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{{Short description|President of Afghanistan from 1992 to 2001}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Burhanuddin Rabbani {{Nobold|{{lang|fa|برهان‌الدین ربانی}}}}
| image = Burhanuddin Rabbani Cropped DVIDS.jpg
| caption = Rabbani in 2010
| office = [[President of Afghanistan]]
| term_start = 13 November 2001
| term_end = 22 December 2001
| predecessor = Mohammed Omar {{small|(Head of the Supreme Council)}}
| successor = [[Hamid Karzai]]
| primeminister1 = [[Abdul Sabur Farid Kohistani]] [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] [[Arsala Rahmani]] {{small|(acting)}} [[Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai]] {{small|(Acting)}}
| vicepresident1 = [[Abdul Rasul Sayyaf]] Mawlawi Mir Hamza Mohammad Shah Fazli [[Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi]]
| term_start1 = 28 June 1992
| term_end1 = 27 September 1996
| predecessor1 = [[Sibghatullah Mojaddedi]] {{small|(acting)}}
| successor1 = [[Mohammed Omar]] {{small|(Head of the Supreme Council)}}
| office2 = [[Northern Alliance|President of the Northern Alliance]]
| primeminister2 = [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] [[Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai]]
| term_start2 = 27 September 1996
| term_end2 = 13 November 2001
| predecessor2 = Position established
| successor2 = Position abolished
| birth_date = {{birth date|1940|9|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Badakhshan Province|Badakhshan]], [[Kingdom of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|2011|9|20|1940|9|20|df=y}}}}
| death_place = [[Kabul]], [[Islamic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]
| children = 4, including [[Salahuddin Rabbani|Salahuddin]]
| education = [[Kabul University]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}} [[Al-Azhar University]] {{small|([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])}}
}}

'''Burhānuddīn Rabbānī''' ([[Persian language|Persian]]: {{lang|fa|برهان‌الدین ربانی}}; 20 September 1940 – 20 September 2011) was an [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] politician and teacher who served as [[President of Afghanistan]] from 1992 to 2001 (in exile from 1996 to 2001).

Born in the [[Badakhshan Province]], Rabbani studied at [[Kabul University]] and worked there as a professor of Islamic theology. He formed the [[Jamiat-e Islami]] (''Islamic Society'') at the university which attracted then-students [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] and [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], both of whom would eventually become the two leading commanders of the [[Afghan mujahideen]] in the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] from 1979. Rabbani was chosen to be the President of Afghanistan after the end of the former [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|communist regime]] in 1992. Rabbani and his [[Islamic State of Afghanistan]] government was later forced into exile by the [[Taliban]], and he then served as the political head of the [[Northern Alliance]], an alliance of various political groups who fought against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

After the [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)|Taliban government]] was toppled during [[War in Afghanistan (2001-present)|Operation Enduring Freedom]], Rabbani returned to [[Kabul]] and served briefly as President from 13 November to 22 December 2001, when [[Hamid Karzai]] was chosen as his succeeding interim leader at the [[International Conference on Afghanistan, Bonn (2001)|Bonn International Conference]].<ref name="BbcNews2001-11-14">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1656013.stm|title=Rabbani's Afghan comeback|date=14 November 2001|work=BBC News|access-date=10 September 2009}}</ref> In later years he became head of Afghanistan National Front (known in the media as [[United National Front (Afghanistan)|United National Front]]), the largest political opposition to Karzai's government.

On 20 September 2011, Rabbani was assassinated by a [[suicide bomber]] entering his home in Kabul. As suggested by the Afghan parliament, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai gave him the title of "Martyr of Peace".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/world/asia/Burhanuddin-Rabbani-afghan-peace-council-leader-assassinated.html?_r=1&hp Afghan Peace Council Chief Killed in Attack on His Home]. ''New York Times''. 21 September 2011.</ref> His son [[Salahuddin Rabbani]] was chosen in April 2012 to lead efforts to forge peace in Afghanistan with the Taliban.<ref>[http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/14/145214/karzai-appoints-slain-leaders.html Karzai appoints slain leader's son] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420180928/http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/14/145214/karzai-appoints-slain-leaders.html |date=20 April 2012 }} 14 April 2012 McClatchy</ref>

