As Sparks Like Stars explores, Afghan culture has absorbed the influences of several historic empires, including those of Persia, India, and Hellenistic Greece. Ai-Khanoum (which translates to Lady Moon) was a city in the northeast that thrived as part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom that emerged during the Hellenistic period following the conquest of Alexander the Great. The city was rediscovered by the Afghan king in 1961 and excavations unearthed a palace and several artifacts before work was halted by the Soviet-Afghan war. Under the Mughal Empire, which stretched across South Asia and lasted from 1526 to 1827, Kabul was a center of art and education. There were rich traditions in cloth-making, architecture, and literature.

In the modern era, Afghanistan has repeatedly been caught in conflicts between Western imperial powers. In the 19th century, Afghanistan came to the attention of new empires as the Russians supported Persian efforts to expand into the country, while the British wanted to control Afghanistan as a route into India. The British invaded in 1839 to set up the shah (king) of their choice but withdrew after a few years. They continued to grapple with the Russians for influence over the country, going so far as to draw the outlines of the country’s current borders.