"Afghanistan has a rich and ancient tradition of epic poetry celebrating resistance to foreign invasion and occupation. This extraordinary collection is remarkable as a literary project-uncovering a seam of war poetry few will know ever existed. Yet it is also an important political project, humanizing and giving voice to the aspirations, aesthetics, emotions, and dreams of the fighters of a much-caricatured and little-understood resistance movement about to defeat yet another foreign occupation."

--William Dalymple, author of The Return of a King: Sha Shuja and the First Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42

"These poems expose something of the full, textured, deeply conflicted humanity of those who actively consume and recirculate them; those who may be insurgents while also being human. In providing such a picture, the ‘insurgent' is restored a sense of humanity and agency, and even (as the editors note) an accountability for violence that would be impossible from a mere avatar."

--James Caron , University of Pennsylvania

"An essential work. In compiling the poetry of the Taliban, these young scholars have preserved the intimate and the expansive, ranging from pastoral imagery of the Afghan countryside to satire on global politics and rich references to Afghan, Muslim, and biblical history. In the process, they go beyond humanizing the Taliban toward understanding them. A Taliban the world knows as culturally backward have in fact inspired a corpus of poetry reflecting the finest accomplishments of Pashto, Farsi, Urdu, and Arabic civilizations. If anyone still wonders which cultural resources the Taliban drew on to inspire a people to resist a dull global plan to modernize them, read on."

--Michael Semple, Harvard University, former European Union representative in Afghanistan