001.^[44][45] They also said, that "[t]hese have been highly systematic and they all lead back to the [Taliban] Ministry of Defense or to Mullah Omar himself."^[44][45]

From 1996 to 2001 Al Qaeda, as led by of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, became a state within the Taliban state.^[46] Bin Laden sent Arab recruits to join the fight against the United Front.^[46][47] His so-called 055 Brigade was responsible for mass killings of Afghan civilians.^[43] The report by the United Nations quotes eyewitnesses in many villages describing Arab fighters carrying long knives used for slitting throats and skinning people.^[44][45]

In total, estimates range up to one million people fleeing the Taliban and Al Qaeda.^[48] Many civilians fled to the area of Ahmad Shah Massoud.^[41][49] National Geographic concluded in its documentary "Inside the Taliban":

"The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres is Ahmad Shah Massoud."^[41]

—National Geographic, "Inside the Taliban"

Map of the situation in Afghanistan August 2001 - October 2001

In 1998, Ahmad Shah Massoud remained the only main leader of the United Front in Afghanistan and the only leader who was able to defend vast parts of his area against the Taliban. Most major leaders including the Islamic State's President Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, and others were living in exile. The Taliban repeatedly offered Massoud a position of power to make him stop his resistance. Massoud declined. He explained in one interview:

"The Taliban say: 'Come and accept the post of prime minister and be with us', and they would keep the highest office in the country, the presidentship. But for what price?! The difference between us concerns mainly our way of thinking about the very principles of the society and the state. We can not accept their conditions of compromise, or else we would have to give up the principles of modern democracy. We are fundamentally against the system called 'the Emirate of Afghanistan'."^[50]

—Ahmad Shah Massoud, 2001

"There should be an Afghanistan where every Afghan finds himself or herself happy. And I think that can only be assured by democracy based on consensus."^[51]

—Ahmad Shah Massoud, 2001

Massoud wanted to convince the Taliban to join a political process leading towards democratic elections in a foreseeable future.^[50][52] His proposals for peace can be seen here: Proposal for Peace, promoted by Commander Massoud. He also stated:

"The Taliban are not a force to be considered invincible. They are distanced from the people now [in 2001]. They are weaker than in the past. There is only the assistance given by Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and other extremist groups that keep the Taliban on their feet. With a halt to that assistance, it is extremely difficult to survive."^[51]

—Ahmad Shah Massoud, 2001

American journalist Sebastian Junger who frequently travels to war zones stated in March 2001:

"They [the Taliban] receive a tremendous amount of support by Pakistan... without that involvement by Pakistan the Taliban would really be forced to negotiate...."^[1]

—Sebastian Junger,  on 'Charlie Rose' (2001)

In early 2001 the United Front employed a new strategy of local military pressure and global political appeals.^[53] Resentment was increasingly gathering against Taliban rule from the bottom of Afghan society including the Pashtun areas.^[53] At the same time Massoud was very wary not to revive the failed Kabul government of the early 1990s.^[53] Already in 1999 the United Front leadership ordered the training of police forces specifically to keep order and protect the civilian population in case the United Front would be successful.^[2]

Cross-factional negotiations[link]

From 1999 onwards there were renewed plans to unite all the ethnicities of Afghanistan. Massoud entered in negotiations with the group around the exiled Afghan king Zahir Shah in Rome, including the influential Pashtun commander Abdul Haq and the later president Hamid Karzai. Senior Hazara and Uzbek leader were also part of the process. Consultations were held in a meeting in Massoud's headquarters in northern Afghanistan in November 2010, with a view towards convening a "Loya Jirga", i.e. a nation-wide traditional council of elders, in order to settle the factional disputes.^[54][55] Foreign observers in 2000 and 2001 hoped that an alliance between Massoud, Haq and Karzai might transcend the ethnic and regional divides within Afghanistan.^[56][53][57]

In early 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud with leaders from all ethnicities of Afghanistan addressed the European Parliament in Brussels, asking the international community to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan.^[58] He stated that the Taliban and Al Qaeda had introduced "a very wrong perception of Islam" and that without the support of Pakistan and Bin Laden the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year.^[48] On this visit to Europe he also warned that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale attack on U.S. soil being imminent.^[59]

