Memoirs by Afghan Arabs

Below is a selection of first-hand accounts by Arab volunteers in the 1980s Afghanistan war.

Abdallah Anas, To the Mountains: My Life in Jihad, from Algeria to Afghanistan (London: Hurst, 2018).

Mustafa Hamid and Leah Farrall, The Arabs at War in Afghanistan (London: Hurst, 2015).

Jamil al-Dhiyabi, ‘Saudi academic recounts experiences from Afghan war’. Al-Hayat (via Ariana News), 20 March 2006.

Mustafa Badi, afghanistan: ihtilal al-dhakira [Afghanistan: The Occupation of Memory] (Sanaa: Unknown publisher, 2004).

Mawlana Amir Hamza, qafilat dawat jihad [The Caravan of Da‘wa and Jihad] (Dar al-Andalus, 2004). (In Urdu, by a Pakistani fighter in Afghanistan.)

Abdallah Anas, wiladat al-afghan al-‘arab [The Birth of the Afghan Arabs] (London: Saqi, 2002).

Abu Ja’far al-Misri al-Qandahari, dhikrayat ‘arabi afghani [Memoirs of an Afghan Arab] (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 2002).

Muhammad Salah, waqa’i‘ sanawat al-jihad: rihlat al-afghan al-‘arab [Realities of the Years of Jihad: The Journey of the Arab Afghans] (Cairo: Khulud, 2001).

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, ‘marhalat afghanistan [the Afghanistan Stage]’, (Minbar al-Tawhid wa’l-Jihad, n.d.).

Basil Muhammad, al-ansar al-‘arab fi afghanistan [The Arab Supporters in Afghanistan], 2nd ed. (Riyadh: Lajnat al-Birr al-Islamiyya, 1991).

Muhammad al-Majdhub, ma‘ al-mujahidin wa’l-muhajirin fi bakistan [With the Mujahidin and the Emigrants in Pakistan] (Medina: Nadi al-Madina al-Munawwara al-Adabi, 1984).