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Personal Narrative Of Josiah Harlan

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1. Central Asia: Personal Narrative of Josiah Harlan
a. Josiah Harlan, an American famous for his adventures in India and Afghanistan, writes about the social situation of Afghanistan in the early 1800s. He has extensive notes about Hazara culture, although his writings are clearly affected by prejudiced racial and religious attitudes common in the West at the time. He certainly expresses his disapproval of Islamic ways, so his observations may not be fully reliable, but his observations of Hazarajat allow me to reconstruct the religious life of the Hazaras in this time period, albeit with some possible error due to his bias.
2. Oral Histories
a. I plan to use oral history accounts from active members of the American Hazara community to highlight …show more content…

The author discusses the religion of the Hazaras in very little detail. He does, however, highlight how Shiism is a major differentiating factor for Hazaras and often serves as the main difference between them and the other tribes of Afghanistan. Also, the author strongly rejects the notion that Shiism brings Hazara groups closer to other Shiites abroad, essentially suggesting Hazaras are fiercely distinct from other Afghans and other Shiites. My research contradicts this point, as it shows how Hazaras tend to form networks that interweave with other Shiite groups, becoming a part of the fabric of Western Shiism. The author, by taking this position, is also implicitly suggesting that ethnic identity is significantly more important to most Hazaras in the West than religious identity, which I also plan to …show more content…

This book provides historical information about Hazara Mujahideen groups and political parties from the 1980s to present. The author suggests that these parties have strong Iranian ties due to similar religious beliefs. He essentially suggests that the parties are in complete harmony with Iran. I plan to show that these parties exercised significant degrees of autonomy and were not merely Iranian puppets.
4. Guardians of Shi’ism
a. The author here focuses on the international nature of many organizations of prominent Grand Ayatollahs. He shows how these institutions form international networks for the scholars who found them. I plan to expand on this idea, showing how these organizations in turn produce international networks for their members. That is to say, I plan to show how Shiites, Hazaras specifically, use these networks to form international relationships for various purposes, including increasing aid work in Afghanistan and creating contacts with Hazaras across the world.
5. Hazara Integration into the Afghan

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