The areas of Massoud[link]

Life in the areas under direct control of Massoud was different from the life in the areas under Taliban or i. e. Dostum's control. In contrast to the time of chaos in which all structures had collapsed in Kabul, Massoud was able to control his troops very well during the period starting in late 1996. Human Rights Watch notes no human rights crimes for Massoud's troops in the period from October 1996 until the assassination of Massoud in September 2001.Massoud always controlled the Panjshir, Takhar, parts of Parwan and Badakhshan during the war. Some other provinces (notably Kunduz, Baghlan, Nuristan and the north of Kabul) were captured by his forces from the Taliban and lost again from time to time as the frontlines varied.

Massoud created democratic institutions which were structured into several committees: political, health, education and economic.^[2] Still, many people came to him personally when they had a dispute or problem and asked him to solve their problems.^[2]

Massoud also signed the Women's Rights Declaration. In the area of Massoud, women and girls did not have to wear the Afghan burqa by law. They were allowed to work and to go to school. Although it was a time of war, girl schools were operating in some districts. In at least two known instances, Massoud personally intervened against cases of forced marriage in favour of the women to make their own choice.^[2]

While it was Massoud's stated personal conviction that men and women are equal and should enjoy the same rights, he also had to deal with Afghan traditions which he said would need a generation or more to overcome. In his opinion that could only be achieved through education.^[2] Author Pepe Escobar wrote in Massoud: From Warrior to Statesman:

"Massoud is adamant that in Afghanistan women have suffered oppression for generations. He says that 'the cultural environment of the country suffocates women. But the Taliban exacerbate this with oppression.' His most ambitious project is to shatter this cultural prejudice and so give more space, freedom and equality to women -- they would have the same rights as men."^[2]

—Pepe Escobar,  in 'Massoud: From Warrior to Statesman'

Humayun Tandar, who took part as an Afghan diplomat in the 2001 International Conference on Afghanistan in Bonn, said that "strictures of language, ethnicity, region were [also] stifling for Massoud. That is why ... he wanted to create a unity which could surpass the situation in which we found ourselves and still find ourselves to this day."^[2] This applied also to strictures of religion. Jean-José Puig describes how Massoud often led prayers before a meal or at times asked his fellow Muslims to lead the prayer but also did not hesitate to ask the Jewish Princeton Professor Michael Barry or his Christian friend Jean-José Puig: "Jean-José, we believe in the same God. Please, tell us the prayer before lunch or dinner in your own language."^[2]

International relations[link]

U.S. policy regarding Massoud, the Taliban and Afghanistan remains ambiguous and differed between the various U.S. government agencies.

In 1997, U.S. State Department's Robin Raphel suggested to Massoud he should surrender to the Taliban. He roundly rejected the proposal.^{[citation needed]}

At one point in the war, in 1997, the Taliban were vulnerable and the road to the capital, Kabul, was wide open. Two top foreign policy officials in the Clinton administration flew to northern Afghanistan to convince - without success - the United Front not to take advantage of an opportunity to make crucial gains against the Taliban.^[60] Before the United Front could strike, Assistant Secretary of State Rick Indefurth and American U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson flew to northern Afghanistan and tried to convince the leadership of the United Front that this was not the time for an offensive.^[60] Instead, they insisted this was the time for a cease-fire and an arms embargo. At the same time Pakistanis began a "Berlin-like airlift to resupply and re-equip the Taliban", financed with Saudi money.^[60]

On another note an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Julie Sirrs, had visited Afghanistan, but only in those areas controlled by the Taliban. After returning, she had realized that this was a one-dimensional view of Afghanistan and there were gaping holes in the DOD's understanding of the situation. In 1998, she requested to officially go back to northern Afghanistan to the areas controlled by Commander Massoud.^[60] Subsequently she was denied the permission to go there.^[60] So she went to the Panjshir Valley on her vacation and paid the journey on herself (in 1998). U.S. congressman Dana Rohrabacher describes:

