Download The Kite Runner Ch.5-10 Historian-Maria 9-26

Maria Arianas
Mr. Snyder
AP Seminar, Period 4
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
Historian
Dhul-Hijjah (76)
Dhul-Hijjah is a holiday season in the religion of Islam. It involves participating in worship in order to
strengthen the faithful’s relationship with God. The first ten days of the season are especially blessed.
Muslims celebrate Dhul-Hijjah by performing good deeds and participating in consistent worship. Those
acts that are less preferred are the best ones to partake in. On these days a voluntary fast is in effect.
During this special religious season of Islam many of the faithful take the opportunity to complete the
Hajj, which is one of the five Pillars of Islam. The Hajj consists of a trip to the city of Mecca, a city central
to the Islamic faith. It is important preform a multitude of voluntary prayers and recite the Koran, which
should be memorized. A Muslim must strive to avoid sin and disobedience and repent for all of his or
her wrongdoings. This holiday season is also celebrated by giving to charity and the slaughtering of a
sacrifice of the day of Eid al-Adha, which is what Amir’s family does in the novel. Amir tells the reader
that Eid al-Adha, the tenth day of Dhul-Hijjah is “a day to celebrate how the prophet Ibrahim almost
sacrificed his own son for God” (76) and so Muslims commemorate this by sacrificing a sheep on this
day. This is what Amir and his family is doing in his flash back connection between the sheep’s
acceptance of its imminent death and a parallel to Hassan’s acceptance of the fact that he will be raped.
Ahmad Zahir (61)
Ahmad Zahir was a popular Afghani singer in the 1970’s. He recorded over 22 albums and his songs were
known for their melodious tone and passionate emotion. Many of his songs chronicled autobiographical
elements of the happenings in Afghanistan or political criticisms of Afghanistan’s government. For this
reason, many of his recordings were destroyed by the government. He was in the Afghan music business
as a professional for about ten years and his albums were widely successful. In the novel, the reader
sees references to Ahmad Zahir as being “immensely popular” (61) and having “revolutionized Afghan
music” (61) and “shirked the austere and nearly morose stance of older singers and actually smiled
when he sang” (61). It is clear from Amir’s descriptions of Zahir that he was a very popular singer. The
fact that he was the entertainment at Amir’s thirteenth birthday party shows how high a social status
Amir’s family had attained; high enough to have one of the most popular singers of that time perform at
their home. The novel also references Zahir when it talks about the Russian regime of Afghanistan. It
states “You couldn’t trust anyone in Kabul anymore…Ahmad Zahir…had gone for a drive with some
friends, and someone had later found his body on the side of the road, a bullet in the back of his head”
(112). Indeed, it seems that Zahir was killed through the order of communist general Daud Taroon, who
used his friends as accomplices. He was killed because his political stance was at odds with the
communist government at the time. The friend who set him up is believed to be Mahbubullah Pacha,
who today lives in California.
July 17th, 1973 Coup D’état (36)
In the early 1970’s there was much public dissatisfaction with Afghanistan’s unstable parliament. It was
becoming increasingly polarized and the king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, although popular, faced much
criticism for not supporting his own prime ministers. These conditions resulted in Lieutenant General
Mohammad Daoud Khan staging a successful coup d’état on July 17th, 1973 against the king, his cousin
and brother-in-law. It happened when the king was out the country for medical treatment. With this
coup d’état, Afghanistan transitioned from a constitutionally sanctioned limited democracy, combined
with a monarchy, to a republic with Daoud Khan as the president and premier. This historical event is
referenced in the book. One night, Amir, Hassan and Ali hear gunfire in the night and it frightens them.
They later on find out that “monarchy was a thing of the past. The king, Zahir Shah, was away in Italy. In
his absence, his cousin Daoud Khan had ended the kin’s forty-year reign with a bloodless coup” (36).
Works Cited
“Afghan Republican Coup 1973.” Armed Conflict Events Database. November 27, 2003. Web. September
25, 2012. http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/afghan/fafghan1973.htm
“Ahmad Zahir.” Wikipedia. September 6, 2012. Web. September 25, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Zahir
Aziz, Shawana A. “The Blessed Days of Dhul-Hijjah.” Mission Islam. Web. September 25, 2012.
http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/dhul%20hijjah.htm