Nonviolent Soldier of Islam
Encyclopedia
Nonviolent Soldier of Islam is a biography of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an Afghan, Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India...

 (1890-1988), an ally of Gandhi's in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

. Originally written by Eknath Easwaran
Eknath Easwaran
Eknath Easwaran was a spiritual teacher, an author of books on meditation and ways to lead a fulfilling life, as well as a translator and interpreter of Indian literature....

 in English, foreign editions have also been published in Arabic and several other languages. name=nsiindonesian/> name=nsiitalian90/> name=nsiitalian08/> name=nsikorean/> name=nsiturkish/> name=npforeign>Foreign editions of Nilgiri Press Books, http://www.easwaran.org/page/150, accessed 3 April 2010. The book was originally published in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1984 as A Man to Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan, nonviolent soldier of Islam. A second edition was published in 1999 with the title Nonviolent soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a man to match his mountains. Both editions include an afterword by Timothy Flinders. The 1999 US edition contains a new foreword by Easwaran, and an enlarged section of photographs of Khan. The book has been reviewed in magazines, name=mckibben84/> name=nsifrontline/> newspapers, name=knickerbocker85/> name=shojai85/> name=mckibben89/> and professional journals. name=caron2009> The book inspired the making of the 2008 film The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace
The Frontier Gandhi
The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace, a documentary released in 2008, is the first full film account of Pashtun leader and non violent activist Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Badshah Khan or Bacha Khan....

.

Topics covered

Both US editions of Nonviolent Solder are divided into four major parts. Parts one through three tell the story of Khan's life up to Indian independence in 1947. Part four, by Flinders, contains an afterword that describes Khan's life after 1947, and also contains a chronology, as well as a glossary, bibliography, index, maps, and extensive notes on sources.

Reviews and influence

Reviews have appeared in the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

, the Washington Post, name=mccarthy85> the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

, and Frontline
Frontline (magazine)
Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India. Narasimhan Ram is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Frontline gives a prominent place to various...

 (India). name=nsifrontline> In 1985, the Washington Post stated that "Eknath Easwaran's great achievement is telling an American audience about an Islamic practitioner of pacifism at a moment when few in the West understand its effectiveness and fewer still associate it with anything Islamic." A year later, after Badshah Khan had won the Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna
Bharat Ratna is the Republic of India's highest civilian award, awarded for the highest degrees of national service. This service includes artistic, literary, and scientific achievements, as well as "recognition of public service of the highest order." Unlike knights, holders of the Bharat Ratna...

, India's highest civilian honor, the same paper again quoted from the book:

"Easwaran writes of the myth that the British were civilized oppressors. In the 1930s and '40s under British tyranny, the 'Pathans had to endure mass shootings, torture, the destruction of their fields and homes, jail, flogging and humiliations. Khan himself spent 15 years in British prisons. But the Pathans remained nonviolent and stood unmoved -- suffering and dying in large numbers to win their freedom.'... Easwaran believes that 'were Khan's example better known, the Western world, as well as Muslims caught in the web of violence all over the Middle East, might come to recognize that the highest religious values of Islam are deeply compatible with a nonviolence that has the power to resolve great conflicts.'"


In the journal History Compass, a review of resources for teaching about Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and Pushtu populations, stated that Nonviolent Soldier of Islam was a "highly readable book for the popular market [that] incorporates some of the clearest discussions of an Islamic version of something akin to liberation theology.... its explicitly Gandhian perspective might serve as a useful counterpoint to colonial perspectives" (pp. 548-549).

In late 2001, the book was discussed in Whole Earth magazine, which stated that "Perhaps no time is more apt than now to study the life of Abdul Ghaffar Khan." The book was also reviewed in Yes! Magazine
YES! Magazine
YES! Magazine is a non-profit, ad-free magazine that covers topics of social justice, environmental sustainability, alternative economics, and peace. The magazine is published by Positive Futures Network, founded by David Korten and Sarah van Gelder; Korten's wife, Fran Korten, is the publisher. ...

, and elsewhere.

The publisher quoted Mubarak Awad
Mubarak Awad
Mubarak Awad is a Palestinian-American psychologist and an advocate of nonviolent resistance.-Early life and move to the United States:Awad, a Palestinian Christian , was born in 1943 in Jerusalem when it was under the British Mandate...

, director of the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence
Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence
Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence was founded in 1983 by Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American psychologist, and an advocate of nonviolent resistance....

 in Jerusalem, as stating that "This book is a must for every Muslim. The life of Khan can change and will challenge many readers in the Middle East."

In late 2001, the book was reviewed in Frontline
Frontline (magazine)
Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India. Narasimhan Ram is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Frontline gives a prominent place to various...

