A Talib''s Tale: The Life and Times of a Pashtoon Englishman

About John Butt

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 talibstudent of Islam. Having become the first European to qualify from Darul Uloom Deobandthe pre-eminent institute of Islamic learning in South Asiahe later became a well-known broadcaster in his adopted Pashto language. He was renowned as the Man Who Brought The Archersa well-known BBC radio soap operato 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.