Among native historians of Afghanistan, Fayz Muhammad is a towering figure, yet one whose work is almost unknown outside that country. In part, this is due to the efforts made by the amir of Afghanistan, Aman Allah Khan (r. 1919-1929), to suppress his work. Partly his obscurity rises from the fact that much of his writing remains in manuscript and Afghanistan has been anything but hospitable in recent decades to research in its libraries and archives. Finally, the failure to appreciate Fayz Muhammad’s opus is simply because outside Afghanistan the country’s history, if anyone thinks of it at all, has been understood to be merely a byproduct of English, Russian, and American imperial history. The sources on Afghan history used by generation after generation of Euro-American scholars have been overwhelmingly British and European. Afghan historians in general and Fayz Muhammad in particular are rarely, if ever, turned to for information on the country’s own story of its past. This paper will begin the introduction to Fayz Muhammad’s significance in Afghan historiography, particularly his massive chronicling of Afghan history for the period 1747-1925. It will give a précis of his life, education, and career; examine the different contexts within which he wrote; sketch his techniques and methodologies; describe his self-awareness of his role as historian and his personal grievances, repeatedly expressed, that relate to being a member of a religious and ethnic minority. He wrote his magnum opus, Siraj al-tawarikh (Lamp of Histories) under various conditions ranging from being under tight court control to being completely unsupervised and free to write what he pleased. His sources were multiple but he relied on the massive archival material found in the Royal Arg. Oral sources were acceptable if backed by documentary evidence. The presentation will sketch the uncertain and winding journey of his manuscript of the Siraj to its publication.