A Talib's Tale

John Butt was born in Trinidad in 1950. At the age of nine, he came to boarding school in England. His restless spirit did not settle down to life in England and in 1969, he took the hippie trail to India. In the Pashtoon border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, he converted to Islam and started a second education, as a traditional talib—student of Islam. Having become the first European to qualify from Darul Uloom Deoband—the pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in South Asia—he later became a well-known broadcaster in his adopted Pashto language. He was renowned as the Man Who Brought The Archers—a well-known BBC radio soap opera—to Afghanistan. His adventures and encounters in between this extraordinary trajectory give a unique insight into Pashtoon history, the place the Pashtoons occupy in the sub-continent and some hints as to how present-day conundrums among the Pashtoons might be assuaged.

Prologue
I.Friendship
II.Yin and Tang
III.Talib Farmer
IV.Sectarianism
V.A Talib’s Trade
VI.Talib Prisoner
VII.Panjpiri Warrior
VIII.Captive Englishman
IX.The Book of Allah
X.Pashtoons in Deoband
XI.Sufi Saint
XII.Modern Mulla
XIII.Frontier Gandhi
XIV.From Flower-Power to Dawa Power
XV.Journalism Nursery
XVI.BBC
XVII.Storyteller
XVIII.Battleground of Education
Illustrations
Footnotes
Epilogue
Acknowledgements