A friend of mine, living in North Africa and a hajji himself, sent me a reaction.  The Taliban have learnt a few things, he wrote; they will now deceive more skilfully than before. They might grant some rights to women, should they be interested in the recognition of their Islamic emirate by the US – but I think they really don’t care. And make no mistake, the Taliban’s victory is a victory for the whole Islamist Muslim world, just like when they all stood behind Saddam Hussein when he bawled against the US. Every single fact that might humiliate the US or the Western world, is perceived as a victory. That’s the game Erdogan’s playing, and that the Taliban will be playing. In addition, next year it will be a hundred years since the fall of the last caliphate, the Ottoman empire. It’s hard to imagine a more symbolic restart.