In 1978 and 1979 revolutions in Afghanistan and Iran marked a shift in the balance of power in South West Asia and the world. Then, as now, the world is once more aware that tribalism is no anachronism in a struggle for political and cultural self-determination. This books provides historical and anthropological perspectives necessary to the eventual understanding of the events surrounding the revolutions.

Multivolume collection by leading authors in the field

1: Introduction; 2: State, Tribe and Empire in Afghan Inter-Polity Relations; 3: Khan and Khel; 4: Tribes and States in the Khyber, 1838-42; 5: Tribes and States in Waziristan; 6: Political Organisation of Pashtun Nomads and the State; 7: ABD Al-Rahman's North-West Frontier; 8: Why Tribes Have Chiefs; 9: Iran and the Qashqai Tribal Confederacy; 10: Tribes, Confederation and the State; 11: On the Bakhtiari; 12: The Enemy Within; 13: Kurdish Tribes and the State of Iran; 14: Nomads and Commissars in the Mughan Steppe; 15: The Tribal Society and its Enemies; 16: Tribe and State