Encyclopedia of Afghan Jihad

{{short description|Arabic encyclopedia}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

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| name = The Encyclopedia of the Afghan Jihad

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| title_orig = موسوعة الجهاد الأفغاني

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| country = Pakistan

| language = Arabic

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| genre = Reference work

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| pages = 8,000+

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The Encyclopedia of the Afghan Jihad (Arabic: موسوعة الجهاد الأفغاني, tr: Mawsuat al-Jihad al-Afghani) is a multivolume encyclopedia describing diverse weapons in Arabic.{{cite book |last1=Argamon |first1=Shlomo |last2=Howard |first2=Newton |title=Computational Methods for Counterterrorism |publisher=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH |isbn=978-3-642-01140-5 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-01141-2 |date=15 July 2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=csguDQEACAAJ |pages=306|bibcode=2009cmc..book.....A }} It was first published in Pakistan in late 1992 or early 1993.{{cite journal |url=https://www.meforum.org/articles/other/the-terrorists-encyclopedia |title=The Terrorists' Encyclopedia |journal=Middle East Quarterly |last=Gerecht |first=Reuel Marc |year=2001 |pages=73–85 |access-date=28 May 2019}} The encyclopedia consists of more than 8,000 pages—an abridged version has been reduced to approximately 1,000 pages—and has been divided into 11 volumes.{{cite web |url=http://www.unl.edu/eskridge/encyclopedia.html |title=Chris Eskridge's Criminal Justice Classes and More |work=University of Nebraska–Lincoln |access-date=28 May 2019}}

An electronic version of the original, full-length encyclopedia was discovered in the possession of a group of Muslim militants in Belgium in the 1990s. Since then, several copies have been found; one was found in the possession of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a Muslim cleric who controlled the Finsbury Park Mosque in London,{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cleric-gets-seven-years-in-jail-for-soliciting-murder-6109626.html |title=Cleric gets seven years in jail for soliciting murder |last=Milmo |first=Cahal |date=8 February 2006 |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=28 May 2019}} and another was recovered from Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Kandahar.