1932 -
Afghan resistance leader; Sufi pir (spiritual leader).
Ahmad Gailani played an important role in Afghan resistance politics of the 1980s and in the political events of the early 1990s. Gailani is the spiritual leader of the Qadiriyya Sufi order in Afghanistan and well connected to the former royal family through marriage. Gailani assumed the leadership of the Qadiriyya order upon the death of his older brother Sayyid Ali in 1964. He was educated at Abu Hanifa College.
A member of the Kabul elite before 1978, Gailani fled Kabul after the Marxist revolution in April 1978 and founded the resistance group Mahaz-e Milli-e Islami-e Afghanistan (National Islamic Front) in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1979. This group had a strong following among Gilzai Pushtun tribes and among supporters of the ex-king Zahir Shah. After the collapse of the communist government in 1992 Gailani returned to Kabul and participated in the transitional government of Sabghatullah Mujaddidi. He was first offered the position of foreign minister, but refused to serve. Later he accepted the post of supreme justice.
When the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996 Gailani was forced from his leadership role and again fled to Pakistan. After the events of 11 September 2001 Gailani returned to Kabul to play a role in the formation of the government of Hamid Karzai and to support Zahir Shah, although he held no official position in the Afghan government.
Bibliography
Roy, Olivier. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan. New York; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Rubin, Barnett R. The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
— GRANT FARR
