afghanistanAfghanistan’s first tentative steps towards modernization of its educa-
tional system thus involved a delicate balancing act between Islamic
conservatives and a small coterie of young, foreign-educated, urban
reformers, known as roshanfikrs. Later in Habib Allah Khan’s reign the
reform movement become inextricably associated with Mahmud Tarzi, but
the original impetus for change came not from Tarzi and his Turcophile
Young Afghans but what Nile Green terms the Urdusphere. 5 The Urdu
press was widely available in Afghanistan and read by many high officials,
while Indian Muslims were employed in Afghanistan during the reigns of
Amir ‘Abd al-Rahman Khan and Amir Habib Allah Khan. They included
architects, medical workers and supervisors of state projects. Habibiyya
College’s first two headmasters and its teachers were also Indians, mostly
graduates of ‘Aligarh, Lahore’s Islamia College, or Mission schools.
A traditional
madrasa depicted
in a miniature of
the famous story of
Layla and Majnun:
unknown artist, Herat,
late 15th–early 16th
century. Amir Habib
Allah Khan attempted
to reform the
education system and
curriculum, in part
to reduce the power
of the religious elites
who controlled the
madrasas. However,
these tentative steps
to modernization ran
foul of conservative
elements in
government and
within his own
extended family.