Burhanuddin Rabbani

Burhanuddin Rabbani, born in 1940, Afghan military and political leader, president of Afghanistan (1992-1996). Rabbani was born in Feyẕābād (Faizabad) and educated at Kābul University and at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. Upon his return to Afghanistan, he became a professor of theology at Kābul University. He played a prominent role in the Islamist movement, which protested measures taken by the Afghan government to secularize institutions. In 1971 he became the leader of the Jamiat-i-Islami (Islamic Society), a political party that evolved into a prominent mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla) group. Jamiat-i-Islami first fought against the regime in Kābul and later against forces from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which invaded the country in 1979. A rift with fellow member Gulbuddin Hekmatyar caused Hekmatyar to break away and form a separate political party and mujahideen force, the Hezb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) in 1976.

In the aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Rabbani and Hekmatyar became involved in a power struggle for dominance in Afghanistan. In 1992 Rabbani became president of Afghanistan, although this office remained largely symbolic because of the ongoing civil war. A United Nations (UN) plan gave the regime some sense of stability and international recognition in 1995, but within Afghanistan the regime’s legitimacy extended only to areas in and around the capital city of Kābul. In 1996 Rabbani and Hekmatyar once again struck an alliance, this time to fight against the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic group. Hekmatyar joined Rabbani’s government as prime minister in June 1996. Rabbani was forced to flee Kābul when the Taliban entered and took over the city in September 1996. He joined factions in northern Afghanistan in an opposition alliance—known as the United Front or Northern Alliance—that fought against the Taliban’s takeover of the country. With the help of United States forces, the Northern Alliance drove the Taliban from power in 2001.