The book of the famous Pakistani international journalist Ahmed Rashid is dedicated to the history of the Taliban movement, which almost managed to seize power in Afghanistan during the bloody civil war. The events of September 11, 2001, however, put an end to the victorious march of the Taliban. The special value of the book is that its first edition was published before September 11, and the reader can see the events as they were seen by their attentive and well-informed observer in the 90s of the last century.