The Bodleian Libraries are running a trial of The Afghan Serials Collection: Partisan Publications from the Wahdat Library.

This resource is an essential collection of partisan serials from the most comprehensive private collection of rare newspapers and journals from Afghanistan. The Afghan Serials Collection includes over 45 newspapers and journals published in, largely, Persian, Pushto, and Arabic, but also some in Urdu and English from the early 1970s to the late 1990s—a critical period for the history of Afghanistan.

Documenting the breadth of Afghanistan’s political epochs, the Afghan Serials Collection: Partisan Publications from the Wahdat Library covers the use of the press by many groups that sought to shape Afghanistan’s social and intellectual landscape during this turbulent time. Various ideologies are represented in these publications, published by opposing factions from the Taliban to anti-Taliban groups, to anti-Soviet jihadi and mujaheddin groups to the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

Please send any feedback on the trial to Lydia Wright and Emma Mathieson.

The trial ends on 7 May 2022.