Massoud: de l’islamisme à la liberté

by Michael A. Barry

Le 9 septembre 2001, les fanatiques d'al-Qaida assassinaient le commandant Massoud, sinistre prélude aux attentats de New York. Qui était vraiment cet homme charismatique et secret ? Un génie stratégique, symbole de la résistance afghane qui a tenu en échec les chars de l'armée soviétique, puis contenu longtemps les fondamentalistes appuyés par le Pakistan ? Un politique visionnaire qui voulait restaurer dans Kaboul un Etat nationaliste et laïc ? Un mystique engagé dans l'action, épris de poésie et tenant d'un Islam hautement spiritualisé ? L'un des meilleurs connaisseurs de l'histoire afghane, Michael Barry trace le portrait et l'itinéraire de cette personnalité fascinante et énigmatique, qui a rompu avec l'extrémisme islamiste, pour le combattre jusqu'à son dernier souffle en s'identifiant à l'amour de son pays. C'est dans une prestigieuse lignée historique de sages guerriers Marc Aurèle, Lincoln, Abd El Kader - que Michael Barry inscrit Massoud l'Afghan.

Genres: Nonfiction

2002 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Michael A. Barry (born 1948, in New York) is a Princeton University professor and historian of the greater Middle East and Islamic world. Since 2004 he has taught as Lecturer in Islamic Culture in Princeton's Department of Near Eastern Studies, in addition to serving as consultative chairman of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005-2009) and special consultant to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture since 2009. An established authority on Islamic art and the history and culture of Afghanistan, on which subjects he has written extensively in both French and English, Barry's works include a standard French-language history of Afghanistan (Le Royaume de l'insolence), a biography of the late commander of the Afghan Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud (Massoud: de l’islamisme à la liberté), which won France's Prix Femina in 2002, and an interpretive history of medieval Islamic figurative painting from the 15th to the 16th centuries (Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzâd of Herât (1465-1535)).

His most recent work is Kabul's Long Shadows, published in 2011 by Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD). This monograph, which summarizes Barry's views on Afghanistan for the first time in English, addresses current U.S. policy toward Afghanistan in light of the country's political and cultural history, its tribal dynamics and the strategic concerns of the surrounding region.

Prior to coming to Princeton, Barry spent many years in Afghanistan with the International Federation for Human Rights, Médecins du Monde and the United Nations, working in often perilous conditions to provide and coordinate humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people from 1979 to 2001. He holds an A.B. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, post-graduate degree in anthropology from Cambridge University, M.A. from McGill University and Ph.D. from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Reviews

[Laura Costantini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un saggio per forza di cose datato, ma che approfondisce la figura di Massud, un uomo che seppe sognare un futuro diverso per l'Afghanistan e che ha pagato un prezzo altissimo senza riuscire a far breccia nella natura tribale, quindi divisiva, della sua gente.

[Juan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its war and politics, which I dislike, even so Massud's personality and exploits as presented, could make one think that maybe he was different from other warlords seeking power in the country, and threfore witht some redeeming qualities.