How long does it take to read Taliban?
Taliban by Ahmed Rashid takes about 5 hours 51 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 51 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2000. 319 pages, about 87,725 words.
12 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 9 hours 45 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 51 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 39 minutes |
The page count is the median across 29 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Shrouding themselves and their aims in deepest secrecy, the leaders of the Taliban movement control Afghanistan with an inflexible, crushing fundamentalism. The most extreme and radical of all Islamic organizations, the Taliban inspires fascination, controversy, and especially fear in both the Muslim world and the West. Correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban into sharp focus in this enormously interesting and revealing book. It is the only authoritative account of the Taliban and modern day Afghanistan available to English language readers. Based on his experiences as a journalist covering the civil war in Afghanistan for twenty years, traveling and living with the Taliban, and interviewing most of the Taliban leaders since their emergence to power in 1994, Rashid offers unparalleled firsthand information. He explains how the growth of Taliban power has already created severe instability in Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and five Central Asian republics. He describes the Taliban’s role as a major player in a new “Great Game”—a competition among Western countries and companies to build oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to Western and Asian markets. The author also discusses the controversial changes in American attitudes toward the Taliban—from early support to recent bombings of Osama Bin Laden’s hideaway and other Taliban-protected terrorist bases—and how they have influenced the stability of the region.
Subjects: Politics and government, Islam and politics, Oil fields, Islamic fundamentalism, Taliban, Islam and state
