A Note on Sources
In order to keep the text to a manageable length, endnote references are limited to
key published works, quoted material, journal and magazine articles, unpublished
records and online sources. The Bibliography at the rear includes many of the
standard works as well as Persian sources. For the early history of the Saddozais,
I have drawn on studies by Pakistani and Indian scholars, some of which are
not readily available outside of the subcontinent. In such cases I have included
these sources both in References and in the Bibliography. The online Royal Ark
genealogical website gives extensive details of the complex interrelatedness of
the Saddozai and Barakzai lineages (www.royalark.net). For the biographies
of individual actors, readers should also consult Ludwig W. Adamec’s various
historical and biographical dictionaries.
The Political and Secret Department records of the India Office Library and
Records, part of the British Library’s Asia and Africa Collection, are an invaluable
and still underutilized resource. The main sources are listed in Leslie Hall, A Brief
Guide to the Sources for the Study of Afghanistan in the India Office Records (London,
1981). Primary material from the India Office Records (iol) that I have drawn
on include: Political and Secret Department Records, l/p&s series; Proceedings,
Bengal Secret Consultations, p/ben/con; Military Department Records, l/mil/17;
Mss Eur, which contains the personal papers and diaries of many British officials
and travellers; and Records of the British Legation in Kabul, 1923–1948, r/12. Many of
British Legation and Foreign Office Records from the early twentieth century have
now been published: see Anita L. P. Burdett, ed., Afghanistan Strategic Intelligence:
British Records, 1919–1970, 4 vols (Cambridge, 2008). References to my earlier book,
The ‘Ancient Supremacy’: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901
(Leiden, Cologne and New York, 1996) will provide the reader with more specific
reports in the iol. I have also drawn on material in the Peshawar Record Office.
The online records of the u.s. State Department’s Office of the Historian
(https://history.state.gov and https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu) and WikiLeaks’s
Plus D Cables provided a wealth of information about the internal workings
of the Afghan government and u.s. policy after the end of the Second World
War. Copies of the Kabul Times and Kabul New Times, the main English daily
newspaper published in Afghanistan, as well as many other historic publications
in Dari and Pushtu, can be accessed from: The Arthur Paul Collection at the
University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Digital Commons (http://digitalcommons.
unl.edu/afghanuno); the University of New York’s Afghanistan Digital Library
(http://afghanistandl.nyu.ed); and the University of Arizona Libraries Digital