"When she got to the Panjshir Valley, she found... something vital to America's security was happening, something she was not really able to discover when she visited the Taliban-controlled areas before. Commander Massoud told her that he was facing a new enemy in Afghanistan [meaning foreign esp. Arab forces].... Apparently, bin Laden, who was making Afghanistan into his base of operations, was importing Islamic radicals from all over the world, training them as terrorists and killers and then sending them up against Massoud's troops.... She only had a short time, but she collected enough information for a preliminary report, and she headed home. The minute she got back, she found herself under severe restrictions at the Defense Intelligence Agency and restricted to whom she could brief or show any of her reports.... The commanding officer of the DIA labeled her as insubordinate, he fired her; and when she fought her dismissal, he set out to destroy her. Amidst the fight to save her job, the DIA commanding officer told her what really upset him most was her contact with Massoud, who, according to the DIA general, was one of the bad guys. This general was sending his people to be briefed by the Taliban, but any contact with Massoud was a cause for dismissal.... It was a mind set of the man who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency. Something is terribly wrong with this picture."^[60]

—U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, to U.S. Congress in 2004

In the meantime, the only collaboration between Massoud and another U.S. intelligence service, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), consisted of an effort to trace Osama bin Laden following the 1998 embassy bombings.^[61] The U.S. and the European Union provided no support to Massoud for the fight against the Taliban.

A change of policy, lobbied for by CIA officers on the ground who had visited the area of Massoud, regarding support to Massoud was underway in the course of 2001. According to Steve Coll's book "Ghost Wars"^[53] (who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction):

"The CIA officers admired Massoud greatly. They saw him as a Che Guevara figure, a great actor on history's stage. Massoud was a poet, a military genius, a religious man, and a leader of enormous courage who defied death and accepted its inevitability, they thought.... In his house there were thousands of books: Persian poetry, histories of the Afghan war in multiple languages, biographies of other military and guerilla leaders. In their meetings Massoud wove sophisticated, measured references to Afghan history and global politics into his arguments. He was quiet, forceful, reserved, and full of dignity, but also light in spirit. The CIA team had gone into the Panshjir as unabashed admirers of Massoud. Now their convictions deepened...."^[53]

—Steve Coll, in "Ghost Wars"

U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher also recalled: "[B]etween Bush's inauguration and 9/11, I met with the new national security staff on 3 occasions, including one meeting with Condoleezza Rice to discuss Afghanistan. There were, in fact, signs noted in an overview story in The Washington Post about a month ago that some steps were being made to break away from the previous administration's Afghan policy."^[60] CIA lawyers, working with officers in the Near East Division and Counterterrorist Center, began to draft a formal, legal presidential finding for Bush's signature authorizing a new covert action program in Afghanistan, the first in a decade that sought to influence the course of the Afghan war in favour of Massoud.^[53] This change in policy was finalized in August 2001 when it was too late.

After Pakistan had funded, directed and supported the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan, Massoud and the United Front received some assistance from India.^[62] India was particularly concerned about Pakistan's Taliban strategy and the Islamic militancy in its neighborhood; it provided US$70 million in aid including two Mi-17 helicopters, three additional helicopters in 2000 and US$8 million worth of high-altitude equipment in 2001.^[63] Furthermore, the alliance supposedly also received minor aid from Tajikistan, Russia and Iran because of their opposition to the Taliban and the Pakistani control over the Taliban's Emirate. Their support, however, remained limited to the most needed things. Meanwhile Pakistan engaged up to 28 000 Pakistani nationals and regular Pakistani army troops to fight alongside the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces against Massoud.^[41][42]

In April 2001, the president of the European Parliament Nicole Fontaine (who called Massoud the "pole of liberty in Afghanistan") invited Massoud with the support of French and Belgian politicians to address the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. In his speech, he asked for humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan. Massoud further went on to warn that his intelligence agents had gained limited knowledge about a large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil being imminent.^[64]

Assassination[link]

Afghan National Army honouring Massoud's resistance at his tomb and memorial in September 2010.

