Word: amir
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...shining specimen of both piety and military felicity was the Amir Abdur Rahman, colorful and vainglorious ruler of the late 19th century. Abdur Rahman, who abolished slavery in 1895, helped consolidate the nation, spreading his influence from Kabul outwards to cover what is magnanimously called modern Afghanistan. An anecdote related by the British observer Frank A. Martin in Under the Absolute Amir will demarcate his strictness and his faith...
...woman, who loved not wisely but too well, both being married people, determined on running away...they were caught and brought back. The Amir, in ordering their punishment, said that, as the man was so fond of the woman, he should have her as completely as was possible. So the woman was thrown alive into a huge cauldron of boiling water, and boiled down to soup, and a basin of this soup was given to the man, who was forced to drink it, and after drinking it he was hanged. In this case the Amir's object was to punish...
...little agreement over a future political system for Afghanistan. Argued Sayad Ahmed Gailani, 45, the strongly pro-Western chief of the relatively new United Islamic Revolutionary Council: "We believe in democracy and modernization, and the majority of Afghans are with us." Countered Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, 32, the fervently traditionalist "Amir" of the long-established Islamic Party: "A pure Islamic system was established 14 centuries ago, and any regime that differs from that ideal is unacceptable." At the end of the loquacious jirga, as such a gathering of tribes is called, the only agreement the squabbling chieftains could reach was to appoint...
...border into Pakistan from Paktia province last week. Explained Alip Jon, 41: "There are too many tanks, and planes are always coming. For every one of us here, two or three are still fighting, but I fear Paktia is done for." Others talked as truculently as ever. Said Gul Amir, 36: "The Russians can't stay in Afghanistan. They are so alien that even the animals hate them...