Page 209 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

HARUN YAHYA (ADNAN OKTAR)
207

the whole country to ac- UZBEKISTAN
cept his rule under the TURKMENISTAN TADJIKISTAN
name Ahmad Shah IRAN
Durrani. His territories
extended from Kashmir Kabul
AFGHANISTAN
to Delhi and the Amu
Darya (Oxus) River to
Oman, and were so ex-
PAKISTAN
tensive that the Afghan
Empire was the second-
largest Islamic state in
the world in the second
half of the eighteenth
century, after the
Ottomans.
The empire did not last long though, and was soon drawn into a
great civil war. British forces took advantage of the confusion to occupy
Afghanistan. For a long time afterwards the country was unable to form
a long-lasting government due to outside interventions by Britain and
Russia, and suffered periodic internal conflicts. Muhammad Nadir
Khan, who came to power in 1929, was able to provide a brief period of
stability, yet Russia still continued to interfere in Afghanistan's internal
affairs and tried to dominate the administrations that came to power.
Their relationship was so close that Afghanistan was the first country to
recognize Russia's communist Bolshevik regime.
In 1973, the Soviet Union brought about a coup in Afghanistan.
The pro-Western Zahir Shah was overthrown and Daoud Khan
(Muhammad Daoud) came to power in his place. After that, Marxist of-
ficials and officers began to be influential in the Afghan administration
and were appointed to key posts. Daoud Khan wished to be free of
Russian influence and to draw closer to Islamic nations. The agree-
ments he reached with Pakistan caused the increasingly powerful do-
mestic communist organizations to join forces. It was already clear that
this policy of drawing closer to Islamic nations would provoke a