 (India), and described as "crisply written, expertly organised and gripping.... [Easwaran's] subtle grasp of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's non-violent vision of humanity makes this a very exceptional and special book." name=nsifrontline/> The reviewer, who stated that "between 1969 and 1988 I was in his [Khan's] presence many times," noted that

Easwaran calls the 6'6" tall Khan, "a Muslim St. Francis". It is so apt.... The Pathan had a most moving and magnanimous understanding of his great religion. He saw no conflict in his triple identities - his Pathaniat, Hindustaniat and Insaniat (humanity) was an organic whole.... name=nsifrontline/>


In the National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
The National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...

, John Dear
John Dear
John Dear is an American Catholic priest, Christian pacifist, author and lecturer. He has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons.-Studies:...

 described Nonviolent Soldier as "the best introduction to Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an Afghan, Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India...

." Dear
John Dear
John Dear is an American Catholic priest, Christian pacifist, author and lecturer. He has been arrested over 75 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice and nuclear weapons.-Studies:...

 wrote that "over the past few months, as I have struggled to pray for and think about the suffering people of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, I have carried around a favorite book, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam."

The book inspired the making of the 2008 film The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace
The Frontier Gandhi
The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace, a documentary released in 2008, is the first full film account of Pashtun leader and non violent activist Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Badshah Khan or Bacha Khan....

, which won the top award for documentary films at the 3rd Middle East International Film Festival
Middle East International Film Festival
Abu Dhabi Film Festival is an international film festival. Created in 2007, the ceremony is held annually in October in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage , under the patronage of Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of the ADACH...

 at Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...

 in 2009. The film's director, T. C. McLuhan, stated that, upon receiving the book's first edition in 1987 from an acquaintance, "I looked at it and thought, 'I don't know anything about this part of the world,' and three weeks later, at about 3 in the morning, I picked it up and felt all the electrons around me shift."

Editions

The original edition was published in English in 1984 by Nilgiri Press, and a year later by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

. Foreign (non-English) editions have been published in Arabic, name=nsiarabic>Eknath Easwaran
Eknath Easwaran
Eknath Easwaran was a spiritual teacher, an author of books on meditation and ways to lead a fulfilling life, as well as a translator and interpreter of Indian literature....

 (1987). A Man to Match His Mountains (1st ed.), translated into Arabic by Wadih Ibrahim Atta. Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence. (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&u=http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php%3Ftitle%3D%25D9%2581%25D8%25B1%25D9%258A%25D8%25B6%25D8%25A9_%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25BA%25D9%2581%25D8%25B1%25D8%25A7%25D9%2586&ei=xqa3S6vYGYOisgO5voGABQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522%25D8%25AC%25D9%2586%25D8%25AF%25D9%258A%2B%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D9%2584%25D8%25A7%25D8%25B9%25D9%2586%25D9%2581%2B%25D9%2581%25D9%258A%2B%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25A5%25D8%25B3%25D9%2584%25D8%25A7%25D9%2585%2522%2Beaswaran%26num%3D50%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DoKV%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:officiallink to Google-translated Arabic page], accessed 3 April 2010 (does not have ISBN).
Indonesian, name=nsiindonesian>Eknath Easwaran (2008). Badshas Khan(Leo S. Perwira, trans.). Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Penerbit Bentang. ISBN 9791227462 Italian, name=nsiitalian90>Eknath Easwaran (1990). Badshah Khan. Il Gandhi musulmano (L. Armando, trans.). Italy: Sonda. ISBN 8871060245, ISBN 9788871060248 (252 pages). name=nsiitalian08>Eknath Easwaran (2008). Il Gandhi musulmano. Un'alternativa per Bin Laden. Italy: Sonda. ISBN 887106514X, ISBN 9788871065144 (256 pages).
Korean, name=nsikorean>Eknath Easwaran (2003). 바드샤 칸(역사인물찾기 14) (Nonviolent Soldier of Islam) (김문호 [gimmunho], trans.). Seoul, South Korea: Silcheon Munhak (via BookCosmos). ISBN 8939204530, ISBN 9788939204539, (452 pages) and Turkish. name=nsiturkish>Eknath Easwaran (2002). Badşah han: islam'ın silahsız askeri (Badshah Khan: Nonviolent Soldier of Islam) (İhsan Özdemir, trans.). Istanbul, Turkey: Timaş yayınları. ISBN 9753626711, ISBN 9789753626712, (278 pages)

A second edition was published 1999 in the US by Nilgiri Press, and English-language editions have been published in India. The US editions are: (274 pages) ISBN 9780394734750 (240 pages) ISBN 0915132346 (240 pages)

Indian editions: ISBN 9788184950410 (240 pages) ISBN 9780141006642 (274 pages)
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