A first-hand account of the Afghan—Soviet war and its role in rallying Islamists from across the globe. Selected as one of the 'Biggest Non-Fiction Books of 2019’ by The Times



As one of the earliest Arabs to join the Afghan Jihad, the Algerian Islamist Abdullah Anas counted as brothers-in-arms the future icons of al-Qaeda’s global war, from Abdullah Azzam to Osama bin Laden, and befriended key Afghan resistance leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud. Brushing shoulders with everyone from Zarqawi to Haqqani, Anas distanced himself from their movements, disagreeing with their narrow interpretations of political Islam. While he remains committed to Jihad, to this day Anas takes issue with the extremist trajectories of his one-time companions. Co-written with investigative journalist Tam Hussein, To the Mountains is an intimate and penetrating portrait of the networks that formed during the Afghan-Soviet war. In this revealing memoir, Anas shatters some of al-Qaeda's foundational myths, and rethinks what it means to be a Jihadist in the modern world.