BACKGROUND
Great Britain's involvement in Afghanistan dates back to the 1800's, when a succession of (Anglo)Afghan wars (1839 - 1919) brought the territory under the British sphere of influence. Nearby British India (present-day India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Myanmar) was under the colonial control of the United Kingdom as part of the British Empire.  All manner of British arms are well known throughout the area.

The region of modern Afghanistan has seen many invaders come and go, including the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, British and the Soviets. Afghanistan was created as a nation in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani. On August 19, 1919, following the third Anglo-Afghan war, the country regained full independence from the United Kingdom over its foreign affairs.

Since 1979, Afghanistan has suffered almost continuous conflict, beginning with the Soviet invasion followed by a civil war and finally by the 2001 US intervention in which the ruling Taliban government was toppled. In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council authorized the creation of an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). This force, composed of troops, has been involved in assisting the government of President Hamid Karzai in establishing authority across the nation.

Twenty years of conflict backed by a wide variety of competing interests resulted in a bewildering array of modern arms and accoutrements finding their way to Afghanistan.  Shifting alliances and sponsors meant that sometimes the arms of yesterday's patron were retrofitted to accommodate whatever arm happened to be available today. Dennis Ottobre has recently published an e-book Bayonets of Afghanistan detailing the 79 variants he has chronicled to date.

Although we have not had the opportunity to handle any modern arms coming out of post-Taliban Afghanistan, we have been able to obtain several Enfield oilers, all with Afghan/Taliban ownership marks. We have identified three (3) variations of mark:

	TYPE ONE Afghan coat-of-arms above Arabic script. The script reads AFGHANISTAN
	TYPE TWO Afghan coat-of-arms above Arabic script. Coat-of-arms deliberately defaced with punch.
	TYPE THREE Arabic script. No other icons or marks.

NOTES ON THE MARKS

The current flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (right) was adopted in January 2004.
The center emblem found on the flag is the classical emblem of Afghanistan with a mosque with its mihrab facing Mecca. The script above the mosque is the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. ("There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.")
The shahada also appears on the flag of Saudi Arabia
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was the name given to Afghanistan by the Taliban, a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist movement, during their rule 1996 - 2001.  The flag of the Taliban consisted simply of the Shahada.
The simplified icon seen on Enfield oilers closely resembles the classical emblem of Afghanistan.
The script on the bottom is Arabic for "Afghanistan".