==Early life and education==
Rabbani, son of Muhammed Yousuf, was born in the northern province of [[Badakhshan Province|Badakhshan]]. He was a Persian-speaking ethnic [[Tājik people|Tajik]].<ref name="Edwards2002">{{cite book|author=David B. Edwards|title=Before Taliban: Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=biOdjgEO-IcC&pg=PR7|access-date=30 September 2012|date=2 April 2002|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22861-0|pages=7–}}</ref> After finishing school in his native province, he went to Darul-uloom-e-Sharia (Abu-Hanifa), a religious school in Kabul. When he graduated from Abu-Hanifa, he attended [[Kabul University]] to study Islamic Law and Theology, graduating in 1963.<ref name=Edwards2002/>

Soon after his graduation in 1963, he was hired as a professor at Kabul University.<ref name=Edwards2002 /> In order to enhance himself, Rabbani went to [[Egypt]] in 1966, and he entered the [[Al-Azhar University]] in Cairo where he developed close ties to the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] leadership.<ref name="Burke">{{cite book |title=Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam|author=Burke, Jason|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2004|pages= 66–67}}</ref> In two years, he received his [[master's degree]] in [[Islamic Philosophy]]. He resumed his position at the university and became closely associated with his fellow professor, [[Gholam Mohammad Niazi]], whom he served as secretary in 1969 and 1970.<ref name=Edwards2002/> Rabbani was one of the first Afghans to translate the works of [[Sayyid Qutb]] into [[Persian language|Persian]].<ref name="Burke" /> Later he returned to Egypt to complete his PhD in Islamic philosophy and his thesis was titled "The Philosophy and Teachings of Abd al-Rahman Muhammad [[Jami]]." In 2004 he received Afghanistan's highest academic and scientific title "Academician" from the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan.

==Political career==
Rabbani returned to Afghanistan in 1968, where the High Council of Jamiat-e Islami gave him the duty of organizing the University students. Due to his knowledge, reputation, and active support for the cause of Islam, in 1972, a 15-member council selected him as head of Jamiat-e Islami of Afghanistan; the founder of Jamiat-e Islami of Afghanistan,[[Gholam Mohammad Niazi]] was also present. Jamiat-e Islami was primarily composed of Tajiks.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Analysis and Chronology |author=Rogers, Tom |publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1992|page=27}}</ref>

In the spring of 1974, the police came to Kabul University to arrest Rabbani for his pro-Islamic stance, but with the help of his students the police were unable to capture him, and he managed to escape to the countryside. In Pakistan, Rabbani gathered important people and established the party. Sayed Noorullah Emad, who was then a young Muslim in the University of Kabul, became the General Secretary of the party and, later, its deputy chief. Rabbani alongside [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]] and others planned to take action either against the Daoud government or people who they deemed communist in 1975, but failed.

{{quote|Among ourselves we decided that Daoud personally was not a communist, but a Muslim, surrounded by communists, who should be eliminated. For that purpose we prepared a list of eighty military and civilian communists and instructed our companions to carry it out.…Surprisingly news of the failure of the uprising in Laghman and other regions reached us in Peshawar.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7b69p12h;chunk.id=0;doc.view=print|title=Afghanistan}}</REF>
}}

When the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviets intervened in 1979]], Rabbani helped lead Jamiat-e Islami in resistance to the [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan]] regime. Rabbani's forces were the first Mujahideen elements to enter Kabul in 1992 when the PDPA government fell from power.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} He took over as President from 1992 in accordance to the [[Peshawar Accords]]. Rabbani was the third ethnic Tajik leader of modern Afghanistan after [[Habibullah Kalakani]] in 1929 and [[Abdul Qadir (Afghan communist)|Abdul Qadir]] in 1978 (and possibly including [[Babrak Karmal]], whose ethnicity was disputed). His rule was limited since the country was fractured by [[Afghan Civil War (1992-96)|civil war]] between different sides. Rabbani was forced to flee following the Taliban's conquest of Kabul in 1996. Rabbani operated his government in exile, following the establishment of the Taliban rule of the [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)|Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]. In this period between 1996 and 2001, the Rabbani government of the [[Islamic State of Afghanistan]] remained the internationally recognized government, despite only controlling about 10% of Afghan territory. For the next five years, he and the [[Northern Alliance]], commanded by [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]] and others, were busy fighting the Taliban until the 2001 US-led [[War in Afghanistan (2001-present)|Operation Enduring Freedom]] in which the Taliban government was toppled. Rabbani was head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which had been formed in 2010 to initiate peace talks with the Taliban and other groups in the insurgency, until his death.<ref name=ttel2011>{{cite news|title=Former Afghanistan president Burhanuddin Rabbani killed in Kabul blast|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8776911/Former-Afghanistan-president-Burhanuddin-Rabbani-killed-in-Kabul-blast.html|access-date=30 September 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 September 2011}}</ref>