Massoud, then aged 48, was the target of a suicide attack at Khwaja Bahauddin, in Takhar Province in northeastern Afghanistan on September 9, 2001.^[65][66] The attackers' names were alternately given as Dahmane Abd al-Sattar, husband of Malika El Aroud, and Bouraoui el-Ouaer; or 34-year-old Karim Touzani and 26-year-old Kacem Bakkali.^[67]

The attackers claimed to be Belgians originally from Morocco. However, their passports turned out to be stolen and their nationality was later determined to be Tunisian. Waiting for almost three weeks (during which they also interviewed Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf) for an interview opportunity, on September 8, 2001, an aide to Massoud recalls the would-be suicide attackers "were so worried" and threatened to leave if the interview did not happen in the next 24 hours (until September 10, 2001). They were finally granted an interview. During the interview they set off a bomb that was composed of explosives hidden in the camera and in a battery pack belt. Commander Massoud died in a helicopter that was taking him to a military field hospital in nearby Tajikistan.^[68][69] The explosion also killed Mohammed Asim Suhail, a United Front official, while Mohammad Fahim Dashty and Massoud Khalili were injured. One of the suicide attackers, Bouraoui, was also killed by the explosion while Dahmane was captured and shot while trying to escape.

Despite initial denials by the United Front, news of Massoud's death was reported almost immediately, appearing on the BBC, and in European and North American newspapers on September 10, 2001. On September 16, however, the United Front officially announced that Massoud had died of injuries in the suicide attack. Massoud was buried in his home village of Bazarak in the Panjshir Valley.^[70] The funeral, although happening in a rather rural area, was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. (see video).

Afghan journalist Fahim Dashty summarized: "He was the only one, ever, to serve Afghanistan, to serve Afghans. To do a lot of things for Afghanistan, for Afghans. And we lost him." (see video)

Until he was assassinated, Massoud had survived assassination attempts for 26 years, including attempts made by Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Pakistani ISI and before them the Soviet KGB, the Afghan communist KHAD and Hekmatyar. The first attempt on Massoud's life was carried out by Hekmatyar and two Pakistani ISI agents in 1975 when Massoud was only 22 years old.^[26] In early 2001 Al Qaeda would-be assassins were captured by Massoud's forces while trying to enter his territory.^[53]

Connection to September 11, 2001

The assassination of Massoud is considered to have a strong connection to the September 11 attacks in 2001 on U.S. soil which killed nearly 3,000 people and which appeared to be the terrorist attack that Massoud had warned against in his speech to the European Parliament several months earlier.

John P. O'Neill was a counter-terrorism expert and the Assistant Director of the FBI until late 2001. He retired from the FBI and was offered the position of director of security at the World Trade Center (WTC). He took the job at the WTC two weeks before 9/11. On September 10, 2001, John O'Neill told two of his friends, "We're due. And we're due for something big.... Some things have happened in Afghanistan. [referring to the assassination of Massoud] I don't like the way things are lining up in Afghanistan.... I sense a shift, and I think things are going to happen... soon."^[71] John O'Neill died on September 11, 2001, when the south tower collapsed.^[71]

U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher would later claim that he immediately saw the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud as a sign that "something terrible [was] about to happen."^[60] Rohrabacher recounted his convictions in a 2004 speech to congress: "As I mourned his loss, I struggled to fully understand the significance of his death. Then it dawned on me. It dawned on me why Massoud had been assassinated. America was going to be attacked. It would be so monstrous that bin Laden's gang in Afghanistan wanted to cut us off from a means of counterattacking them in their base of operations in Afghanistan. We would have turned to Massoud if we were attacked. That is what we would have done, and they were cutting us off from turning to Massoud, but now Massoud was dead. Perhaps his death was a signal to set the planned attack on our country in motion...."^[60]

Analysts believe Osama bin Laden ordered the assassination to help his Taliban protectors and ensure he would have their protection and co-operation in Afghanistan. Following the assassination, Osama bin Laden had an emissary deliver a cassette of Dahmane speaking of his love for his wife and his decision to blow himself up as well as $500 in an envelope to settle a debt, to the assassin's widow.^[72] The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an Afghan Wahhabi Islamist, have also been mentioned as possible organizers or collaborators of the Massoud assassins.^[73] The assassins are said to have entered United Front (Northern Alliance) territory under the auspices of the Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and had his assistance in bypassing "normal security procedures."^[73]

