Invisible East Launches film, Striking Gold

The film, Striking Gold: The Discovery of Medieval documents from Afghanistan is about the discovery, safeguarding, deciphering, and analysis of the fascinating Firuzkuh Papers. Written in Afghanistan’s Ghalmin area of Ghur in the 12th-13th century CE, the Firuzkuh Papers reveal rare details of the lives of agriculturalists and other rural communities in the medieval Islamicate world, and how historians can learn of the interactions between local communities and the administration of the vast Ghurid empire that reigned over parts of today’s Iran, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent in the 12th-13th century. With rare footage from the ground collected through interviews with local residents in the Ghalmin area of Afghanistan who found the documents, Striking Gold also tells a story of the extreme challenges of heritage protection and history writing in Afghanistan. Striking Gold was produced, directed, and edited in 2024 by the Invisible East programme in Oxford. We hope you enjoy the film, and remember to give us a thumbs-up if you do!