==Assassination==

Rabbani was killed in a [[Suicide attack|suicide bombing]] at his home in Kabul on 20 September 2011, his 71st birthday. Two men posing as Taliban representatives approached him to offer a hug and detonated their explosives. At least one of them had hidden the explosives in his [[turban]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Afghan president assassinated|date=20 September 2011 |publisher=[[Al Jazeera English]]}}</ref><ref name="CNN2011-09-20">{{cite news|url=http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/20/u-s-embassy-staff-in-kabul-ordered-to-take-cover/?hpt=hp_t1|title=Turban bomb kills key Afghan political leader|date=20 September 2011|publisher=CNN|access-date=21 September 2011}}</ref> The suicide bomber claimed to be a Taliban commander, said he bore a "very important and positive message" from Taliban leaders in Pakistan, and said he wanted to "discuss peace" with Rabbani.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/21/ex-afghan-leaders-assassin-waited-days-to-see-him/|publisher=Fox News|title=Ex-Afghan Leader's Assassin Waited Days to See Him|date=21 September 2011}}</ref> Four other members of Afghanistan's High Peace Council were also killed in the blast.<ref name=ttel2011 /> Rabbani was buried in the Wazir Akbar Khan cemetery.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2011-09-23|title=The funeral of Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul – in pictures|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2011/sep/23/funeral-burhanuddin-rabbani-kabul-pictures|access-date=2020-12-03|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Afghan officials blamed the [[Quetta Shura]], which is the leadership of the Afghan Taliban hiding in the affluent [[Satellite Town, Quetta|Satellite Town]] of [[Quetta]] in [[Pakistan]].<ref>[http://uk.news.yahoo.com/kabul-islamabad-spar-over-rabbani-murder-probe-152819152.html Kabul, Islamabad spar over Rabbani murder probe] {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The Pakistani government confirmed that Rabbani's assassination was linked to [[Afghans in Pakistan|Afghan refugees in Pakistan]]. A senior Pakistani official stated that over 90% of terrorist attacks in Pakistan are traced back to Afghan elements and that their presence in the country was "an important issue for Pakistan" and "a problem for Afghanistan". Pakistani foreign minister [[Hina Rabbani Khar]] said that "We are not responsible if Afghan refugees crossed the border and entered Kabul, stayed in a guest house and attacked Professor Rabbani".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/306490/pakistan-blames-afghan-refugees-for-rabbani-murder/|title=Pakistan blames Afghan refugees for Rabbani's murder|work=Express Tribune|date=14 December 2011|access-date=16 December 2011}}</ref>

In 2011, just days before he died, Rabbani was trying to persuade Islamic scholars to issue a religious edict banning suicide bombings. The former president's 29-year-old daughter said in an interview that her father died shortly after he spoke at a conference on "Islamic Awakening" in [[Tehran]]. "Right before he was assassinated, he talked about the suicide bombing issue," [[Fatima Rabbani]] told [[Reuters]]. "He called on all Islamic scholars in the conference to release a [[fatwa]]" against the tactic.<ref name=Habboush>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-rabbani-idUSTRE79H44F20111018|title=Afghanistan's Rabbani sought suicide ban: daughter|date=18 October 2011|work=Reuters|last=Habboush|first=Mahmoud|access-date=20 October 2011|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924160018/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/us-afghanistan-rabbani-idUSTRE79H44F20111018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Government minister [[Nematullah Shahrani]] said Rabbani is irreplaceable because "he had relations with all these tribes."<ref>{{Cite journal|date=30 September 2011|title=Peace negotiator assassinated|journal=The Week|pages=9}}</ref>