Investigative commission

In April 2003, the Karzai administration announced the setup of a commission to investigate the assassination of Massoud, as the country celebrated the 11th anniversary of the defeat of the communist government^[74] The French secret service revealed on October 16, 2003 that the camera used by Massoud's assassins had been stolen in December 2000 in Grenoble, France from a photojournalist, Jean-Pierre Vincendet, who was then working on a story on that city's Christmas store window displays. By tracing the camera's serial number, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to determine that Vincendet was its original owner. The French secret service and the FBI then began working on tracing the route the camera took between the time it was taken from Vincendet and the Massoud assassination.^[75]

Legacy[link]

National Hero of Afghanistan[link]

Picture of Massoud reading the Quran in the 1980s standing in front of his tomb which was under construction when the image was taken.

Massoud was the only main Afghan leader who never left Afghanistan in the fight against the Soviet Union and later in the fight against the Taliban Emirate.^[47] The National Geographic about that time concluded: "The only thing standing in the way of future Taliban massacres [was] Ahmad Shah Massoud." (see video) In the areas under his direct control such as Panjshir, some parts of Parwan and Takhar Massoud established democratic institutions. One refugee who cramped his family of 27 into an old jeep to flee from the Taliban to the area of Massoud described Massoud's territory in 1997 as "the last tolerant corner of Afghanistan".^[77] About his life in Massoud's area he stated:"I feel freedom here. I like... you know, nobody bothers me. I do my job. I take care of my family. The way which I like I live in this area."^[77]

In 2001, the Afghan Interim Government under president Hamid Karzai officially awarded Massoud the title of "Hero of the Afghan Nation".^[47][78] One analyst in 2004 put it this way: "One man holds a greater political punch than all 18 living [Afghan] presidential candidates combined. Though already dead for three years.... Since his death on September 9, 2001 at the hands of two al Qaeda-linked Islamic radicals, Massoud has been transformed from mujahedin to national hero—if not saint. Pictures of Massoud, the Afghan mujahedin who battled the Soviets, other warlords, and the Taliban for more than 20 years, vastly outnumber those of any other Afghan including those of Karzai."^[78] Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, one of the closest friends of Massoud, was Karzai's strongest rival in the Afghan Presidential Elections of 2009. Dr. Abdullah said about Massoud: "He was everything. He was a friend. He was a leader. He was a teacher without acting as a teacher."^[47][79]

Journalist Sebastian Junger reports: "A lot of people who knew him felt that he was the best hope for that part of the world."^[47] Junger who traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to profile Massoud further states: "Afghanistan's government has been accused of being corrupt and weak. Massoud had a reputation for integrity and strength.... He would have been very hard for the [insurgents] to intimidate."^[47] Shorish-Shamley, a women's rights activist, says: "If they [al Qaeda leaders] were hiding under a rock, he would have found them. He was that type of person. He would have found bin Laden."^[47] Among supporters of the Taliban or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami he is obviously seen differently. Still, a 2009 CNN report concludes: "He remains today a hero on the streets of Kabul among a people who have more faith in a leader from the past than the leaders of the future." (see video)

Today Panjshir - the home of Massoud - "is arguably the most peaceful place in the entire country. A small US military reconstruction team is based here, but there are none of the signs of foreign occupation that exist elsewhere. Even Afghan soldiers are few and far between. Instead, the people like to boast about how they keep their own security," observes the United Arab Emirates newspaper The National.^[80] The people of Panjshir (and Takhar) remain realistic however: "We are very sure that if they [the Taliban] come back they will not leave one man in Panjshir alive. If we don't fight they will kill us, so if we fight we will at least die with glory."^[80] The National further states: "Those who knew him say he would never have accepted the Taliban's return to power and they have vowed to defend his memory."^[80]

Many documentaries, books and movies have been made about Ahmad Shah Massoud. Massoud is the subject of Ken Follett's Lie Down With Lions, a novel about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He also plays a significant role in James McGee's thriller Crow's War. Another is Fire by Sebastian Junger. Junger was one of the last Western journalists to interview Massoud in depth. The bulk of this interview was first published in March 2001 for National Geographic's Adventure Magazine, along with photographs by the renowned Iranian photographer Reza Deghati.

