Rabbani, Burhanuddin (1940-)

A Tajikized ethnic Yaftal from the Yaftal district of the province of Badakhshan, Burhanuddin Rabbani received a B.A. from the College of Theology in Kabul in 1963 and an M.A. in Islamic philosophy (1966-68) from the University of al-Azhar in Cairo. In Cairo he was influenced by the teachings of the Ikhwan al-Muslimin. There he undertook to translate some works of Sayyed Qutb. On returning to Kabul, he resumed teaching at the university. He worked with Ghulam Mohammad Niazi and others in founding the Islamic Association, a mother organization of the Islamic Movement of the Islamist type. In 1972 he succeeded Ghulam M. Niazi as its amir. The following year he fled Kabul after the government began a crackdown of the Islamists. At the time he was an associate professor (Pohanwal). After the failed uprising of the Islamists against the government in 1975, the more radical Islamists seceded from the association; Rabbani, though, stuck to it and remained its amir. Afterward the Tajiks dominated the association. Following the Soviet invasion and the intensification of resistance, the association became a major resistance organization throughout the country, in particular the Tajik-dominated regions.