United States President [[Barack Obama]] and several [[NATO]] military leaders condemned the assassination.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=65391 |title=News Article: Obama, Karzai Vow Undeterred Effort in Afghanistan |publisher=Defense.gov |access-date=2012-05-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130820182239/http://www.defense.gov//releases/release.aspx?releaseid=16035 |archive-date=20 August 2013 |df=dmy }}</ref> Japan also offered its condolences at the [[Sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gadebate.un.org/66/japan |title=UN General Assembly General Debate of the 66th Session - Japan |publisher=Gadebate.un.org |date=2011-09-23 |access-date=2012-05-07}}</ref> Afghan President [[Hamid Karzai]] cut short his trip for the [[General debate of the sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly]] following his assassination. Rabbani's son [[Salahuddin Rabbani|Salahuddin]] then took over chairmanship of the High Peace Council from his father.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gadebate.un.org/67/afghanistan|title=Afghanistan|website=General Assembly of the United Nations|language=en|access-date=2017-11-30}}</ref>

==Honors and awards==
* {{Flag|Tajikistan}} : [[File:Order Ismoili Somoni Rib.png|80px]] [[Order of Ismoili Somoni]] – posthumously awarded on September 2, 2021<ref name="tajorder">{{Cite web|url=https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/tajikistan-masud-rabbani-awards/31440588.html|title = Tajikistan Posthumously Awards Afghans Masud, Rabbani with Country's Highest Honor}}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Gholam Mohammad Niazi]]
* [[Badaber Uprising]]
* [[Qadria Yazdanparast]]
* [[Mullah Dadullah Front]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.un.org/millennium/webcast/statements/afghanistan.htm Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan] webcast at the United Nations Millennium Summit, 8 September 2000
* [http://www.afghan-web.com/bios/today/brabbani.html Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823054311/http://www.afghan-web.com/bios/today/brabbani.html |date=23 August 2011 }} at Afghan-web.com
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/war_on_terror/after_the_taleban/b_rabbani.stm Afghanistan's Powerbrokers: Burhanuddin Rabbani] at ''[[BBC News]]'', with link to November 2001 profile
* {{NYTtopic|people/r/burhanuddin_rabbani}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110926132902/http://www.english.rfi.fr/asia-pacific/20110921-hundreds-mourn-rabbani-taliban-claim-responsibility-killing Hundreds mourn Rabbani] RFI English
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110925033308/http://www.english.rfi.fr/asia-pacific/20110921-who-kiled-burhanuddin-rabbani-and-why Who killed Burhanuddin Rabbani ... and why?] RFI English
* [http://www.llukasz.com/Bibi_mahru_hill.htm Bibi Mahru Hill & Burhanuddin Rabbani's grave - Kabul]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Sibghatullah Mojaddedi]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Afghanistan]]|years=1992–1996}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Mohammed Omar]]|as=Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan}}
|-
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Northern Alliance|President of the Northern Alliance]]|years=1996–2001}}
{{s-non|reason=Position abolished}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Mohammed Omar|as=Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan}}
{{s-ttl|title=President of Afghanistan|years=2001}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Hamid Karzai]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Presidents of Afghanistan}}
{{Soviet-Afghan War}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbani, Burhanuddin}}
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:2011 murders in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:20th-century heads of state of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:21st-century heads of state of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Presidents of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Islamic State of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Members of the House of the People (Afghanistan)]]
[[Category:Mujahideen members of the Soviet–Afghan War]]
[[Category:Afghan Muslims]]
[[Category:Afghan Sunni Muslims]]
[[Category:Afghan anti-communists]]
[[Category:Assassinated Afghan politicians]]
[[Category:Afghan Muslim Brotherhood members]]
[[Category:Afghan Tajik people]]
[[Category:Burials in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Hanafi fiqh scholars]]
[[Category:Deaths by explosive device]]
[[Category:People killed by the Taliban]]
[[Category:People murdered in Afghanistan]]
[[Category:People from Badakhshan Province]]
[[Category:Al-Azhar University alumni]]
[[Category:Kabul University alumni]]
[[Category:Jamiat-e Islami politicians]]
[[Category:United National Front (Afghanistan) politicians]]
[[Category:1990s in Afghanistan]]

Burhanuddin Rabbani - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 14:15, 14 August 2023