The region called Nuristan is one in a chain of ethnic refuge areas that line the mountains of the Indian Plate collision zone from Afghanistan to Southeast Asia. Nuristan lies in the Hindu Kush mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, spanning the basins of the Alingar, Pech, Landai Sin, and Kunar rivers. It is the homeland of a unique group of Indo-European-speaking tribal peoples, now called Nuristanis, who fled and resisted Islam as it spread eastward. In 1895-96 the Nuristanis were finally conquered by the Afghan armies of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, and the people were obliged to abandon their ancient religious beliefs in favor of Islam.

Nuristanis are today such devout Muslims that they were the first citizens of Afghanistan to successfully revolt against the communist overthrow of their government in 1978. Their success inspired others throughout the country to rise up against the Soviets. Today Nuristan remains a key region in a strategic and ethnographic context.

The event made possible with contributions from the Humanities Foundation at Boston University.

Watch lecture by Richard Strand (Requires Quicktime)
Watch lecture by David Katz (Requires Quicktime)
Watch post-lecture Q&A (Requires Quicktime)

The 2007 Board of Trustees Meeting for AIAS will be held on Friday, October 19 2007 in conjunction with the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) conference at the University of Washington - Seattle. The meeting will begin approximately at 9 AM Friday morning. The Meeting will be held in the Thompson 317 room, which is near the conference site.

If you plan to attend the Board meeting, or the CESS conference in general, I would suggest going to the following two sites:

For CESS conference registration:
http://www.cess.muohio.edu/

For local accommodations:
http://jsis.washington.edu/ellison/CESS.shtml