The Massoud Foundation was established in 2003, as an independent, non-aligned, non-profitable and non-political organization by people who have been affected by Massoud. It provides humanitarian assistance to Afghans especially in the fields of health care and education. It also runs programs in the fields of culture, construction, agriculture and welfare.

Lion of Panjshir[link]

Massoud was named "The Afghan who won the cold war" by the Wall Street Journal.^[1] He defeated the Soviet Red Army nine times in the Panjshir.^[47] The Soviet Union's defeat was not only a defeat in Afghanistan, but led to the collapse of the Soviet system and was followed by the liberation of the Central Asian and Eastern European countries from Moscow's control. His struggle against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan earned him the name "Lion of Panjshir".

"Lion of Panjshir", is a rhyme and play on words in Persian, which alludes to the strength of his resistance against the Soviet Union, the mythological exaltation of the lion in Persian literature, and finally, the place name of the Panjshir Valley, where Massoud was born. The place name of "Panjshir" Valley in Persian means (Valley of the) Five Lions. Thus, the phrase "Lion of Panjshir", which in Persian is "Shir-e-Panjshir," شیر پنجشیر is a rhyming play on words, with the connotation "Lion of the Five Lions".

Warning the world (September 11, 2001)[link]

In spring 2001, Ahmad Shah Massoud addressed the European Parliament in Brussels stating that behind the situation in Afghanistan there was the regime in Pakistan.^[48] He also stated his conviction that without the support of Pakistan, Osama Bin Laden and Saudi Arabia, the Taliban would not be able to sustain their military campaign for up to a year, also because the Afghan population was ready to rise against them.^[48] Addressing the United States specifically he issued the warning that should the U.S. not work for peace in Afghanistan and put pressure on Pakistan to cease their support to the Taliban, the problems of Afghanistan would soon become the problems of the U.S. and the world.^[48][81]

Declassified Defense Intelligence Agency documents from November 2001 show that Massoud had gained "limited knowledge... regarding the intentions of [al-Qaeda] to perform a terrorist act against the US on a scale larger than the 1998 bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania."^[59] They also point out that he warned about such attacks.^[59]

In 2002, French singer-songwriter and author Damien Saez wrote a song about 9/11 entitled "Massoud". He was also featured in the ABC Television mini-series The Path to 9/11, which aired commercial-free in the USA in 2006, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The mini-series depicts Massoud warning U.S. intelligence agents of the coming U.S. attack by al-Qaeda^[82] and Massoud's September 9, 2001 assassination.^[83]

Personal[link]

Massoud was married to Sediqa Massoud. They have one son (Ahmad born in 1989) and five daughters (Fatima born in 1992, Mariam born in 1993, Ayesha born in 1995, Zohra born in 1996 and Nasrine born in 1998). In 2005 Sediqa Massoud published a personal account on her life with Massoud (co-authored by two women's rights activists and friends of Sediqa Massoud, Chékéba Hachemi and Marie-Francoise Colombani) called "Pour l'amour de Massoud" (For the love of Massoud) in which she describes a very decent and loving husband.

A major road in Kabul was named Great Massoud Road, and just outside the US Embassy stands a monument to Massoud. The family has a great deal of prestige in the politics of Afghanistan. One of his six brothers, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was the Vice President of Afghanistan from 2004 until 2009 under the first ever democratically elected government of Afghanistan. There have been unsuccessful attempts on the life of Ahmad Zia Massoud in 2004 and late 2009. The Associated Press reported that 8 Afghans died in the attempt on Ahmad Zia Massoud's life.^[84] Ahmad Zia Massoud now leads the National Front of Afghanistan (a United Front group).

Another brother, Ahmad Wali Massoud, was Afghanistan's Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2006.^[85] He is now a member of Abdullah Abdullah's National Coalition of Afghanistan (another United Front group).

See also[link]

	Afghanistan portal
	Biography portal
	Cold War portal
	War portal

• Amrullah Saleh
• Abdullah Abdullah
• Massoud Khalili
• Malika El Aroud
• Reagan Doctrine
• Sebastian Junger's "Fire"

Notes and references[link]