Obedience to the Amir

In the last year of the Taliban's government in Afghanistan, visitors to Mullah Omar's office in Kandahar received a parting gift. As they left, the movement's supreme leader asked them to take a slim volume from a pile beside the door. He told them that if they wanted to know how the Taliban were meant to  behave, they should read the book. The books which Mullah Omar handed out were Pashto and  Farsi translation of Eta’t Amir, or  'Obedience to the Leader'. Mufti Rasheed  published the original in Urdu after having  toured Taliban-run Afghanistan. Mullah Omar's  endorsement indicates that he believed that : Rasheed had captured the essence of the Taliban Movement. Michael Semple and Yameema  Mitha have translated this important primary  source and added a commentary and appraisal.